The Republican real estate magnate Harlan Crow who lavished free luxury trips on Clarence Thomas also reportedly took a single-story home and two vacant lots in Georgia off the Supreme Court justice’s hands in 2014, a sale that Thomas never disclosed. Four ethics law experts told ProPublica, which first reported the transaction on Thursday, that Thomas’ silence appears to violate a federal disclosure law. “Given the role Crow has played in subsidizing the lifestyle of Thomas and his wife, you have to wonder if this was an effort to put cash in their pockets,” one said. The single-story home also happened to be the house in which his elderly mother was living—and continues to live, according to two neighbors. In a statement, Crow said he’d bought the house in the hopes of one day turning it into a public museum. Shortly after the 2014 sale, according to ProPublica, a local architecture firm received permits to begin $36,000 worth of improvements, including a carport and a repaired roof.
