“Clarence Thomas and Harlan Crow did not serve on a PTA board together. They weren’t in a fraternity in college together, didn’t grow up next door to each other’s houses.”
That’s what former top Clinton campaign spokesperson Brian Fallon, now the head of Demand Justice, told MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace Thursday evening (video below).
Fallon was discussing news that billionaire GOP megadonor and right-wing activist Harlan Crow had paid the tuition of Justice Thomas’ grandnephew – which Thomas did not disclose.
He then referred to Saturday night’s White House Correspondents Dinner host Roy Wood Jr.’s dig at the Supreme Court Justice:
“A billionaire named Harlan Crow is flying Clarence Thomas all over the world on unreported trips like a Instagram model taking Clarence to the Maldives and the beaches and all – paid for his momma’s house – a billionaire paid for Clarence Thomas momma’s house,” Wood told the audience as he pounded the podium. “This man bought a Supreme Court justice.”
Fallon observed, “As that Roy Wood monologue suggests, this is a comedic level of corruption at this point.”
Crow has paid for lavish, luxury travel and vacations at resorts for Clarence and Ginni Thomas nearly every year for over 20 years. Thomas did not disclose it, even the parts legal experts say he was required to disclose.
“We should be asking ourselves what isn’t Harlan Crow paying for when it comes to Clarence Thomas’ lifestyle? Is he paying for his grocery bills? Is he paying for his Comcast subscription?” Fallon asked.
“And let’s let’s do away with this sort of airbrushing of the nature of their relationship,” he reminded MSNBC viewers. “These statements that get released by Harlan Crow each time there is a new revelation from ProPublica suggests that he was extending all these kindnesses to a longtime friend.”
“Clarence Thomas and Harlan Crow did not serve on a PTA board together,” Fallon said, mocking both the billionaire and the beneficiary of his wealth. “They weren’t in a fraternity in college together, didn’t grow up next door to each other’s houses. They met after Clarence Thomas was a Supreme Court Justice when Harlan Crow, by his own telling, decided to give him a ride on his private jet. That was the first time they met.”
Fallon is correct.
“In a recent interview with The Dallas Morning News, Crow recounted how he first met Thomas,” ProPublica reported. “In 1996, the justice was scheduled to give a speech in Dallas for an anti-regulation think tank. Crow offered to fly him there on his private jet.”
“So from the beginning,” Fallon continued, “before they had any sort of prior relationship, it was a relationship that was based on Harlan Crow cozying up to a sitting Supreme Court Justice and extending financial benefits to him.”
Fallon called for “Congress to get more significantly involved. We need an investigation here. We need a DOJ investigation, I think at this point, but if we’re not going to get it from Merrick Garland, if we’re not going to get it from Dick Durbin, maybe somebody like Dave Blumenthal, who you had on your air last week in his capacity as the chair of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, another panel that does have subpoena power, maybe he could get to the bottom of this.”
Watch Fallon below or at this link.