Billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow said the controversy over his ties to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is "a political hit job."
Earlier this month, the nonprofit group ProPublica revealed that Crow had paid for Thomas' expenses on multiple vacations and made a real estate deal with him in 2014 that was never disclosed.
"I think it's a political hit job," Crow told the Dallas Morning News on Monday. "I don't think the media cares really much about Harlan Crow, and I think they're right. They shouldn't care much about Harlan Crow.
"But I think that the media, and this ProPublica group, in particular, funded by leftists, has an agenda to destabilize the [Supreme] Court. What they've done is not truthful. It lacks integrity. They've done a pretty good job in the last week or two of unfairly slamming me and, more importantly than that, unfairly slamming Justice Thomas."
ProPublica editor-in-chief Stephen Engelberg said in a statement that the organization is independent and nonpartisan with more than 36,000 donors.
"As investigative journalists, our job is to unearth the facts. If Harlan Crow disputes the accuracy of our reporting involving Justice Clarence Thomas, we invite him to provide us with the details so we can correct any inaccuracies," Engelberg said.
Justice Thomas has responded to ProPublica‘s report and said he did not violate any court rules or ethics requirements during the period in question. Crow also never had any business before the court during the time of their friendship.
Crow said that "Justice Thomas is a man of integrity and the idea that he would do anything that's not exactly correct is just not true."
Crow added that the real estate deal they made was for Thomas' childhood home, which he bought "for the purpose that in due course it could be the boyhood home of a great American."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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