Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas plans to amend the financial disclosure form to include the 2014 deal to sell property in Georgia to the billionaire, CNN reported Sunday night.
A source close to justice said that Thomas did not believe that he had to disclose the deal because he lost money on the transaction, adding that the exemption was an oversight and that he filled out the financial documents with the help of aides. Despite these claims, federal law appears to require any real estate deal to be reported on a financial disclosure form, regardless of whether it’s profitable.
The real estate transaction was first reported last week by ProPublica, nearly a decade after it happened. The outlet details the sale of three properties in Savannah, Georgia, to Harlan Crow, a Texas billionaire and longtime friend of Thomas and his wife. This is the first example of money going directly from Crow to Thomas.
Three properties – a house and two vacant lots – were bought by Crow for $133,363 from justice, his mother and his brother’s family. The contractor then repaired one of the properties that Thomas’ mother still owns. The deal included a provision that he live there rent-free for the rest of his life, although he pays property taxes and insurance.
Crow said last week he bought the three properties at “market rates” so he could “create a public museum in the Thomas home” dedicated to his life. (He still owns the house, but has since sold the vacant lot.)
The scandal is the second involving the Crows in two weeks. ProPublica also published a report documenting nearly 20 years of luxury travel where Thomas accompanied Crow on yachts, private jets and at private resorts in the Adirondack mountains. Justice did not announce the trip, which happens almost every year.
“Early in my position at the court, I asked for guidance from my friends and others at the court, and I was advised that this personal hospitality from close personal friends, who had no business before the court, could not be reported,” he said after the report.
Thomas has not commented on the real estate deal.
Democrats issued a direct call for an investigation into the matter. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D.R.I.), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the Justice Department should be called to account for its failure to disclose its gifts.