Why Harlan Crow Purchased Clarence Thomas’s Mother’s Home

The transaction was conducted ethically — but the Left’s attacks on Justice Thomas have nothing to do with ethics.

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Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in his chambers at the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., in 2016.

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

The attacks on Justice Thomas never stop. Shortly after falsely accusing him of breaking the law by failing to disclose trips he took with his close friend Harlan Crow, the Democrats and their media allies are now smearing the justice by claiming that Crow’s purchase of Justice Thomas’s mother’s home was some scheme to enrich the justice.

This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Justice Thomas and Harlan Crow both acted honorably and ethically in this transaction, and it’s important to understand what led Crow to want to purchase this home. (Full disclosure: I worked on Justice Thomas’s confirmation as a lawyer in the White House in 1991, and I remain close friends with him. I have also co-edited the book Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words and have gone on trips with him and Harlan Crow, with whom I’m also friends. I have also represented Ginni Thomas in the House Select January 6 Committee inquiry.)

MP

About the Author

Mark Paoletta

Mark Paoletta is a partner at Schaerr Jaffe and a senior fellow at the Center for Renewing America. He served in the George H. W. Bush and Trump administrations and worked on the confirmations of Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh. Disclosure: He remains close friends with Thomas, has co-edited the book Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words, and has gone on trips with him and Harlan Crow, with whom he is also friends. He also represented Ginni Thomas in the House Select January 6 Committee inquiry.

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