Whitehouse outlined some of the connections between those in what he calls “the ‘cigar boys’ painting,” saying one of them, Leonard Leo, runs a “constellation of front groups” whose goal is to secretly influence the High Court.Īs one example, Whitehouse said that an organization called the Judicial Crisis Network “raised anonymous money in checks as big as $17 million to fund political ads for (Supreme Court justices) Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett.” It shows Thomas smoking cigars with Crow and other prominent conservatives. “A picture worth a thousand words,” Whitehouse said, including a painting in his tweet from the ProPublica report that allegedly hangs at Crow’s Adirondacks resort. Sheldon Whitehouse, a longtime advocate for more transparency and accountability on the Supreme Court, issued a series of tweets following the ProPublica story saying it underscores why an overhaul of court ethics laws and requirements is urgently needed.
Thomas didn’t respond to ProPublica’s request for comment, but Crow in a statement said he and his wife’s “hospitality” to Thomas and his wife “over the years is no different from the hospitality we have extended to our many other dear friends.”Ĭrow, in his statement, also emphasized that he has never asked Thomas about any pending or lower court case, nor has Thomas discussed one, adding that “we have never sought to influence Justice Thomas on any legal or political issue” nor is aware of "any of our friends ever lobbying or seeking to influence" Thomas.
Thomas vacationed with executives at Verizon and PricewaterhouseCoopers, major GOP donors, and a leader of the American Enterprise Institute during a July 2017 trip, according to ProPublica.
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