Totally Sh0cking a Supreme Court Justice Would Do This’: Legal Expert Reacts to News GOP Donor Bought Property from Clarence Thomas
Legal analyst Danny Greenberg said it is mind-blowing that Justice Clarence Thomas sold properties to a billionaire Republican donor.
On Thursday, ProPublica reported that Thomas failed to disclose a 2014 deal in which Harlan Crow bought three properties in Georgia from Thomas for $133,000.
The report came a week after the publication revealed that for more than 20 years, Thomas “accepted luxury trips virtually every year from the Dallas businessman without disclosing them, documents and interviews show.
Thursday’s report is the first documented case of money going from Crow directly to Thomas. Crow has also come under fire for his collection of Nazi memorabilia.
Ari Melber and Greenberg addressed the issue on Thursday’s edition of MSNBC’s The Beat.
“It is of course totally shocking a Supreme Court justice would do this,” Greenberg said. “Probably the first thing you learn in law school as a first-year student is that the appearance of justice is just as important as justice itself. So, right off the bat – that he’s doing anything with an appearance. But the notion he defends this as saying, ‘Maybe I should’ve reported it, but I didn’t get advice to do that.’ It’s not about reporting, it’s about what he’s doing.”
Greenberg noted that various courts, businesses, and other organizations have codes of ethics, but somehow the highest court in the United States does not.
“Nine justices of the Supreme Court have no code of ethics to which they are responsible,” he continued. “There is no code that binds them.”
“You see how broken the system is when this is technically allowed,” Melber stated. “But obviously, way over the line.”
