A New York Instances report detailed the shut relationship Supreme Courtroom Justice Clarence Thomas maintains together with his former clerks — and he is even gotten some items out of it.
On Sunday, the Instances reported that Thomas has constructed a tight-knit community of his former clerks, and his continued relationships with them have stored them loyal, defending him as he has come below hearth over the previous 12 months over his ties to billionaires and items he is didn’t disclose.
In line with the report, Thomas has stayed in contact together with his clerks through the years by arranging month-to-month lunches at Morton’s The Steakhouse or one other restaurant, together with journeys to Gettysburg’s Civil Warfare battlefield.
And people favors haven’t gone unreturned. For instance, one in every of Thomas’ former clerks bought a taxidermy lobster in 1998 from a Virginia man whose summer season residence had been beforehand been robbed — and the lobster in query was stolen.
Thomas had rejected the attraction of the person who robbed the house.
The Instances reported that the previous clerk procured and gifted Thomas the stuffed lobster.
The report stated that different clerks have additionally introduced Thomas with items through the years as tokens of loyalty, like batteries for the justice’s RV.
Thomas was “fairly extraordinary when it comes to conserving in contact together with his clerks, serving to clerks and having everybody be in contact with one another,” Stephen McAllister, a former clerk, instructed the Instances.
And people relationships have continued even amid ProPublica’s reporting that Thomas has gone on lavish holidays with billionaires and accepted items that he didn’t disclose, which have invited considerations over the dearth of a transparent ethics code on the nation’s highest court docket.
For instance, a ProPublica report in August discovered that the justice had obtained items from billionaires that included at the very least 38 holidays, 26 non-public jet flights, and personal stays at luxurious resorts, a few of which he didn’t disclose.
These items have led a bunch of Democratic lawmakers to scrutinize whether or not Thomas’ undisclosed items have been “in defiance of his obligation below federal regulation.” Nonetheless, Thomas has but to confess any wrongdoing, and because the Instances reported, his community continues to face by his aspect.
After the August ProPublica report was launched, over 100 of his former clerks signed an open letter defending him, writing that “all of us noticed with our personal eyes the identical factor: His integrity is unimpeachable.”
“We’re proud to have been his clerks and to stay his mates,” they wrote, “and we unequivocally reject assaults on his integrity, his character, or his ethics.”
