made this deal unusual is that justice thomas's elderly mother had long lived in the house that harlan crow bought, which put crow in the very unusual position of possibly being the landlord to the mother of a supreme court justice. we are not even sure if landlord is the right word here because we are not sure if he is charging her rent. that is one you unusual aspect of the transaction. crow spent $35,000 making improvements to this house after he bought it. it is not explained how making improvements would serve a project of historical preservation. crow did not directly answer our questions about why he bought these vacant lots from justice thomas, which are a block down the street. it is unclear why those would be necessary to make a museum. host: there is a federal disclosure law passed after watergate that requires justices and federal officials to disclose real estate deals over $1000. explain that law and how would it --how it applies here. guest: this is called the ethics in government act passed in the 1970's. it applies to federal officials, specifically supreme court justices.

as does harlan crow. after the second story i passed, harlan crow issues a statement saying was while all my plan to build a museum. thomas has said nothing so far am i right about that, arrived i missed some sort of response >> no. it's absolutely right. thanks for having me on. again. happy to be here it's really remarkable tha thomas first that he responded to the story and he didn't respond to the first story whe we reached out for comment and let me be clear that w reach out for comment we run everything by the subject of the story, an extensive list o questions that my reporter produced, because we are n surprises journalism outfit. so everything we're gonna ride about a subject we try to seek comment, extensive, and give them fair inadequate time to respond. no response to the first story but then he was pressured by the response to that story t issue the statement that you referred to. the second time we did the exact same team thing. we went to them and gave the adequate notice. we went to crow.

. -- billionaire harlan crow.y with us. ♪♪ [music break] amy: "defend the freedom" by rim banna and henrik koitzsch. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. supreme court justice clarence thomas is facing renewed calls for his impeachment after a propublica investigation revealed he failed to report frequent luxury trips paid for by a billionaire republican mega donor named harlan crow. the investigation reveals for about 20 years, tom's secretly accepted luxury vacations from crow in an apparent relation of a law requiring justices and other federal officials to disclose most gifts. one vacation about nine days of island hopping in indonesia aboard a 162 foot super yacht. clarence thomas and his wife ginni thomas flew to indonesia on crow's private jet posted thomas markle he vacationed at a resort in the adirondacks of new york, hanging on the walls of the resort is a painting of clarence thomas sitting with four other men, including harlan crow, as well as leonard le

the connection here in the financial connections with harlan crow? g more than $500,000 lobbying group? >> one of the really intriguing financial connections here between crow and the thomas family is related to ginni thomas. he came out around a dozen years ago that ginni thomas was running a small tea party group, nonprofit, clinical organization . it came out that none other than harlan crow was pretty much the sole funder of that group that was paying ginni thomas' salary, which i believe was on the order of 200,000 dozier. essentially you that pastor organization, crow's money was ending up in the pocket of the thomas household. following that reporting around a dozen years ago, was another -- a previous round of questions about this but -- and we don't really know what has happened since then. partly thanks to the supreme court, as you know, the whole regime of disclosure, of political spending and getting into groups has early fallen apart and there is anonymous dark money flowing all over the place so it makes it very difficult as a reporter t

, because it is the only part of his financial relationship t harlan crow that clarenc thomas must, without any question, absolutely report on his financial disclosure forms by law and clarence thomas violated that law the failure to report that transaction is a willful violation of law by a suprem court to justice and that has never happene before in the history of thi country and the united state supreme court. no other member of the supreme court in history has ever been shown to the in blatant an full violation of the law. never once before today' reporting by propublica, which reported for the very firs time in history, the supreme court justice clear violatio of law there are other aspects of clarence thomas's financia relationship to billionair harlan crow, which may b violations of law. because they have not been reported in clarence thomas' financial disclosure forms either but those violations are not a perfectly clear cut as thi violation is it can now be said, withou qualification, to the suprem court justice has absolutely violated federal law and clarence thomas is th

>> jordan: harlan crow's parents for giving him an evil villain name? >> yes, but no!umb-assed, whiny liberals. if clarence thomas can be bought, then why aren't you buying him? you gave beto o'rourke money to come in third in a student council you could have built raise. clarence thomas's mom a new garage, a zen garden, and a heli-pool. >> jordan: you mean a helipad? >> no, a heli-pool. it's a pool for helicopters, so you can land straight in the water instead of walking there like a peasant. maybe abortion would still be legal if liberals bought a pool for clarence thomas's mom's helicopter. is that so crazy? >> jordan: yes! it's crazy! ronny, you don't fix corruption with more corruption! what is a message you are sending when you let money influence decision-making? >> jordan, i will give you $1,000 if you agree with me right now. >> jordan: i would never betray my integrity for $1,000. maybe five. >> how about three? >> jordan: three, deal. ronny chieng is right, everyone. [cheers and applause] all right, when we come back, my interview with alexandria ocasio-cort

i want to ask you about what harlan i to ask you about what harlan crow has said here.., . conflict? there is no evidence of a conflict _ conflict? there is no evidence of a conflict in _ conflict? there is no evidence of a conflict in a _ conflict? there is no evidence of a conflict in a particular- of a conflict in a particular case, but what we do know is that, you know, from what we have been able to see in a couple of these cases and it is very difficult reporting because these are resorts that are very much close to the public, privatejets, private public, private jets, private yachts, public, privatejets, private yachts, but we were able to get a look at the names of guests who were at some of these events and these are notjust sort of ordinary social friends of harlan crow in some cases, they are people who are conservative political diverse, people who are very active in the conservative legal movement and work and think tanks that do all kinds of advocacy around the supreme court and the law. and you might think of lawrence thomas as a conservative, which, of

made this deal unusual is that justice thomas's elderly mother had long lived in the house that harlan crowt, which put crow in the very unusual position of possibly being the landlord to the mother of a supreme court justice. we are not even sure if landlord is the right word here because we are not sure if he is charging her rent. that is one you unusual aspect of the transaction. crow spent $35,000 making improvements to this house after he bought it. it is not explained how making improvements would serve a project of historical preservation. crow did not directly answer our questions about why he bought these vacant lots from justice thomas, which are a block down the street. it is unclear why those would be necessary to make a museum. host: there is a federal disclosure law passed after watergate that requires justices and federal officials to disclose real estate deals over $1000. explain that law and how would it --how it applies here. guest: this is called the ethics in government act passed in the 1970's. it applies to federal officials, specifically supreme court justices. it mig

made this deal unusual is that justice thomas's elderly mother had long lived in the house that harlan crowt, which put crow in the very unusual position of possibly being the landlord to the mother of a supreme court justice. we are not even sure if landlord is the right word here because we are not sure if he is charging her rent. that is one you unusual aspect of the transaction. crow spent $35,000 making improvements to this house after he bought it. it is not explained how making improvements would serve a project of historical preservation. crow did not directly answer our questions about why he bought these vacant lots from justice thomas, which are a block down the street. it is unclear why those would be necessary to make a museum. host: there is a federal disclosure law passed after watergate that requires justices and federal officials to disclose real estate deals over $1000. explain that law and how would it --how it applies here. guest: this is called the ethics in government act passed in the 1970's. it applies to federal officials, specifically supreme court justices. it mig

is this the first known instance of that happening between harlan crow and clarence thomas? how does that change? things did talk. you know if thomas did not disclose it or disclose it to the degree he should have. what are the rules on that sort of thing? was he supposed to. absolutely there's a law that covers supreme court justices, along with many other government officials that says, you have to disclose real estate transactions like this. the idea behind that is it allows people in the public and in this case, uh, folks who have cases at the supreme court to assess possible conflicts of interest, um justice thomas did not disclose this transaction. we talked to several ethics law experts who said that was just a clear violation of the law. um, and it also just adds to this picture of this extremely unusual relationship between harlan crow . who's somebody that has been involved in funding efforts to sort of push the law and the judiciary in more conservative direction. the relationship between crow and the supreme court justice? uh not only giving him gifts now, but ac

we should note that they are said to have been very close friends at the thomases and harlan crow. thomas has gone on crow's invitation only private resort in upstate new york and your article really goes into detail about what that property entails. there are three boathouses more than 25 fireplaces, clay tennis court. it has a life size replica of hagrid's hut. you can't make this up from harry potter and a 19 fifties style soda fountain, where the staff makes milkshakes for guests. this is an area that draws billionaires from across the globe. but republicans says that thomas in recent documentary explained that he likes sort of the more quieter loki. parts of travel, which is quite interesting, he said. i prefer the rv parks. i prefer the walmart parking lots to the beaches and things like that. there's something normal to me about it. i come from regular stock, and i prefer that. so quite the irony to see what this mega donor has in terms of his home and his facilities that the thomases have been spending many years down into here. these words from the justice in termsr gifts h

following new reporting on supreme court justice clarence thomas and his ties to gop mega donor harlan crowe week after propublica said he accepted lavish vacations for decades, despite recording one of crow's business bought three georgia properties from the thomas family, including one justice thomas' mother lived in. and made no financial disclosure about any of it. devon dwyer is at the supreme court. >> tonight, justice clarence thomas facing new questions about billionaire republican mega donor harlan crow, and financial ties that haven't been disclosed. nonprofit journalism site propublica reveals records that appear to show a company run by the mogul purchased three properties from the thomas family in 2014 for over $133,000. one a single story home on this block in savannah, georgia whe h childhood and where his a decades old federal law requires disclosure of financial transactions over $1,000, including real estate sales. but thomas' 2014 report which lists paid teaching gigs, travel reimbursements, a gift of $530 stain glass medallion shows no real estate deal with crow. follows

foreign fronts by any reasonable human being and any reasonable supreme court justice, would b that harlan crowe was a suprem court justice. that fact should hav controlled and limited justice thomas's acquaintance with republican billionaire harla crow, who is a major funder of republican campaigns you know that clarence thoma knows he is in trouble because he has finally been forced t issue a written statement abou this latest report, saying early in my court at the tenth -- i sought guidance from m colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised tha this sort of persona hospitality from close persona friends, who did not hav business before the court, was not reportable i have endeavor to follow that council throughout my tenure and i've always sought t comply with the disclosure guidelines the senate judiciary committee is not satisfied with clarence thomas's written statement committee chairman senator richard durbin called on the chief justice of the supreme court to quote, investigat justice thomas's undisclosed gifts and take action to prevent further misconduct joining us now i

so he defended these frequent lavish trips by the billionaire republican mega donor harlan crow sayingwas advised not to disclose this. thomas also referred to crow and his wife being among his family's dearest friends. meanwhile, more information is emerging about harlan crow in which a tour of his dallas-area mansion revealed he has a nazi sign copy of mein kampf from hiller, paintings by hitler and a garden filled with statues of 20th century dictators. i bring this up because when this was coming out, there was also a painting of a group sitting around together harlan crow comes a dear friend of the supreme court justice clarence thomas, next to leonard leo, founder of the federalist society which was so key and the rise of judge kacsmaryk in amarillo, texas. if you can tk about this through line? >> thank you for the opportunity because what we really have in this clarence thomas story and the ancillaries that have spun off is a snapshot in how policy byonservatives is being made these days. it is not in state houses, it is these almost secret sociees to have litter leo, one man w

he talks about harlan crow as a friend and says harlan crow doesn't have business before the court. harlan crow is not a party as far as i know, to any particular case in front of the court, but you could make an argument that he does have an interest in how the court rules as someone who is pretty active in the political space and has an interest in how the court leans. does that is that clear in the guidance and the law as it is right now that that might be a problem? clearly it is a problem. there's a billionaire who's the donator enormous amounts of money to conservative causes and surely is very interested in a lot of cases that come before the court. whether or not he has a direct economic interest in a party before the court is beside the point. this is why we have the disclosure rules with respect to gifts. we can't say. well you should disclose these gifts and not those gifts because someone has a case before the court. or might be related to a party before the court. no we require disclosure of all free trips taken by justices if they buy you a first class airline ticket t

, and harlan crow's home as i've said before, on th show and i'll say agai tonight.d conservative movement, every accusation is confession coming up at the top of th hour congressman ro khanna, who sit on the house oversight committee, sits with a menta body and - misrepresenting thei investigation into the biden family and when we come back on the share, ayman and i wer discussing interview i did wit math - you may have seen online, it's an interesting we'll - talk more about that after the break. ric unicycles. i think i've got it! doggy-paddle! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ moderate to severe eczema still disrupts my skin. despite treatment it disrupts my skin with itch. it disrupts my skin with rash. but now, i can disrupt eczema with rinvoq. rinvoq is not a steroid, topical, or injection. it's one pill, once a day. many taking rinvoq saw clear or almost-clear skin while some saw up to 100% clear skin. and, they felt dramatic and fast itch relief some as early as 2 days. that's rinvoq relief. rinvoq can lower your ability to

, and harlan crow's home as i've said before, on th show and i'll say agai tonight.ement, every accusation icoming up at h hour congressman ro khanna, who sit on the house oversight committee, sits with a menta body and - misrepresenting thei investigation into the biden family and when we come back on the share, eamonn and i were discussing interview i did wit math - you may have seen online, it's an interesting we'll - talk more abt outhat after the break. ♪♪ voltaren. the joy of movement. ♪♪ my mom says that breyers is made with real milk. i think i can hear the mooing. breyers natural vanilla is made with 100% grade a milk and cream. and only sustainably farmed vanilla. better starts with breyers. if you have moderate to severe crohn's disease skyrizi is the first and only il-23 inhibitor that can deliver clinical remission and endoscopic improvement. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine or plan to. liver problems may occur in

from harlan crow. he and his wife, ginny, took trips with the crow family. jessica dean has been following this story closely for us. okay so there's a lot here. there's a lot to begin. what's gonna happen next ? that's a great question. well okay. if we're looking ahead to what comes next, then it naturally goes to the hill and calls for an investigation. we've heard from democrats that want him to be investigated by the kind of the appropriate council that would do that they no. you know, there have been all these calls for them to have an ethics code. what a lot of people may not know. is that the supreme court doesn't have a formal ethics code. that has been a shocker, right? it's almost like it goes against everything you would think would be. it's the supreme court, you know, high justice, but they haven't and back in 2019. even elena kagan was testifying on the hill and she said, listen, justice roberts is really thinking through this. we've been discussing this we were, you know, the lower courts have this but not the supreme court. and that was year

harlan crow sent a statement to propublica saying quote justice thomas and jenny thomas never asked fory of this hospitality and quote. we never asked about any pending or lower court case, and justice thomas has never discussed one. end quote brian todd, cnn washington all right here now to talk through a lot of this. cnn political analyst julien zeltser julian, welcome. good to see you. justice thomas says he didn't need to disclose all of these luxury trips. i mean, it's a good friend who happens to be a billionaire. they've known each other for many, many years, but i know you also wrote that at a minimum, you say this is a reminder that a code of conduct is needed. um do you believe this will be impetus for something like that to be drafted and adopted? it might be . there's one set of questions revolving justice thomas and disclosure rules that already exist in those might be examined . there's already been a congressional push by several democratic senators, including senator white house before this happened to implement some sort of guidelines for what justices can or can't do.

and harlan crowe owns half the inventory. harlan crowe. and that's what an nft is. everybody�*s got some scandals. despite the challenging times we live in, i look around this room and i see people that are hard—working. many of you, i don't even think you should be working that hard. we should be inspired by the events in france. they rioted when the retirement age went up two years to 64. they rioted because they didn't want to work until 64. meanwhile in america we have an 80—year—old man begging us forfour more years of work. beijing... beijing... —— begging... let years of work. beijing... beijin9--- -- begging... let me finish thejob, that's not beijin9--- -- begging... let me finish the job, that's not a slogan, that is a plea. let me finish, let me finish... i do wish you the best of luck on the cannes plain date—macro campaign trail, mr president. you got a lot of things. —— on the campaign trail, mr president. we know about the document and the laptop, but there's been no scandal more damaging than the scandal of is

that information on justice roberts coming now that we have new information on a case that harlan crow supreme court, a case that justice clarence thomas did not recuse himself from. recently, supreme court justice clarence thomas declared in a statement that his dear friend, republican megadonor harlan crow did not have business before the court. but tonight, cnn has learned that's not true. cnn's arian devoge reports a company did have business in the mid-2000s and justice thomas didn't recuse himself from the case. >> there really was a direct conflict of interest, and it just makes the whole thing a whole lot worse. >> reporter: records show that in january 2005, a dispute over a copyrighted architectural drawing appeared before the supreme court. one of the disputing parties, a company called metric holdings limited partnership. while harlan crow's name does not appear on a caption of the case, a disclosure statement says the corporate parent of metric holdings is trammil crow residential company. a statement from crow's office says the crow family, at the time, had a noncontrolli

harlan crow owned half the inventory. we can all see clarence thomas, but he belongs to billionaire harlan crow. and that's what an nft is. [laughter] [applause] everybody has some scandals. like the challenging times we live in, i look around this room and see people who are hard-working. many of you i don't think you should be working that hard. we should be inspired by the people in france, they rioted when the retirement went up to age -- two years to 64. they rioted because they didn't want to work until 64. meanwhile, in america we have an 80-year-old man begging us for four more years of work. begging. baking. -- begging. [laughter] let me finish the job, that's not a campaign slogan, that's a plea. i do wish you the best of luck on the campaign trail. you have a lot of things -- a lot of hurdles. we know about the documents, there's been no scandal more damaging than the scandal of if -- is joe biden awake? say what you want with our president -- when he wakes up from that nap. work gets done. he might doze off bu

and gifts from republican mega donor harlan crow.e found this has been going on for more than 20 years, and, you know, stretches back to the 19 nineties. in another report, propublica reported that justice thomas had sold three of his family's properties in georgia to harlan crow in 2014. propublica said. thomas never disclosed the travel or the real estate deal. in filings, thomas responded that he was advised he didn't have to report them. but experts say some laws and ethics rules were likely violated. here is this billionaire who's got lots of rich friends and can court the justice and bring his friends who are ceo to potentially influenced the justice? with his with his lavish gifts and trips and other benefits, but some supreme court analysts say chief justice roberts does not have the authority to investigate or punish thomas or any other justice and no other body of government really does, either you can remove adjusted to the united states from office only one way and that is through impeachment and conviction. there is no w

what did harlan crow have to offer? clarence thomas? because what's different with legislators as you have donors that could could influence their next election? harlan crow can't give clarence thomas something he already has . he has a lifetime appointment on the supreme court, so i just you know again, it's improper. i think to molly's point. i agree that it doesn't help the institution. but it's a little bit like speeding. 67 a 55? yeah. kind of dangerous but the big ethical issue that we ought to focus on is the stewardship of taxpayer funds, and that's i care a lot about transparency. my former boss, coburn wrote. a landmark transparency builds barack obama in 2006, or government. taxpayer funds, your different it's a different takeover. look, i would say it's a different level of scrutiny should be outraged by the by the trillions of dollars by that to go ahead. this is a group of people who are supposed to be avoiding even the appearance. sense of a conflict of interest . and, you know, i don't think it's so much to ask that we s

as senator chris murphy, democrat of connecticut, tweeted last week, it's no like harlan crow isn't a suprem court, he funds groups tha argue for outcomes that benefi him. one group filed a -- thomas sided with crow in al eight cases. senator chris murphy joins m now. what is your reaction to thi latest report on this hous sale >> i just think we are comin to understand that there is an incredibly intimate financia relationship between highlan grove and clarence thomas an his wife it may be that they have bee financing a certain lifestyl for the thomas's this has been true in secret for the better part of the las 20 years thomas says, well, i saw a guy who signed is and i was told i didn't have to report anything from a personal friend who doesn't have cases before th supreme court. that is not true there may not be cases befor the court in which his name is in the title, but he funds a massive infrastructure tha files briefs before the court. there are constantly cases before the court in whic harlan crow registers a public opinion through the groups h finds, and as i mentioned in th

by the way, it should be important to note that clarenc thomas became friends with harlan crow a few he was put on the suprem court. i submit to you that harla crow would not want to hav anything to do with a guy like clarence thomas, if clarence thomas were not in a positio of authority and in a position to help him. so, while they both profess to be dear friends with each other, that's just code language that they use bottom line is, clarence thoma has become used to taking thes lavish vacations every year, every summer, using th airplane and super yacht to ge around the world on 500,00 dollar excursions, on a regula basis. position of being compromised. he is holding himself to a lesser ethical standard then lower court judges have to abide by that's not right, especially for the highest court in the land who have no standards whatsoever, that's why senator whitehouse and i hav introduced the supreme court ethics recusal and transparenc act, also known as assert ac searched act, that would force the indicted state supreme court to put forward a code of conduct and also strengthe t

harlan crow mentioned in the pro public story, we have a section where we talk about his relationship with the justice in which he was trying to fund a library that is getting renovated. he offered to fund it. they would rename the library in the name of clarence thomas. it is how the justice kind of learned and saw the world. an avid book reader. very dear to him. harlan crow thought we can renovate the library, but it became a very controversial, politically charged issue. ultimately, a lot of protests against renaming the library. there was a compromise to rename a wing, a section of it. he financed part of it. not at the same level he would have had he been willing to rename the library. >> has it been a culture shock to be out here after being on the east coast? >> i love it, i'm an outdoor person, i love the walks and the hikes, the ocean. it is invigorating out here. it helps spur the creativity. i understand why we say the creativity is -- it is a creative place, and i love being out here. >> you had two years to define the role of the los angeles times in the southland. what

what did harlan crow have to offer? clarence thomas?ecause what's different with legislators as you have donors that could could influence their next election? harlan crow can't give clarence thomas something he already has. he has a lifetime appointment on the supreme court, so i just you know again, it's improper. i think to molly's point. i agree that it doesn't help the institution. but it's a little bit like speeding. 67 a 55? yeah. kind of dangerous but the big ethical issue that we ought to focus on is the stewardship of taxpayer funds, and that's i care a lot about transparency. my former boss, coburn wrote. a landmark transparency builds barack obama in 2006 government. taxpayer funds, your different it's a different takeover. look, i would say it's a different level of scrutiny should be outraged by the by the trillions of dollars outreach by that, too, and i'll go ahead. this is a group of people who are supposed to be avoiding even the appearance. hints of a conflict of interest. and, you know, i don't think it's so much to

so now this morning, spokespeople for harlan crow said that crow, himself, he was not directly involved, and there was no direct involvement, but still it is pointing out more of the spotlight of the ethics problems at the supreme court and more information of the relationship between these two men. >> there is a key democratic senator ron wyden who is looking into whether the luxury trips that crown took thomas on and a real estate deal between the two should have been disclosed on tax filings. what information is the senator asking for? >> right. so now you have this powerful democrat, and he is asking crow for a full accounting of all of the gifts, and he is questioning whether crow complied with the federal tax law. so that is a new interesting way that congress is getting in and this doesn't have to do with thomas' financial disclosures but it has to do with what crow himself disclosed. there are conservatives who say that all of the stories are coming up, because democrats don't like the direction of the supreme court and they are going after clarence thomas, but other people say

he flies o harlan crow's bombardier globa 5000 jet. gone with harlan crow to the bohemia grove, exclusive california al male retreat, and to crows brawling ranch in east texas and thomas typically spend about a week every summer at crows private resort in th adirondacks. we also learned this weekend that harlan cro is a collector of nazi and white supremacist memorabilia. harlan crow is a right-win republican with a strong interest in cases before the supreme court. he denies talking to clarence thomas about the cases he i interested in on the supreme court. the latest reports come nearly two decades after los angeles times first reported that from 19 98 to 2003, justice thomas expected more than $42,000 in gifts, the mos of any justice at the time justice thomas's apparen reaction to that report in the los angeles times was just simply refused to report any more gifts. clarence thoma says that he met her line crow roughly seven years into his tenure on the supreme court, the foreign fronts by an reasonable human being and any reasonab

i don't care how generous harlan crow thinks he is in being this philanthropists. put up money for a library wing in savannah named after thomas. he turned the cannery where thomas's family worked into museum outside of savannah where he was born. it does not interest me that he is using his wealth to be "philanthropic" with regard to thomas' story. the fact that a single individual is spending hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, helping out a guy on the supreme court, just that sentence, forget all of the other details. someone is spending millions of dollars to assist somebody on the supreme court with something. that in and of itself is enough to raise a ton of questions. i really think we might be scratching the surface. i would expect more details to be coming out about not only thomas, but some of the other justices. i think there is a cottage industry of individuals who are looking into the justices. remember, there are 2500 lower court justices too. the justices and judges cast in their disclosures to see if our top legal officials, at a time

but this must be one hell of a friendship because on thursday we learned that, back 2014, harlan crowerty from clarence thomas, including living. that might give him influence. "no, clarence, you vote however your conscience dictates, but remember, i am your mother's landlord. oh, mom's power just went out. oh, now it's back on. seriously, vote however you want. oh, mommy's in the dark again. hope she can find the fridge! isn't that where she keeps her insulin?" not only did crow buy the house, but let thomas's mother continue to live there, made renovations, including a carport, a repaired roof, and a new fence and gates, and she lives rent free. say what you will, clarence thomas has won mother's day. "oh, chocolate covered strawberries again? that's nice. i hear mrs. thomas's son betrayed the justice system to get her a carport." now, crow claims there's nothing corrupt about this, saying, "my intention is to one day create a public museum at the thomas home. just a reminder, harlan crow has hitler's napkins and a statue of stalin in his garden, so building you a museum? not a huge

did you get any response from either justice thomas or harlan crow about your story? es so well, not from justice thomas. we went to thomas with detailed questions, and he did not respond. crow did tell us that he approached the thomases about buying these properties and that he intends to one day turn thomas's mother's house into a museum, which to be clear. uh, experts told us that crows intentions, whatever they may be, are relevant to the legal question of thomas's obligation to disclose this transaction. crow also didn't directly address um why he bought also bought two other properties from thomas the vacant lots down the road. um but he did say that he ultimately sold those to a builder who is committed to improving the neighborhood. is there. is there any sense that the ties between the two gentlemen could run even deeper than what we know? um to be completely honest with you. we didn't know about these ties when we ran our story last week , so i mean, i can't say what will come out in the future, but we certainly intend to keep looking. all right, josh kaplan

a stone lodge on the water in the adirondacks in upstate new york, owned by harlan crow.e exception of one trip in 1997, propublica says thomas didn't disclose any of these trips on ethics filings , thomas issued a statement saying he was advised he didn't have to report them. but watchdog groups say some laws and ethics rules were likely broken. here is this billionaire who's got lots of rich friends and can court the justice and bring his friends who are ceo to potentially influence the justice with his lavish gifts and trips and other benefits? now will the supreme court investigate or discipline clarence thomas in any way? chief justice john roberts did not respond to cnn's request for comment. in a statement to propublica, harlan crow, said, quote justice thomas and ginny thomas never asked for any of this hospitality. we never asked about a pending or lower court case, and justice thomas has never discussed one end quote wolf ryan. how is the chief justice john roberts addressed these sorts of controversies in the past. we know that senator dick durbin, the chairman

except when it comes to his dear friend, harlan crow. right, right, right. i mean, clarence thomas does have a story of kind of, you know, lifting himself up from poverty. but you know what we are seeing here now is not somebody who is who is stuck in some walmart parking lot, but island hopping through indonesia and i think the enemy's point. this has been a long running decline of approval and legitimacy from the public's view to the court. and this has happened over a number of years. i think this is another instance of that were frankly, folks are looking at the core like politicians, even though so they experience a unique level of insulation from that, so they have those lifetime appointments. they don't have a real check and balance system and we are kind of now. i think seeing a public that is now wrestling with the reality of political influence on the court, and that's a really i think kind of dangerous place because you know this is only going to become more pronounced as cases come before this court, which is clearly been compromised and public o

kristen: harlan crow himself did not appear before the court with any business.ut are there even indirect ties then in which there are issues that ended up before the court that thomas decided on? >> exactly, match the concern. crow is a multibillionaire that's funded the federal society and other conservative organization that have fbe en involved in cases -- -- that have been involved -- in cases. the truth of the matter. it's an appearance issue i think. people are allowed to have rich friends. justice thomas is allowed to have rich friends. if those friends want to do nice things, that is ok. it is only when we start heading those things that things start to be problematic. kristen: any suggestion or evidence or reason to believe the rule changes you mentioned a couple of months ago may have had anything to do with perhaps internally them getting a sense where this might be coming? >> i don't know. the rule changes were made a couple of months before pro-public's -- pro puublica's report became public. they would be required to be disclosed. that should have

reject a case that benefited the trammell crow residential company, a real estate firm named after harlan crow's father that was partly-owned by the crow family. harlan crow was ceo and chair of the board at the time. in north dakota, republican governor doug burgum has signed into law a near-total ban on abortion that would only allow people to get the procedure in cases of rape or incest during the first six weeks of pregnancy. the legislation is one of the most severe anti-abortion measures in the country. reproductive rights advocates say most people don't even know they are pregnant at six weeks. in montana, protesters stormed the state capitol monday in support of democratic transgender state representative zooey zephyr after republican lawmakers blocked her from speaking on the house floor for a third day. zephyr raised her microphone into the air as her supporters interrupted proceedings for nearly half an hour yesterday, leading to the arrest of at least seven people. >> will come to order. sergeant of arms, will you please clear the gallery? [chanting] amy: republicans have denied zeph

in 2014, thomas and his family sold a house and two vacant lots in savannah, georgia, to harlan crow for about $130,000 but never disclosed the sale, which appears to be a violation of the 1978 ethics in government act. this comes after propublica published a bombshell investigation last week detailing unreported luxury trips harlan crow lavished on thomas over 20 years. in addition to being a major benefactor to thomas and the gop, crow is also an avid collector of nazi memorabilia. he has a signed copy by hitler of mein kampf. federal authorities have arrested a 21-year-old massachusetts man over the recent leak of highly classified pentagon intelligence documents. attorney general merrick garland nounced the arrest thursday. >> today the justice department arrested jack teixeira in connection with an investigation into alleged and unauthorized removal, retention, and transmission of classified national events information. teixeira is an employee of the united states air force national guard. amy: teixeira is an enlisted airman first class, one of the air national guard's lowest ra

harlan crow is a collector of hitler artifacts.es two of hitler's paintings and a signed copy of mein kampf, among other memorabilia. the billionaire's dallas mansion also boasts a garden full of statues of 20th century dictators, such as joseph stalin. totally normal stuff the mall, we learn about another questionable financial transaction between row and thomas. according to propublica, crow purchased three properties in a residential neighborhood in savannah, georgia or more than one of $30,000 the properties belong to thomas' relatives. including the elderly mother home, which crow still owns. a watergate era law requires justices and other officials to disclose real estate sales over $1000 thomas reportedly never did. justice thomas did not respond to questions about it. harlan crow said he purchased the house so he could preservative for posterity. you know, like a signed copy of mein kampf. join me now is jordan klepper, who is guest hosting the daily show on next week, which should be fun. jordan, normally, when black folk

i don't care how generous harlan crow thinks he is in being this philanthropist.e also put up some money for a library wing in savannah named dr. thomas. he turned the cannery where thomas's family worked into a museum. it doesn't interest me that he is using his wealth to be philanthropic with regards to thomas's story. the fact that a single individual is spending hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars helping out a guy on the supreme court, forget all the other details. someone is spending millions of dollars to assist someone on the supreme court with something. that in itself is raising a ton of ethical questions. i would expect more details to be coming out about not only thomas but some of the other justices. i think now there is a cottage industry of individuals looking into the justices. there are 2500 lower court justices, too. to see if our top legal officials at a time when the courts have outsize power, to see if these officials are being fully honest and ethical and following the letter of the disclosure and ethics laws. >> at the start of

weekend at someone's lake house what justice thomas fails to acknowledge is that he didn't meet harlan crowhad gone to the supreme court and the travel that is involved here was not only luxurious on many occasions, it involved rubbing shoulders with people who had conservative litigation interests before the supreme court. so it should have been disclosed. there may be other implications like tax consequences and i read into the fact that he's released this statement, the fact that he knows that this is a serious problem. >> so, brandon, a gallup poll last fall found that 40% of americans, only 40% approve of the u.s. supreme court, a record low. how can reports like this have an impact on the faith americans have in the high court >> yeah, i read his response there that he knows this is potentially very damaging to the court. i wouldn't be surprised at all if this leads to some meaningful reform within the court or through congress i think the real scandal here is that there are no real limits on what you can accept as a gift as a supreme court justice. i find that absolutely crazy as som

than two decades he accepted luxury trips for virtually every year without disclosing them and harlan crowght a house from thomas while thomas was on the court and justice thomas did not disclose it. up until yesterday thomas' excuse here was he'd been advised he didn't have to disclose any of this because harlan crow, quote, did not have business before the court. turns out that's also not the case crow's office confirmed to bloomberg that it tried to get the court to accept a case in 2005 now, the court declined that case but at least publicly justice thomas did not recuse himself from that decision and thomas also did not respond to any of bloomberg's questions about any of this. and tonight we got the news from the senate judiciary chair, dick durbin, that chief justice roberts has declined the committee's request the chief justice testify about the court's ethics issues because the justices are all supposedly policing themselves. and we see how well that is going. >>> coming up later this hour an update on the battle between florida governor ron desantis and the company that's designi