Comedian John Oliver has offered Justice Clarence Thomas $1 million a year and a $2.4 million bus to “get the shit out of the Supreme Court.”
Oliver made his offer on Sunday’s episode of his HBO show, Last Week Tonight, and warned the judge that he had only 30 days to accept or the offer would expire.
It came after a series of investigations exposed that Thomas had failed to report dozens of lavish trips and expenses paid for by Republican billionaire Harlan Crow.
The resulting scandal called into question his integrity and impartiality, particularly in the wake of the highly politicized Roe v Wade decision and his refusal to recuse himself from hearings related to the January 6 insurrection.
Oliver joked: “You’ve got a lot to do right now, from stripping women of their rights to hearing the January 6 cases… and you deserve a break, you know, away from the pettiness of Washington.”
Comedian John Oliver offered Justice Thomas Clarence $1 million a year to leave the Supreme Court
Justice Clarence Thomas was exposed in a series of expenses scandals last year
“So you can be around normal people whose lives you clearly made worse for decades.”
In April of last year, ProPublica exposed that Thomas had failed to report on financial disclosure forms 20 years of luxury and jet-setting trips paid for by Crow.
They revealed that Thomas had vacationed on Crow’s superyacht, flown on his Bombardier Global 5000 jet and vacationed with him at an all-male resort in California, Bohemian Grove.
Crow also reportedly paid approximately $100,000 in tuition for Thomas’ great-nephew and purchased the house in which Thomas’ mother lived.
The payments – and Thomas’s failure to report them – raised significant questions about his impartiality, particularly around the rulings in Roe v. Wade and the January 6 riots.
Thomas moved to revoke federal abortion rights once granted in Roe v Wade and later refused to recuse himself from hearings related to the attack on the Capitol.
He resisted pressure to recuse himself from issues related to whether Donald Trump could be removed from state ballots in the presidential election even though his wife, conservative political activist Ginni Thomas, had backed Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election they were stolen.
Referring to the scandals while making his offer on Sunday, Oliver said: “So that’s the offer, a million dollars a year, Clarence.” And a new condo on wheels.
‘And all you have to do… is sign the contract and get the hell out of the Supreme Court. The clock starts now: 30 days, Clarence. Let’s do it!’
He promised him a $2.4 million bus in exchange for leaving office.
The promise of huge monetary sums and lavish gifts was a nod to the gifts Thomas accepted from his “friend” Crow, who reportedly collects Nazi artifacts, including a signed copy of Mein Kampf and two paintings of Hitler.
Oliver said: ‘I think you’re thinking, what would my friend say if I accepted this offer? Will they judge me as they sit in their boardrooms, on their megayachts, and in their Hitler shrines?
Will they still invite me on luxury vacations and sing songs about me on their phones?
And he added: ‘Well, that’s the beauty of friendship, Clarence. If they are true friends, they will love you no matter what your job is. So I guess this could be the perfect way to find out who your real friends are.
ProPublica revealed that Thomas had spent time at Crow’s ranch in East Texas and often spent a week each summer at Crow’s private resort in New York’s Adirondacks, Camp Topridge.
Rates for a nearby hotel start at $2,250 per night, but Camp Topridge is even more exclusive, as guests must be personally invited by Crow.
It also has quirky features including a Hagrid replica of Harry Potter’s cottage, a 1950s-style soda fountain and bronze gnome statues.
A 2019 trip Thomas and his wife Ginni took to Indonesia with Crow, which included private flights and time aboard the yacht, named Michaela Rose and adorned with a giant inflatable rubber duck, would have cost about $500,000, the organization said. of news. .
Thomas’ annual salary is $285,000.
ProPublica reported that Thomas had also been on the yacht on a trip to New Zealand and around Savannah, Georgia.
The news organization also found photos of the judge sporting a T-shirt with the Michaela Rose logo emblazoned with “March 2007” and “Greek Islands,” suggesting Thomas also took a trip at the time.
None of them were revealed.
Conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas revealed that Republican billionaire Harlan Crow paid for three of his private flights.
Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse displays a painting of Clarence Thomas (second from right) and Harlan Crow (right) meeting at Crow’s Adirondacks resort, Camp Topridge. The painting is on display at the New York property.
An image of Crow’s yacht, the Michaela Rose, which was adorned with a giant inflatable rubber duck during Thomases’ 2019 trip to Indonesia.
A law passed after Watergate requires justices, judges, members of Congress and federal officials to disclose most gifts.
ProPublica also reported that Crow had paid approximately $100,000 in tuition for Thomas’ great-nephew, whom the judge was raising like a son, to attend Hidden Lake Academy and Randolph-Macon Academy, a military school he also attended. the billionaire had attended.
Several days after ProPublica’s initial report on Crow’s funding of Thomas’ vacation, the media outlet published a story saying that the billionaire had purchased the house in which Thomas’ mother lived, along with two others. properties on his block that had belonged to the justice system.
The new disclosure form says that in 1984 Thomas inherited one-third of the trio of properties, his mother’s residence and two additional homes in Savannah, Georgia.
In 2014, it says, Crow ‘an old friend of Filer and his wife’ bought the houses for $133,000, along with other houses and lots on the street.
“Filer and his wife had invested between $50,000 and $75,000 in their mother’s home in capital improvements over the years and therefore the transaction represented a capital loss,” the disclosure form says.