US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been taking secret lavish vacations on a private jet and superyacht paid for by a GOP megadonor for years without disclosing them, according to a bombshell ProPublica report published Thursday.

Thomas, a conservative who joined the nation's highest court in 1991 and currently the longest-serving member, has accepted the trips from real estate magnate and Republican donor Harlan Crow nearly every year for more than two decades, ProPublica reported, citing flight records, internal documents, and interviews.
According to the report, Thomas has vacationed with Crow on his 162-foot yacht around the world, has flown around on Crow's Bombardier Global 5000 jet, and stayed at his private resort in the Adirondacks almost every summer.

A June 2019 Indonesia vacation that Thomas and his wife went on, thanks to Crow, could have cost more than an estimated $500,000 if Thomas chartered the yacht and plane himself, according to the report.
On a July 2017 trip at Harlan's Adirondacks resort, guests on the vacation besides Thomas included Republican donors, corporate executives, and a leader at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative-leaning think tank.


Clarence Thomas secretly went on lavish vacations in luxury jets and superyachts paid for by a GOP megadonor, report reveals (yahoo.com)

I flew on Southwest the other day. Tickets were about $300. The cost to charter the plane would have likely been astronomical, but the costs were shared by other passengers. Did Thomas actually receive $500,000 in value or was he part of a larger group of people vacationing on the jet and yacht? I am merely attacking the sensationalism of the writing. Clearly, this is something SC Justices should avoid.

oski003 said:

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I flew on Southwest the other day. Tickets were about $300. The cost to charter the plane would have likely been astronomical, but the costs were shared by other passengers. Did Thomas actually receive $500,000 in value or was he part of a larger group of people vacationing on the jet and yacht? I am merely attacking the sensationalism of the writing. Clearly, this is something SC Justices should avoid.

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You're just doing what you always do. Obfuscating the misdeeds of your tribe.

A Brief History of Clarence Thomas' Ethical Entanglements - The Atlantic


https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/06/clarence-thomas-ethics-violations/351905/

Scalia, Thomas and Citizens United - POLITICO


https://www.politico.com/story/2011/01/scalia-thomas-and-citizens-united-047855


How we know Clarence Thomas did it | Salon.com


https://www.salon.com/2010/10/27/anita_hill_clarence_thomas/

It's downright mind-boggling that there is no "Code of Conduct" for Supreme Court Justices.

Under the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, all federal judges, including Supreme Court justices, are required to file annual financial disclosures that include reporting on gifts received. Yet they are exempt from disclosing "personal hospitality" they receive, which covers food, lodging, and entertainment. And unlike the rest of the federal judiciary, the Supreme Court is not bound by a code of conduct.

Wow, oski003 and AOC are in agreement.I never thought I'd see the day.

DiabloWags said:

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It's downright mind-boggling that there is no "Code of Conduct" for Supreme Court Justices.

Under the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, all federal judges, including Supreme Court justices, are required to file annual financial disclosures that include reporting on gifts received. Yet they are exempt from disclosing "personal hospitality" they receive, which covers food, lodging, and entertainment. And unlike the rest of the federal judiciary, the Supreme Court is not bound by a code of conduct.

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Considering the impact they have on our country, one would think that they would be held to the highest standard in terms of their conduct. Guaranteed that if any attempt to do so would be blocked by republicans.

DiabloWags said:

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US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been taking secret lavish vacations on a private jet and superyacht paid for by a GOP megadonor for years without disclosing them, according to a bombshell ProPublica report published Thursday.

Thomas, a conservative who joined the nation's highest court in 1991 and currently the longest-serving member, has accepted the trips from real estate magnate and Republican donor Harlan Crow nearly every year for more than two decades, ProPublica reported, citing flight records, internal documents, and interviews.
According to the report, Thomas has vacationed with Crow on his 162-foot yacht around the world, has flown around on Crow's Bombardier Global 5000 jet, and stayed at his private resort in the Adirondacks almost every summer.

A June 2019 Indonesia vacation that Thomas and his wife went on, thanks to Crow, could have cost more than an estimated $500,000 if Thomas chartered the yacht and plane himself, according to the report.
On a July 2017 trip at Harlan's Adirondacks resort, guests on the vacation besides Thomas included Republican donors, corporate executives, and a leader at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative-leaning think tank.


Clarence Thomas secretly went on lavish vacations in luxury jets and superyachts paid for by a GOP megadonor, report reveals (yahoo.com)

---

Gonna let you in on a dirty little secret: all the SCOTUS judges are dirty. It is interesting that this organization chose to look only at Thomas.

First of all I call utter BS on the valuation. Moving beyond that:

They receive Hillary Clinton size speaking fees from not only schools, but organizations of various political views, Left and right. They often stay in wonderful settings like ski resorts, Caribbean islands, someone' compound in the Hamptons, or whatever on someone else's dime. They get to go to private golf clubs like Augusta or on junkets to places no that would cost tens of thousands for one of us bribe a member to get us in. A certain liberal female Justice and Scalia used to go to the most exclusive secret hunting gun clubs in the world for a week or two all expenses paid to shoot at animals. Hell, Scalia died at the club. They get a lot of freebies. and they have rich friends. some of whom were major clients, that comp then. Always have, always well. Kagan certainly gets around (and she is even does junkets with rich GOP types she met from her days at Harvard). FWIW, I don't think Thomas partying with a conservative guy is going to change the way he votes on cases.

This really misses a bigger issue, which is Thomas' wife in a political activist and that could cause potential conflicts of interest, though no party seems to ever asked him to recuse himself.

In any event, open those eyes, joining SCOTUS comes with privileges., and no conduit code. You don't want me to get into some things Justice Douglas did.

wifeisafurd said:

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dajo9 said:

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oski003 said:

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I flew on Southwest the other day. Tickets were about $300. The cost to charter the plane would have likely been astronomical, but the costs were shared by other passengers. Did Thomas actually receive $500,000 in value or was he part of a larger group of people vacationing on the jet and yacht? I am merely attacking the sensationalism of the writing. Clearly, this is something SC Justices should avoid.

---

You're just doing what you always do. Obfuscating the misdeeds of your tribe.

---

You want to go down this line of inquiry with Roberts, Breyer, Ginsburg, Sotomayer or Kagan, just to name a few?

Is it misdeeds if everyone does it?

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Yes, I do. My understanding is the law requires disclosures. Not disclosing substantial gifts is a violation - according to what I've read. Nobody seems to mention what the penalties are supposed to be. Any Justices involved in this kind of behavior should be named, shamed, disclosed, prosecuted (dare to dream), and impeached (lol).

I'm not talking about taking a free hotel stay for a speaking engagement either. I'm talking about global vacations like described for Thomas. Big things that should be obvious. Not small things.

We give too much deference to the Supreme Court as it is. It has way too much power to overthrow the will of the people. They have the power to rewrite any legislation they want. Bring them down some notches. And while we're at it - let's add some seats.

wifeisafurd said:

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DiabloWags said:

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US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been taking secret lavish vacations on a private jet and superyacht paid for by a GOP megadonor for years without disclosing them, according to a bombshell ProPublica report published Thursday.

Thomas, a conservative who joined the nation's highest court in 1991 and currently the longest-serving member, has accepted the trips from real estate magnate and Republican donor Harlan Crow nearly every year for more than two decades, ProPublica reported, citing flight records, internal documents, and interviews.
According to the report, Thomas has vacationed with Crow on his 162-foot yacht around the world, has flown around on Crow's Bombardier Global 5000 jet, and stayed at his private resort in the Adirondacks almost every summer.

A June 2019 Indonesia vacation that Thomas and his wife went on, thanks to Crow, could have cost more than an estimated $500,000 if Thomas chartered the yacht and plane himself, according to the report.
On a July 2017 trip at Harlan's Adirondacks resort, guests on the vacation besides Thomas included Republican donors, corporate executives, and a leader at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative-leaning think tank.


Clarence Thomas secretly went on lavish vacations in luxury jets and superyachts paid for by a GOP megadonor, report reveals (yahoo.com)

---

Gonna let you in on a dirty little secret: all the SCOTUS judges are dirty. It is interesting that this organization chose to look only at Thomas.

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Judge Clarence Thomas was looked at because he FAILED TO DISCLOSE.

He's also failed to file disclosure filings for his wife over the past decade, prompting him to amend 13 years of reports indicating the sources of his wife's income, but not amounts.

Ginny Thomas established Liberty Central.

While SCOTUS was debating Citizen's United, Liberty Central received an "anonymous" contribution for $550,000.

Hmmmm...


Pretty simple.
Follow the MONEY.

Justice Thomas's wife now lobbyist - POLITICO

wifeisafurd said:

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dajo9 said:

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oski003 said:

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I flew on Southwest the other day. Tickets were about $300. The cost to charter the plane would have likely been astronomical, but the costs were shared by other passengers. Did Thomas actually receive $500,000 in value or was he part of a larger group of people vacationing on the jet and yacht? I am merely attacking the sensationalism of the writing. Clearly, this is something SC Justices should avoid.

---

You're just doing what you always do. Obfuscating the misdeeds of your tribe.

---

You want to go down this line of inquiry with Roberts, Breyer, Ginsburg, Sotomayer or Kagan, just to name a few?

Is it misdeeds if everyone does it?

---

I want you to go down that line of inquiry. Do some research and post the stories so we can read them. You don't think Republicans haven't spent millions trying turn up dirt on the people on your list?

Republicans spend countless hours in congressional hearings pursuing bridges to nowhere in their investigations of Democratic enemies (Hillary, Benghazi, etc.).

Democrats show up to hearings to testify and answer questions (provided they can concentrate long enough to focus on a weak question tacked on to the end of a posturing stump speech).

On the other hand, Republican witnesses dodge subpoenas, assert the 5th or just skip to the chase and plead guilty.

Scalia and Thomas were always so arrogant that they just did their thing in plain sight with an implied, "F@uck you, do something about it." Both bought and paid for by the Koch brothers and proud of it.

Here's the 2004 reporting on Thomas from @DavidGSavage https://t.co/TRkK4rVdYE

— Kimbriell Kelly (@Kimbriell) April 6, 2023

"POLITICO has learned, for instance, that the initial $500,000 contribution came from Dallas real estate investor Harlan Crow, a major GOP donor who held an event for Liberty Central at his home a few months after the group launched. He also once gave Justice Thomas a $19,000 "Frederick Douglass Bible" as a gift and donated $150,000 to build a new wing named for Thomas on a Savannah, Ga., library that Clarence Thomas visited frequently in his youth."

Yeah, nothing to see here.

bearister said:

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wifeisafurd said:

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dajo9 said:

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oski003 said:

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I flew on Southwest the other day. Tickets were about $300. The cost to charter the plane would have likely been astronomical, but the costs were shared by other passengers. Did Thomas actually receive $500,000 in value or was he part of a larger group of people vacationing on the jet and yacht? I am merely attacking the sensationalism of the writing. Clearly, this is something SC Justices should avoid.

---

You're just doing what you always do. Obfuscating the misdeeds of your tribe.

---

You want to go down this line of inquiry with Roberts, Breyer, Ginsburg, Sotomayer or Kagan, just to name a few?

Is it misdeeds if everyone does it?

---

I want you to go down that line of inquiry. Do some research and post the stories so we can read them. You don't think Republicans haven't spent millions trying turn up dirt on the people on your list?

Republicans spend countless hours in congressional hearings pursuing bridges to nowhere in their investigations of Democratic enemies (Hillary, Benghazi, etc.).

Democrats show up to hearings to testify and answer questions (provided they can concentrate long enough to focus on a weak question tacked onto the end of a posturing stump speech).

On the other hand, Republican witnesses dodge subpoenas, assert the 5th or just skip to the chase and plead guilty.

Scalia and Thomas were always so arrogant that they just did their thing in plain sight with an implied, "F@uck you, do something about it." Both bought and paid for by the Koch brothers and proud of it.

---

Of course, this. There is no end to the money and media available to constantly hound any prominent liberal or Democrat who does anything.

If a Republican does something it usually gets reported once and disappears (see the 2004 L.A. Times story). For that reason Democrats are more well behaved on average. They have to be. The spotlight is on them.

All of that and they have lifetime appointments. Nice gig. Maybe not so nice for the country.

….but the real beauty is that Republicans think it is hysterical that Democrats believe they are scoring points spotlighting Republican corruption or hypocrisy.

The face of the party is a sexual predator, a lifetime business cheat, a traitor and a seditionist. In the fantasy apocalyptic battle between Good and Evil that Fox News help create, all actions engaged in by their team are acceptable.

ProPublica will never tear us apart!

bearister said:

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That singer died jerking off. How appropriate.

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There's only one way better to go out.

"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," Thomas said. "I come from regular stock, and I prefer that I prefer being around that."*
Clarence Thomas, in a recent interview for a documentary about his life, which Crow helped finance.
ProPublica

* "IN LATE JUNE 2019, right after the U.S. Supreme Court released its final opinion of the term, Justice Clarence Thomas boarded a large private jet headed to Indonesia. He and his wife were going on vacation: nine days of island-hopping in a volcanic archipelago on a superyacht staffed by a coterie of attendants and a private chef.

If Thomas had chartered the plane and the 162-foot yacht himself, the total cost of the trip could have exceeded $500,000."
ProPublica

This just goes to show that Thomas' default mode is to lie…..like he did multiple times under oath during his confirmation hearing.

bearister said:

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"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," Thomas said. "I come from regular stock, and I prefer that I prefer being around that."*
Clarence Thomas, in a recent interview for a documentary about his life, which Crow helped finance.
ProPublica

* "IN LATE JUNE 2019, right after the U.S. Supreme Court released its final opinion of the term, Justice Clarence Thomas boarded a large private jet headed to Indonesia. He and his wife were going on vacation: nine days of island-hopping in a volcanic archipelago on a superyacht staffed by a coterie of attendants and a private chef.

If Thomas had chartered the plane and the 162-foot yacht himself, the total cost of the trip could have exceeded $500,000."
ProPublica

This just goes to show that Thomas' default mode is to lie…..like he did multiple times under oath during his confirmation hearing.

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None of this is illegal lol. Sounds like a blast.

wifeisafurd said:

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bearister said:

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wifeisafurd said:

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dajo9 said:

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oski003 said:

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I flew on Southwest the other day. Tickets were about $300. The cost to charter the plane would have likely been astronomical, but the costs were shared by other passengers. Did Thomas actually receive $500,000 in value or was he part of a larger group of people vacationing on the jet and yacht? I am merely attacking the sensationalism of the writing. Clearly, this is something SC Justices should avoid.

---

You're just doing what you always do. Obfuscating the misdeeds of your tribe.

---

You want to go down this line of inquiry with Roberts, Breyer, Ginsburg, Sotomayer or Kagan, just to name a few?

Is it misdeeds if everyone does it?

---

I want you to go down that line of inquiry. Do some research and post the stories so we can read them. You don't think Republicans haven't spent millions trying turn up dirt on the people on your list?

Republicans spend countless hours in congressional hearings pursuing bridges to nowhere in their investigations of Democratic enemies (Hillary, Benghazi, etc.).

Democrats show up to hearings to testify and answer questions (provided they can concentrate long enough to focus on a weak question tacked onto the end of a posturing stump speech).

On the other hand, Republican witnesses dodge subpoenas, assert the 5th or just skip to the chase and plead guilty.

Scalia and Thomas were always so arrogant that they just did their thing in plain sight with an implied, "F@uck you, do something about it." Both bought and paid for by the Koch brothers and proud of it.

---

From 2004 to 2014, the nine justices took more than 1,000 reported trips paid for by business people, political activists, ideological organizations, or anyone with vested interests in the broad legal issues. Scalia was by far the most traveled, with more than 23 trips on average a year, followed by Justice Stephen Breyer, with 17. Most to the trips were not disclosed or not timely disclosed. For example, Breyer traveled to London, Luxembourg and Sun Valley in 2014 with lobbyist groups picking up the tab. USA Today 3/17/16. So an an implied, "F@uck you, do something about it" to you from Justice Breyer. Expect more of this every day. How about Ginsberg tomorrow? Blinders is one thing, being ignorant is another.

The rest of the garbage, such as about wasted congressional hearings, I give a big implied bi-partisan F/U.

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"reported trips" meaning they were disclosed.

Thomas trips. Not reported.

See the difference?

dajo9 said:

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wifeisafurd said:

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bearister said:

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wifeisafurd said:

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dajo9 said:

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oski003 said:

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I flew on Southwest the other day. Tickets were about $300. The cost to charter the plane would have likely been astronomical, but the costs were shared by other passengers. Did Thomas actually receive $500,000 in value or was he part of a larger group of people vacationing on the jet and yacht? I am merely attacking the sensationalism of the writing. Clearly, this is something SC Justices should avoid.

---

You're just doing what you always do. Obfuscating the misdeeds of your tribe.

---

You want to go down this line of inquiry with Roberts, Breyer, Ginsburg, Sotomayer or Kagan, just to name a few?

Is it misdeeds if everyone does it?

---

I want you to go down that line of inquiry. Do some research and post the stories so we can read them. You don't think Republicans haven't spent millions trying turn up dirt on the people on your list?

Republicans spend countless hours in congressional hearings pursuing bridges to nowhere in their investigations of Democratic enemies (Hillary, Benghazi, etc.).

Democrats show up to hearings to testify and answer questions (provided they can concentrate long enough to focus on a weak question tacked onto the end of a posturing stump speech).

On the other hand, Republican witnesses dodge subpoenas, assert the 5th or just skip to the chase and plead guilty.

Scalia and Thomas were always so arrogant that they just did their thing in plain sight with an implied, "F@uck you, do something about it." Both bought and paid for by the Koch brothers and proud of it.

---

From 2004 to 2014, the nine justices took more than 1,000 reported trips paid for by business people, political activists, ideological organizations, or anyone with vested interests in the broad legal issues. Scalia was by far the most traveled, with more than 23 trips on average a year, followed by Justice Stephen Breyer, with 17. Most to the trips were not disclosed or not timely disclosed. For example, Breyer traveled to London, Luxembourg and Sun Valley in 2014 with lobbyist groups picking up the tab. USA Today 3/17/16. So an an implied, "F@uck you, do something about it" to you from Justice Breyer. Expect more of this every day. How about Ginsberg tomorrow? Blinders is one thing, being ignorant is another.

The rest of the garbage, such as about wasted congressional hearings, I give a big implied bi-partisan F/U.

---

"reported trips" meaning they were disclosed.

Thomas trips. Not reported.

See the difference?

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Read the article which you were to lazy to find, which says most trips were never reported or reported lafe as noted in my post, you know the language you selectively ignored. See the difference?

Check out this story on usatoday.com: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/03/07/supreme-court-travel-disclosure-ethics-editorials-debates/81453754/

I might not be seeing it in the linked editorial, but it looked like the trips which were reported "late" were months or a year late within the (lame) rules. Not over a decade "late" like Thomas. So the late ones don't seem relevant to Thomas' situation.

As for ones not reported at all, the article gives one example (Scalia for the trip on which he passed away) falling under the "Personal hospitality of an individual" exception. Which I agree is an incredibly broad exception just asking for abuse.

Did the linked editorial actually report specifics on anyone else that completely skipped reporting/disclosure as Thomas did? And is Thomas' disclosure covered by the "personal hospitality of an individual" exception that Scalia's was? I don't know enough about this stuff to be sure.

But even if so, the two concrete examples we have for complete lack of reporting/disclosure, based only on this 2016 editorial and the topic of this thread, are Scalia and Thomas. Is that correct?

OneKeg said:

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I might not be seeing it in the linked editorial, but it looked like the trips which were reported "late" were months or a year late within the (lame) rules. Not over a decade "late" like Thomas. So the late ones don't seem relevant to Thomas' situation.

As for ones not reported at all, the article gives one example (Scalia for the trip on which he passed away) falling under the "Personal hospitality of an individual" exception. Which I agree is an incredibly broad exception just asking for abuse.

Did the linked editorial actually report specifics on anyone else that completely skipped reporting/disclosure as Thomas did? And is Thomas' disclosure covered by the "personal hospitality of an individual" exception that Scalia's was? I don't know enough about this stuff to be sure.

But even if so, the two concrete examples we have for complete lack of reporting/disclosure, based only on this 2016 editorial and the topic of this thread, are Scalia and Thomas. Is that correct?

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Correct. What wiaf was implying was so weak I actually looked at a couple articles.

He got caught not reporting THESE EXACT GIFTS from THIS EXACT PERSON in 2004, he reported them, then he just went right back to not reporting them!https://t.co/RIO5rPSZaQ

— Max Moran (@MaxMoranHi) April 7, 2023

okaydo said:

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He got caught not reporting THESE EXACT GIFTS from THIS EXACT PERSON in 2004, he reported them, then he just went right back to not reporting them!https://t.co/RIO5rPSZaQ

— Max Moran (@MaxMoranHi) April 7, 2023

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Oh no...long time friends did things together. Call the gestapo! Maybe the FBI will raid his house looking for magazine subscriptions that he didn't pay for!

MinotStateBeav said:

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okaydo said:

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He got caught not reporting THESE EXACT GIFTS from THIS EXACT PERSON in 2004, he reported them, then he just went right back to not reporting them!https://t.co/RIO5rPSZaQ

— Max Moran (@MaxMoranHi) April 7, 2023

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Oh no...long time friends did things together. Call the gestapo! Maybe the FBI will raid his house looking for magazine subscriptions that he didn't pay for!

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Corruption doesn't count if you call yourself friends. SCOTUS ruled that way in the McDonell case which made it almost impossible to prosecute pay for play.

The GOP has spent the last few decades radicalizing its base with stupid culture war BS while secretly ensuring that the government remain bought and paid for by moneyed elites.

Have to hand it to them, they have been able to maintaining their base of white uneducated grumps while hollowing out their economic interests and blaming it on scary things like the environment.

The elite Republicans got the government they paid for and even with a moron like Trump in office they were able to pull the strings that matter due to "friendships".

MinotStareBeav said:

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Oh no...long time friends did things together. Call the gestapo! Maybe the FBI will raid his house looking for magazine subscriptions that he didn't pay for!

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Is the bar really this low for people like yourself?
No ethics at all?
No integrity?

My long-term friends havent sent me money.
Have your friends given you $500,000?
Or are you really this naive???

DiabloWags said:

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MinotStareBeav said:

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Oh no...long time friends did things together. Call the gestapo! Maybe the FBI will raid his house looking for magazine subscriptions that he didn't pay for!

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Is the bar really this low for people like yourself?
No ethics at all?
No integrity?

My long-term friends havent sent me money.
Have your friends given you $500,000?
Or are you really this naive???

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Imagine being you...and then talking about ethics.
Prove he did something wrong. Until then..don't care. Have a nice weekend.