In a Sunday interview with the Dallas Morning News, Texas billionaire Harlan Crow defended his 27-year friendship with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, carefully avoiding questions about what they talked about and claiming he didn’t try to influence the Justice’s opinions.
Crow says he was introduced to Thomas, who has been on the Supreme Court 32 years, in 1996 when he was in Washington for a meeting with leaders of the National Center for Policy Analysis, a now-defunct organization that lobbied to reduce government regulations on business. Thomas was scheduled to give an address to NCPA’s Dallas chapter, and Crow volunteered to fly Thomas to the event on his private jet.
A major donor to Republican causes, Crow spent more than $3 million on conservative candidates during the midterm election. Asked if he ever tried to influence Thomas’s legal thinking, Crow claimed he’s pro-choice, a position Thomas does not support in his court opinions; like most conservatives, we don’t know if he’s supported abortion in his personal life. Crow didn’t say he didn’t discuss issues before the Court with Thomas, instead responding to a question about what they talked about by saying Thomas always asked about Crow’s family.
“You know, I can’t talk to Clarence without him asking all about the kids. ‘What are they doing?’ We have a dog named Otis that Clarence particularly likes. We talk about dogs a lot.” Crow said Thomas supported his son’s high school wrestling team: “Friends do stuff like that.” (Yeah, ’cause giving a hundred bucks to a kids’ sports team is exactly the same as a half-million-dollar vacation.)
When the reporter, who had a long-term relationship with Crow having covered his business and political involvement, asked if there was a quid pro quo in their relationship, Crow responded: “Every single relationship — a baby’s relationship to his mom — has some kind of reciprocity. You and I have a relationship. I try to be friendly, polite and kind to you, and you do that back to me. If that’s reciprocity, then yes, there’s reciprocity. But if it’s anything beyond that, there’s no reciprocity.”
“Clarence Thomas is one of the most honorable people I’ve ever met in my life. He’s a man of incredibly high personal and moral standards,” Crow said. “For me to comment about what kind of reporting any judge is required to do legally or morally, is just not something I know about. That’s not my world. Justice Thomas is a man of integrity and the idea that he would do anything that’s not exactly correct is just not true.”