The pair's friendship came under fire earlier this month after news was shared of various luxury trips Justice Clarence Thomas was treated to by billionaire Harlan Crow, including a luxury vacation to Indonesia on Crow's superyacht,
A copy of “Mein Kampf” signed by Adolf Hitler, linen napkins embroidered with the Nazi swastika and oil paintings created by Hitler himself are the sorts of items in billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow’s treasure trove of Nazi memorabilia.
Now, new questions are being raised surrounding Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ friendship with the Dallas real estate tycoon after a story by the Washingtonian highlighted various accounts of people who have visited his home. “You just sort of gasp when you walk into the room,” said one guest who attended an event at Crow’s home a few years ago.
“Generations later, for people to purchase these things and spend thousands and thousands of dollars, one has to wonder about their motivation,” Gavriel Rosenfled, the president of the Center for Jewish History, tells Inside Edition.
Crow has said in the past that there is nothing sinister about the collection and that he hated communism and fascism.
The news of the lavish gifts Thomas allegedly received from Crow, which included vacations to Indonesia on a superyacht, regular flights by private jet and annual retreats to his private lakeside resort Camp Topridge in upstate New York’s Adirondacks region, was reported last week by ProPublica.
“Harlan and Kathy Crow are among our dearest friends, and we have been friends for over twenty-five years,” Thomas said in a statement. "As friends do, we have joined them on a number of family trips during the more than quarter century we have known them." Thomas said he did not believe the gifts had to be reported.
In response to the ProPublica report, Crow denied having ever lobbied Thomas during their trips together, and said he and his wife, “never sought to influence Justice Thomas on any legal or political issue.”
