Leftist ideologues in the corporate press can’t stop themselves. Ever since their 1991 character assassination of Clarence Thomas failed to stick, they’ve twisted themselves in knots to paint the conservative Supreme Court justice as a moral stain. Their latest attack came in the form of a hit piece in ProPublica on Thursday about his family’s close personal friend Harlan Crow paying tuition for the Thomases’ grandnephew, Mark Martin.
It’s a total nothingburger. The piece itself acknowledges the disclosure laws are narrow and thus don’t even appear to apply to this situation since Martin is not the justice’s offspring. Case closed — or, at least, it should be.
Mark Paoletta, Ginni Thomas’ lawyer and a longtime friend of the Thomases, further elaborated on the payments in a statement. He said Crow had personally recommended Randolph Macon Academy, which Crow himself had attended and financially supported, for Martin before sending the first year’s tuition payment directly to the school. Then after later recommending a Georgia boarding school, Crow sent a year’s worth of tuition payments directly there before Martin returned again to Randolph Macon.
Though ProPublica tries to juxtapose these payments with a $5,000 “Education gift to Mark Martin” from different friends, Earl and Louise Dixon, that the Supreme Court justice did disclose — See!! Thomas knew he had to disclose tuition money! — that payment seems obviously different: Crow sent tuition for Thomas’ non-offspring directly to the school; the Dixons sent money to help offset Martin’s education costs to Thomas. ProPublica
