Thomas biographer calls report on megadonor's tuition payments 'despicable'

A biographer and friend of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas slammed reporting of a GOP megadonor's tuition payments for the justice's great-nephew as "despicable," arguing that it did not violate the court’s gift disclosure rules. 

Mark Paoletta, a former counsel to former Vice President Pence who co-edited a book about Thomas based on a documentary, tweeted Thursday that that Clarence and Ginni Thomas, the wife of the justice, spent 12 years helping his great-nephew, Mark Martin, who was “in desperate need of love, support, and guidance.” 

He said billionaire Republican donor and real estate developer Harlan Crow, a friend of the justice, recommended that they send Martin to Randolph-Macon Academy in Virginia when the Thomases were “struggling” to find a school where they could send him. 

Paoletta said Crow had financially supported the school for many years and also funded scholarships for disadvantaged students. He said Crow offered to pay the first year of tuition for Martin, but did not pay for any other year.

“The Thomases love their great nephew. It is despicable that the press has dragged him into their effort to smear Justice Thomas,” Paoletta said. 

Paoletta also said that Randolph-Macon eventually recommended that Martin attend a boarding school in Georgia, Hidden Lake Academy, for a year, and Crow also paid for that year of tuition. 

In both cases, he said, Crow’s payments went directly to the schools. 

Paoletta’s account comes after reporting from ProPublica that Crow had paid for Martin’s tuition at private schools. Federal law requires that Supreme Court justices disclose gifts received by them, their spouse or a dependent child. 

Paoletta argues that the payments were not reportable gifts, because federal law does not include a great-nephew as a dependent child, only a “son, daughter, stepson or stepdaughter.” 

“This malicious story shows nothing except for the fact that the Thomases and the Crows are kind, generous, and loving people who tried to help this young man,” he said. 

Crow’s office said in a statement that he and his wife have funded scholarships for many students in the past. The office said tuition assistance and other financial aid is given directly to an institution instead of an individual. 

“It’s disappointing that those with partisan political interests would try to turn helping at-risk youth with tuition assistance into something nefarious or political,” the office said. 

The report on the tuition assistance is the latest in a series of controversies surrounding Thomas and his ties to Crow. 

ProPublica has previously reported on luxury trips Thomas took that were paid for by Crow, as well as Crow buying a property from Thomas and his family; neither was publicly disclosed.

Thomas has said he was advised that he did not need to report the trips because they should be considered to be a personal hospitality exception.