Exposed: Billionaire GOP Donor Harlan Crow Paid for Clarence Thomas' 'Son' to Attend Private School
May 4 2023, Published 12:30 p.m. ET
Billionaire GOP donor Harlan Crow paid for Clarence Thomas’ grandnephew to attend an expensive boarding school more than one decade ago, RadarOnline.com can confirm.
After it was revealed that Crow paid for the Supreme Court justice to take luxury vacations and other opulent amenities over the past 20 years, it was discovered this week that Crow also paid for Thomas’ grandnephew, Mark Martin, to attend boarding school in Georgia.
That is the shocking revelation shared by ProPublica in a new report published on Thursday morning.
The outlet shared evidence that Crow allegedly dished out at least $60,000 for Martin – whom Thomas took legal custody of in 1997 and “raised like a son” – to attend Georgia's $6k per month Hidden Lake Academy for the entire 2008-2009 school year.
According to a bank statement dated July 2009, Crow’s real estate company picked up Martin’s tuition tab for that month. Additional financial records reportedly showed that Crow’s company also picked up Martin’s tuition for several previous months.
Clarence Thomas, 1991
“Harlan picked up the tab,” confirmed Christopher Grimwood, an administrator at Hidden Lake Academy when Martin was a student at the private boarding school.
Even more shocking was Grimwood’s claim that Crow also paid for Martin’s tuition at Randolph-Macon Academy – a second private boarding school Thomas’ grandnephew-turned-son attended in Virginia both before and after his time at Hidden Lake Academy.
“Harlan said he was paying for the tuition at Randolph-Macon Academy as well,” Grimwood told ProPublica.
Although it is currently unclear exactly how much of Martin’s tuition was paid for by Crow, it is estimated that the Texas real estate billionaire potentially paid upwards of $150,000 for Martin’s four years at the two private academies.
Clarence Thomas, 1991
“You can’t be having secret financial arrangements,” said Mark Bennett, a former federal judge appointed by President Bill Clinton, after this latest development was revealed.
“This is way outside the norm. This is way in excess of anything I’ve seen,” added Richard Painter, former chief White House ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush. “This amount of undisclosed gifts? You’d want to get them out of the government.”
As RadarOnline.com reported, Crow paying for Martin’s tuition is just the latest “gift” to be exposed between the GOP billionaire and the SCOTUS justice in recent weeks.
Besides providing Thomas with luxury trips for the past 20 years, it was also revealed that Crow bought the SCOTUS justice’s mother’s home, allowing her to live there rent-free.
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“Harlan Crow has long been passionate about the importance of quality education and giving back to those less fortunate, especially at-risk youth,” Thomas said in a statement after it was revealed Crow paid for Martin’s tuition.
“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.”
