On January. 25, 2018 hundreds of private jets landed upon Palm Springs International Airport. Some of the most wealthy people across the nation were arriving to attend this year’s annual Winter donor conference held by the Koch network, a political group established by the libertarian billionaires Charles and David Koch. A long weekend of planning and relaxing in the California sunshine and fundraising that was high-end were in store.
At about 6 p.m. A Gulfstream G200 jet touched down on the runway. A few of the Koch network’s most strong allies was on board: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
The summit was attended by the justice attended an exclusive dinner for the donors of the network. Thomas has been to Koch donors’ events twice throughout the years, as per conversations with former employees of the network along with one of the major donors. The justice was enlisted to speak, according to staffers in hopes that this access would inspire donors to keep giving.
This places Thomas in the unusual position of serving as an appeal for fundraising for a network that filed cases with the Supreme Court, including one of the court’s most monitored cases of the coming term.
Thomas did not report the flight he took in 2018 towards Palm Springs on his annual financial disclosure form. This is an evident violation of federal law that requires justices to report the majority of gifts. A Koch spokesperson for the network said that it did not reimburse for the private aircraft. Because Thomas did not disclose the information there’s no way to determine who was the one to pay.
Thomas his involvement in the controversies is a part of a lengthy personal connection with the Koch brothers, which is largely away from public view. The relationship was formed over a number of visits into the Bohemian Grove, a secretive all-men’s retreat located in Northern California. Thomas has been a frequent visitor in the Grove for the past two decades, where he was a guest in a tiny camp with billionaire real estate investor Harlan Crow and the Kochs according to the records and others who’ve stayed with him at the Grove.
The spokesperson of the Koch network, officially referred to under the name Stand Together, did not respond to specific questions regarding his participation in events in Palm Springs. Palm Springs events but said, “Thomas wasn’t present for fundraising conversations.”
“The idea that attending a couple events to promote a book or give dinner remarks, as all the justices do, could somehow be undue influence just doesn’t hold water,” the spokesperson stated in an announcement.
“All of the sitting Justices and many who came before them have contributed to the national dialogue in speeches, book tours, and social gatherings,” the statement reads. “Our events are not different. The idea of claiming otherwise is untrue.”
In a string of reports in the last year ProPublica stated that Thomas has been able to obtain unidentified luxurious travel arrangements from Crow and a group of ultra-rich men. Crow also bought Thomas the home of his mother and paid tuition for private schools to the kid Thomas is raising for his son. Thomas has not offered any the response. In a statement made earlier in the year, he claimed it was because Crow was a good associate who he has accompanied for “family trips.” He has also claimed that he is not obliged to divulge the vacations he took for free. Thomas has not responded to inquiries for this report.
Code of Conduct for judges in the federal judiciary sets out guidelines to protect the independence and impartiality of judges and independence, which is described as “indispensable to justice in our society.” The code specifically prohibits political activities and fundraising. Judges are advised, for example not “associate themselves” with any particular group “publicly identified with controversial legal, social, or political positions.”
The code of conduct is only applicable to lower courts. In the Supreme Court, justices decide what is appropriate for them.
“I can’t imagine — it takes my breath away, frankly — that he would go to a Koch network event for donors,” said John E. Jones III, a former Federal judge who was appointed by the President George W. Bush. Jones stated that if he’d been to an Koch summit while an appellate judge in district court, “I’d have gotten a letter that would’ve commenced a disciplinary proceeding.”
“What you’re witnessing is a gradual shift towards unsavory behaviour. If you’re able to make it legal,” Jones said.
The Koch network is one of the most powerful and influential political organisations in the past half century and has backed the most extensive campaign to change the direction in American law. In a case that the Supreme Court will hear this next term, the justices may grant the group an historic victory by limiting the power of federal agencies to issue regulations in fields such as the environment, consumer protection to labor rights. After bringing the case before an appeals court Koch lawyers from the network are now requesting the justices to change an old precedent. (Thomas was once in favor of the precedent, but has changed his stance in recent years.)
A few years ago one of the networks’ groups was a plaintiff in a different Supreme Court case, which concerned nonprofits’ capacity to conceal their donors. In the decision, Thomas sided with the conservative majority of 6-3 in favor of the conservative Koch organization’s favour.
Charles Koch did not respond to the specific questions we asked him for this report. David Koch died in 2019.
The Koch network is an interconnected group of non-profits that is that are perhaps most well-known for its involvement in the development of the Tea Party movement in the Obama times. Recently, the organization was rebranded to Stand Together, the network includes the formidable Americans for Prosperity Action, that spent over $65 million to support Republican candidates during the last election.
Although Charles Koch is one of the 25 most wealthy people on the planet with an estimated value of 64 billion dollars, the Koch family has also gathered money from wealthy people to expand the reach of the network. The network made more than $700 million in 2021, which is the latest year for which information is available. The network has over 1,000 workers that, on paper, belong to various groups.
However, despite its complexity, the network remains an organized operation, the staffers claimed. The majority of the groups are in the same building within Arlington, Virginia, and have a common leadership structure and staff. A large portion of donations are put to a central fund which is from where thousands of million dollars of money are distributed to smaller groups that focus on social and political issues, based on tax returns as well as former workers.
For a long time The Kochs have been adamantly opposed towards government regulations. The Koch brothers’ brother David ran for vice-president as part of the Libertarian Party ticket in 1980 the platform of the party called for the demise of regulations like the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy and the Food and Drug Administration.
Every winter, the organization organizes its biggest fundraiser within the Coachella Valley in Southern California. Many donors come in to find out the way their money is used and to plan for the next year. Former staffers talk about the insistence on stopping leaks that were bordering on obsession. The network usually rents an entire hotel to host the event, while securing listeners. Documents that are left behind are carefully destroyed. A recent guest was able to recall Koch security guards riding in a golf cart to take the Uber driver from the venue to ensure that he had left. The former employees spoke on basis of anonymity as they were afraid of reprisals.
In order to be invited to attend the conference, supporters typically need to donate at least $100,000 annually. Donors who contribute millions are treated with special privileges and evening meals hosted by Charles Koch and high-profile guests. Doling access to powerful public officials was thought to be an effective fundraising tactic as former staffers have said. The purpose of the dinners is “giving donors access and giving them a reason to come or to continue to come in the future,” an ex- Koch network executive spoke to ProPublica.
Thomas has been to at least one dinner for donors of the top tier as per a person who was there as well as a former high-level network staffer.
“These donors found it fascinating,” stated a former senior employee who recalled an Thomas appearance at a conference where Thomas discussed his philosophy as a judge. “Donors like to feel unique. The desire is to be special on their insides.”
A former fundraiser working for the Koch network told me that the company’s partnership with Thomas was viewed as a significant advantage: “Offering a high-level donor the experience of meeting with someone like that — that’s huge.”
There are many details about Thomas his role at summits, as well as the details of his comments are not clear. The spokesperson for the network refused to comment on whether Thomas his appearances were connected to a particular initiative or program.
Thomas his appearances were planned with the assistance by Leonard Leo, the Federalist Society leader according to the former senior network worker. “Leonard was the conduit who would get him,” the former employee claimed. At one time, Thomas gave a talk with Leo in a form of interview The donor also recalled.
“Justice Thomas attends events all over the country, as do all the Justices, and I was privileged to join him,” Leo stated in a statement made responding to queries on his participation in the Koch fundraisers for donors. “All the necessary due diligence was performed to ensure the Justice’s attendance at the events was compliant with all ethics requirements.”
Although attending these events could violate the lower courts’ ban on fundraising, a number of experts suggested that experts said that the Supreme Court has a narrow definition of a fundraiser, which is an event that generates more than what it costs or in which attendees are requested to pay for the event is taking place.
The Thursday prior to the summit in January 2018 held in Palm Springs, Thomas flew to Palm Springs in a private jet chartered by a charter company according to documents reviewed by ProPublica. A few days later the plane flew to an airport in Denver in which Thomas was a guest at a reception in honor of his former clerk the federal judge Allison Eid. The following day, the plane returned to the northern part of Virginia in the area where Thomas lives.
Thomas the financial disclosure of this year reveals two speaking engagements, One within New York City and another at the Federalist Society conference in Texas. His visit to the Koch event in California is not listed on the report.
In the year of the event it was that year, the Koch network rented for the event Renaissance Esmeralda Resort and Spa. At the center of stage attendees were introduced to Hall of Fame NFL cornerback Deion Sanders who worked with the Kochs to develop programs that combat poverty in Dallas. A different speaker gave an update on the group’s wins in politics both in both small and large: “repealed voter-approved donor disclosure initiative”; “retraction of mining & environmental overreach”; “stopped Albuquerque paid sick leave mandate.”
At the time of the event, the group unveiled a new initiative that aims to get conservatives onto the Supreme Court and the federal bench. The network, which has already donated thousands of dollars to the Leo Federalist Society, planned to engage its supporters and purchase advertisements to encourage senators to support the judicial nominees of President Donald Trump. They appointed an ex-employee of Ginni Thomas who is the wife of Justice Anthony Kennedy to head the effort.
First glimpses of Thomas’s relationship to Koch occurred about a decade earlier. In 2010, news reporters received an invitation from prospective Koch donors, which noted that Thomas was “featured” at one of the previous summits of the network.
Following criticism of the need for more details about Thomas attending the event The Supreme Court press office downplayed the event. A spokesperson for the court acknowledged Thomas was at his home in the Palm Springs area during the Kochs Summit in January 2008. But, she added that Thomas was there to speak about the memoir at the Federalist Society dinner that was independent of the donor summit, but also hosted through Charles Koch. She said Thomas did an “brief drop-by” at the networking summit, but claimed that the he “was not a participant.” (Thomas has revealed his in 2008 the Palm Springs trip as a Federalist Society speech.)
In the fifteen years since the organization was founded, since its inception, the Koch organization has created an imprint upon American society. The group’s efforts are acknowledged as having helped to stifle Republican Party support for combating climate change, a once-popular issue that was a source of bipartisan discontent. In the end “full weight of the network” was instrumental in passing the 2017 Trump tax cut, creating some cash for the Kochs and their supporters. The upcoming Supreme Court term could bring the Kochs a victory they has been seeking for years in the hope of reversing a significant legal precedent referred to as Chevron.
While the majority of Americans don’t know about the case of 1984 Chevron V. NRDC, it’s one of the Supreme Court’s most frequently cited cases. Legal scholars frequently refer to Chevron in the same phrase in the context of Brown v. Board of Education and Roe v. Wade. In the end, Chevron is about government agencies’ ability to make rules. Once a law is passed and passed, it’s the responsibility of agencies within the federal government to develop specific rules to put the law into practice. The Chevron ruling said that courts should not be in a hurry to question the agencies’ decisions. In the years following the courts cited Chevron in enforcing rules to help to protect endangered species as well as accelerate the process of approval for new towers on cellphones, and provide benefits to coal miners with black lung.
The Koch network has fought Chevron through the courts, as well as its lobbyists who have also pushed Congress to adopt a law that would invalidate the decision. It also has provided thousands of dollars worth of loans to law school professors who have made arguments to invalidate the decision.
Chevron’s stance has been gaining popularity in recent times. It was once a popular choice for jurists and academics on both sides, Chevron is now anathema to many within the legal conservative movement. And there’s hardly a more famous person who has converted to the cause than Thomas.
The year 2005 was the time Thomas made the most important decision in an appeal that widened Chevron’s protections to government agencies. A decade later the judge was questioned openly about the validity of the doctrine. Then, in the year 2020 Thomas abdicated his earlier decision, saying that he had concluded the doctrine was not constitutional at all times it was a unique reverse for a justice who has an image of being steadfast in his opinions.
In the last this year Koch strategy experts believed victory was near the horizon. In an internal meeting for the network’s staff, Jorge Lima, a senior vice-president at Americans for Prosperity, said that the Supreme Court seemed primed to drastically alter its approach to this issue. The network was trying to identify cases that could result in fundamental changes to the law, as per an audio recording of the event obtained by Watchdog organization Documented. “We’re doubling down on this strategy,” Lima said to the audience.
A few months later after that, Supreme Court announced it would consider a case called Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo in which Koch network attorneys defend the plaintiffs. Should Thomas and his colleagues decide to side with them in the coming period, Chevron will be overturned completely and forever.
If you don’t have Chevron, “any place you would need regulation to address a pressing social problem, it’s going to be more costly to get it, harder to implement it and it’s not going to go as far,” said Noah Rosenblum, a professor at the New York University School of Law.
“Loper Bright is a case seeking to restore one of the core tenets of our democracy: that Congress, not the administrative agency, makes the laws,” the Koch spokesperson for the network said.
Ethics experts have said Thomas has not disclosed his ties in those in the Koch network could put his impartiality into question. The possibility of conflict is one reason the judiciary is governed by rules that prohibit both fundraising and political activities as they say. “Parties litigating in the court before Justice Thomas don’t know the extent of Thomas’ relationship with the parties on the other side,” said James Sample, a Hofstra University law professor who studies ethics of the judiciary. “You have to be pretty cynical to not think that’s a problem.”
The Supreme Court itself said in its recent announcement sent to The Associated Press that “justices exercise caution in attending events that might be described as political in nature.” In contrast to the lower courts, there isn’t any formal oversight of justices.
In the year 2000, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg delivered the opening remarks for an event co-sponsored by the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund which was a women’s rights group that filed friend-of the-court briefs before the Supreme Court. The event was public which was sponsored by the New York City Bar Association. However, some experts in judicial ethics have criticized the justice for joining the group with advocacy.
Thirteen Republican lawmakers comprising Mike Pence and Marsha Blackburn who is now in the Senate Judiciary Committee, went further and called on Ginsburg to resign from future trials that deal with abortion. The justice dismissed the criticism, saying “I think and thought and still think it’s a lovely thing,” she spoke of lectures. (Ginsburg died in the year 2020.)
Charles and David Koch’s connections to Thomas goes well beyond his involvement in their fundraising events. In the past, the Koch brothers had the opportunity to sit down with Thomas because of the justice’s frequent visits to Bohemian Grove, an all-male retreat that is attended by many of the nation’s most influential political and corporate leaders. Thomas is a regular in the Grove for over 25 years, serving as Harlan’s guest in accordance with internal papers and conversations with numerous guests, members and employees who work at the resort.
“What we’re seeing emerge is someone who is living his professional life in a way that’s seeing these extrajudicial opportunities as a perk of the office,” said Charles Geyh, a judicial ethics expert at Indiana University law school. Judges are able to have social lives as he explained but there aren’t specific guidelines regarding when a social event could be considered a risk. However, the combination of political power players and unreported gifts put Thomas travels far from the norm of judges’ behavior, Geyh declared: “There’s a culture of impartiality that’s really at risk here.”
The Grove is an exclusive two-week celebration that takes place within the Sonoma County redwoods every July. Members and guests may wander around the shooting range at the Grove to hear a talk delivered by Blackwater creator Erik Prince, or from the mint julep celebration to an event by the Grove’s orchestra. Wine, often priced at 500 dollars per bottle, is flowing freely. At evening, the members eat chili and clam chowder to the gallon. A number of attendees recalled going outside early in the morning and finding an ex cabinet secretary lying drinking on the grass.
There’s a saying that is popular among the Bohemians which is what the group’s members refer to their members: The only time that you are allowed to be publically connected to The Grove should be in the form of your funeral. Privacy is essential according to members in part, to permit the powerful to freely speak and have a good time -without fear of being seen in the media. Only photographers who are authorized by the government are permitted to take photos. Cell phones are prohibited.
Members usually have to pay a lot of money to invite guests. Many people ProPublica interviewed said that prior to the pandemic they would see Thomas at least once a year. ProPublica could confirm the six trips Thomas attended the retreat but he didn’t divulge. The flight records indicate that Crow frequently dispatched his private aircraft to Virginia to collect Thomas and transport Thomas into the Sonoma County airport and back to Sonoma County, typically for a long weekend that falls in the middle of the Grove festival.
“I was taken with how comfortable he was in that environment and how popular,” one of the people who lived within the lodge with Thomas once told. “He holds court there.”
In response to a question about his trip to the Grove along with Thomas, Crow said Thomas is “a man of incredible integrity” and added that he’s not seen Thomas “discuss pending legal matters with anyone.” The two men did not Crow nor Thomas replied to inquiries about whether the justice was reimbursed for his travels.
(Other justices also have Grove connections, too). The mid-20th century Supreme Justice Earl Warren was a member of the. The modern justices, Thomas appears to have been the most frequent visitor. Justice Antonin Scalia, who passed away in 2016, was a guest numerous times. Justice Stephen Breyer went in 2006 and told ProPublica that he was the host of his elder brother, and that, to the best of his knowledge the justice paid for his own expenses. Justice Anthony Kennedy went at least two times before retiring. Kennedy was not able to respond to requests for information, did not reveal the travels. It’s not clear if he had to disclose the trip because that his son was a part of the family and gifts from family members don’t need to be disclosed.)
The Grove is divided into over 100 “camps,” essentially adult fraternity homes where men from the same group remain in the same group each year. Hill Billies was George H. W. Bush’s headquarters. Nancy Pelosi’s husband was for a long time a participant in Stowaway. Thomas is a member of Crow at a camp dubbed Midway.
One of the most ritzier Camps, Midway employs a staff of cooks and personal valets. It also boasts a vast wine cellar. The men stay in private cabins which zigzag along a hill. It is known for its Republican tendencies, Midway has a string of wealthy political donors who are members. These include the owner of the Coors beer empire as well as the proprietor of the New York Jets. Charles Koch is an active member, as is David Koch’s brother. David. It’s unclear whether Thomas was ever an invited guest of any fellow member aside from Crow.
At the annual retreats the Kochs often sat down to discuss political strategies with guests, as per multiple individuals who have spent time together at Midway. In the past, Brian Hooks, one of the chiefs of their political organization was present at the same camp weekend that Thomas was present. An ex- Midway employee of the company recalled that the two brothers discussed the issue of super PAC expenses during the Obama period and expressing their displeasure with government regulations.
“Chevron was one of the big things the Koch brothers were interested in,” the former employee claimed. He couldn’t remember whether Thomas was present at one of these discussions on the principle.
However, Thomas along with the Kochs formed a connection during their time together during the weekend retreat as per five guests who were with them at the retreat. They discussed business, politics together, and even their family members. They would often sit together for meals and would talk in the evenings at the lodge. A photograph obtained by ProPublica shows Thomas as well as David Koch smiling on Midway’s deck. David’s owl-themed windbreaker sports an insignia. It’s the symbol of Midway.
One of the traditions at Midway is lectures, which are usually held under the redwoods of the deck of the camp. On the weekend Thomas was in attendance in July of 2016 The Midway program included a lecture of Henry Kissinger and another by Michael Bloomberg and Arthur Brooks who was then the president of the think tank of conservatives, the American Enterprise Institute. On Friday morning, breakfast was served. The author Bjorn Lomborg gave a talk about climate change. Lomborg has long argued the risk from global warming has been exaggerated and that warming temperatures actually will help save lives.
Thomas also spoke in the year well. He spoke about his close friend Justice Scalia, who had recently passed away, according someone who was present at. Scalia was a well-known conservative was a well-known proponent of the Chevron principle, but Thomas stated that he believed that Scalia was reverting to Thomas the new view of the doctrine prior to his passing.
Thomas did not explain what he meant when he said this. “It was an aside,” the man said, “like he assumed most of the people in the room knew his position.”