type: timeline_event Thomas accepts luxury trip to Bali including eight-day yacht excursion and private jet travel, later acknowledges he "inadvertently omitted" reporting after ProPublica investigation
In July 2019, Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife Virginia "Ginni" Thomas accepted a luxury trip to Bali, Indonesia, paid for by conservative megadonor Harlan Crow. The trip included private jet transportation and an eight-day excursion aboard Crow's superyacht, the Michaela Rose — a vessel valued at over $80 million. The total value of the transportation and accommodations far exceeded federal financial disclosure thresholds that would have required reporting, yet Thomas did not disclose the trip on his annual financial disclosure forms.
Thomas initially failed to acknowledge the trip even after ProPublica's April 2023 investigation revealed years of undisclosed gifts and travel from Crow. It was only in June 2024 — after more than a year of public scrutiny and Senate Judiciary Committee pressure — that Thomas amended his financial disclosures to include the 2019 Indonesia trip, characterizing his failure to report it as an "inadvertent omission." He disclosed two separate 2019 trips paid for by Crow.
The Indonesia trip was among the most expensive single items in the sprawling pattern of undisclosed gifts documented by ProPublica. Crow, a Texas real estate billionaire and major Republican donor, had been cultivating his relationship with Thomas for over two decades. The relationship raised acute conflict-of-interest concerns because Crow had financial interests in cases that came before the Supreme Court, and his network of conservative donors had strategically supported causes and organizations whose legal battles ultimately reached the court.