Harlan Crow, the billionaire who has spent the last two decades bankrolling luxury vacations for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, has an extensive collection of Nazi memorabilia that his supporters want you to know isn’t at all weird.
An exclusive investigation by ProPublica last week revealed that Crow repeatedly gifted Thomas the use of his superyacht and private jet to visit places abroad and at home, including the all-male retreat at the Bohemian Grove in California as well as his private ranch in East Texas.
With news of Crow’s extensive ties to Thomas, who never publicly disclosed the gifts he received in possible violation of the law, the billionaire’s interest in artifacts from Nazi leader Adolf Hitler has once again come to light.
An article from the Washingtonian on Friday detailed Crows’ controversial collection, which includes two of Hitler’s paintings, a signed copy of Mein Kampf, and other Nazi paraphernalia. Users on Twitter, many of whom were previously unaware of his artifacts, appeared to view Crows’ collection with suspicion.
But supporters of Crow and Thomas pushed back on the insinuation, arguing that it wasn’t untoward for the billionaire to own such items.
“It’s not a tribute to evil or something to be mocked. It’s an attempt commemorate the horrors of the 20th century in the spirit of ‘never again.’ Harlan Crow is a deeply honorable, decent, and patriotic person. He’s not the strawman Thomas haters are trying to make him,” wrote journalist Jonah Goldberg.
Conservative journalist Brent Orrell pointed to his personal collection of WWII books while defending Crow.
“This is a new level of dumb,” he wrote. “I have a shelf full of books on WWII and Nazi Germany. That makes me a student of history not a Hitler fan-boy.”
In response, critics of Crow, such as liberal journalist Jay Willis, mocked conservatives who ran to Crow’s side.
“Genuinely funny that Harlan Crow’s Nazi fetish has other right-wingers coming out of the woodwork like ‘How can he be weird when I, too, am somewhat of an appreciator of historical racists,’” Willis wrote.
New York Times columnist David French similarly defended Crow, calling the idea that the billionaire is a supporter of Nazism “utterly ludicrous.”
“The idea that he’s a Nazi sympathizer is utterly ludicrous,” French said. “He abhors tyranny, from fascism to communism to everywhere in between.”
Former ProPublica employee Dan Nguyen, however, was quick to point out that French likewise has financial ties to Crow.
“Isn’t it customary to disclose your financial ties to the tycoon when you’re publicly defending his Nazi memorabilia collection,” he replied.
Since the ties between Crow and Thomas were divulged, the Supreme Court justice has defended his actions by claiming that the “personal hospitality” shown to him was both ethical and legal.
Crow’s Nazi memorabilia collection was first detailed in 2014 by the Dallas Morning News.
