Joshua Kaplan has been a reporter at ProPublica since 2020.
In 2023, he and his colleagues revealed how a set of billionaires secretly provided decades of lavish gifts and luxury travel to Supreme Court justices. Those stories won the Pulitzer Prize for public service and helped prompt the Supreme Court to adopt its first-ever code of conduct.
In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, Kaplan’s work has received national honors including two George Polk Awards, the Selden Ring Award, an Investigative Reporters and Editors medal and an Edward R. Murrow Award. He holds a degree in mathematics from the University of Chicago.
You can reach Josh via email at [email protected] or by phone, Signal or WhatsApp at 734-834-9383.
Rounding up migrants. Lists of “friendly” sheriffs. Debating political assassinations. Internal messages reveal AP3’s journey from Jan. 6 through the tumultuous lead-up to the 2024 election. One member predicts: “It’ll be decided at the ammo box.”
The Supreme Court justice flew to Montana and other destinations on the billionaire GOP donor’s dime. Crow’s lawyer revealed these flights to the Senate Judiciary Committee, whose ongoing investigation was sparked by ProPublica’s reporting.
Interviews and newly unearthed documents reveal that Thomas, facing financial strain, privately pushed for a higher salary and to allow Supreme Court justices to take speaking fees.
Experts say it is unclear if the new rules, which come after reporting by ProPublica and others revealed that justices had repeatedly failed to disclose gifts and travel from wealthy donors, would address the issues raised by the recent revelations.
Even by Thomas’ own permissive interpretation, the justice’s recently revealed travel to Palm Springs and the Bohemian Grove appear to violate the disclosure law, experts explained.
Thomas has attended at least two Koch donor summits, putting him in the extraordinary position of having helped a political network that has brought multiple cases before the Supreme Court.
The new filing comes after ProPublica’s reporting on the Supreme Court justice’s beneficial relationship with the billionaire GOP megadonor. Thomas also reported three private jet trips provided by Crow.
In the years after the undisclosed trip to Alaska, Republican megadonor Paul Singer’s hedge fund has repeatedly had business before the Supreme Court. Alito has never recused himself.
In response to ProPublica reporting, the friend said Crow covered two years of schooling for the teen, which would amount to roughly $100,000 of undisclosed gifts. Meanwhile, Democrats renewed calls for judicial ethics overhaul.
Crow paid for private school for a relative Thomas said he was raising “as a son.” “This is way outside the norm,” said a former White House ethics lawyer.
The transaction is the first known instance of money flowing from Crow to the Supreme Court justice. The sale netted the GOP megadonor two vacant lots and the house where Thomas’ mother was living.
The lawmakers said the chief justice was duty-bound to conduct a “swift, thorough, independent and transparent investigation” of Thomas’ undisclosed travel with billionaire Harlan Crow in order to “safeguard public faith in the judiciary.”
In response to a ProPublica report, Thomas explained why he did not disclose lavish travel provided by billionaire Harlan Crow. But legal experts maintain the justice was required to make these disclosures.
Influential Democratic legislators are pushing for changes at the Supreme Court and a probe into Thomas’ undisclosed luxury trips provided by powerful conservative donor Harlan Crow.
Island-hopping on a superyacht. Private jet rides around the world. The undisclosed gifts to Thomas have no known precedent in the modern history of the Supreme Court. “It’s incomprehensible to me that someone would do this,” says one former judge.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton hasn’t just been pursuing supposed voter fraud. His office has also criminally investigated at least 10 election workers, in a harbinger of potential post-midterm turmoil.
Vladimir Putin has increasingly relied on the Wagner Group, a private and unaccountable army with a history of human rights violations, to pursue Russia’s foreign policy objectives across the globe.
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