Clarence Thomas hasn't reported royalties from his chart-topping memoir in 14 years: report

In his 2021 financial disclosure, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas listed no royalty income from his bestselling 2007 memoir "My Grandfather's Son." His most recent disclosure, which covers the 2022 calendar year, also lists no royalties.

In fact, he hasn't reported any royalty income since 2008, The Daily Beast reported.

Ethics experts tell The Beast that there could be a very simple explanation -- that he didn't make much of a profit from the book other than the $1.5 million advance he received.

Nevertheless, according to The Beast's Roger Sollenberger, Thomas was the "trendsetter" when it comes to SCOTUS justices landing lucrative book deals.

"The $1.5 million advance on royalties from HarperCollins towered over the previous book deals given to his peers on the bench. It was also the first major personal windfall for Thomas, who The New York Timesreported was still one of the poorest justices even after the advance.

"He remains one of the poorest members to this day, though the largesse from a network of conservative billionaire friends has funded a lifestyle far out of that league," Sollenberger writes.

Sollenberger cites previous reporting from ProPublica that said Thomas' book promotion effort extended to a "private gathering with wealthy people who have had interests before the Supreme Court" back in 2008, a year after the book was released.

"Legal experts told The Daily Beast it’s possible that Thomas — whose financial disclosures have repeatedly been shown to be variously opaque, erroneous, and incomplete over the years — has handled his royalty income in a way that might not require disclosure," writes Sollenberger.

“It is possible of course that Thomas has assigned all royalties to someone else, in which case they are no longer income,” legal ethics expert Stephen Gillers told The Beast.

Read the full report over at The Daily Beast.