The Exemption for Social and Personal Hospitality

Thomas has disclosed gifts and trips before. In previous years Thomas had disclosed a trip paid for by Crow as well as several gifts. There was a 2015 gift from Crow of a bronze bust of Frederick Douglass valued at more than $6,000. And in the year he took that nine day vacation to Indonesia that might have racked up about half a million dollars, he did disclose five trips that were paid for by someone else. It's very common though the notion that these being personal rather than professional doesn't bear much scrutiny.