United States Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has responded to a report describing his failure to disclose luxury travel from a Republican mega-donor — a possible violation of the law.
In a statement to US media on Friday, Thomas said he had “always tried to comply with disclosure guidelines”.
His response came a day after a report by the nonprofit news publication ProPublica, which detailed the staunchly conservative justice’s regular travels on the private jet and 50-foot yacht of real estate scion Harlan Crow.
The report said Thomas’s failure to report two decades of travel in annual disclosures appeared to violate a law requiring nine-member Supreme Court justices to disclose most gifts, including travel.
In the statement, Thomas admitted that he and his wife Virginia, known as Ginni, had taken “a number of family trips” with the Crows, whom he called “one of our dearest friends.”
He said early in his tenure that he “seeked guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was told that this kind of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who had no cases in court, could not be reported “.
He added that the disclosure guidelines for the judges were regularly updated, including last month. “It is, of course, my intention to follow these guidelines going forward,” he said.
NEW: Clarence Thomas secretly accepted lavish luxury travel from a billionaire businessman/GOP donor for decades in apparent repeated violation of ethics law.
Vmr judge: “It is incomprehensible to me that someone would do this.”https://t.co/JlHQQzTGkm of@js_kaplan @Amierjeski pic.twitter.com/yeoZsCObwY
— Justin Elliott (@JustinElliott) April 6, 2023
Legal ethics experts and watchdogs were quick to push back.
While the policy body overseeing federal courts released a series of clarifications last month about what was exempt from disclosure under “personal hospitality,” ethics experts noted that the requirement to report travel with a gifted person was rather clear.
“The disclosure law applies to all three branches of government and clearly requires the disclosure of free travel on private planes and yachts,” Kedric Payne, the senior director for ethics at the nonprofit government watchdog Campaign Legal Center, told an email. email to Al Jazeera.
“The personal hospitality exception only applies to meals, lodging and entertainment, not travel,” he said, adding that Thomas’ previous reporting of other private jet trips showed he “understood this.”
“Judge Thomas’s response raises more questions than answers and an investigation is needed,” he said. “If his excuse is that someone advised him not to comply with the law, they should also be held accountable.”
Meanwhile, a chorus of Democratic lawmakers has called for an investigation into the matter, with Senator Dick Durbin, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, saying the report represented a “call to action.”
The highest court should not have the lowest ethical standards.
Today’s news reminded us of that. pic.twitter.com/OzAU0WsRwd
— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) April 6, 2023
Meanwhile, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat who has pushed for tougher ethical standards at the Supreme Court, said the report “cries out” for an independent investigation.
Lawmakers have also called for the passage of a bill that would strengthen standards for Supreme Court justices, who serve as the final arbiters of U.S. law. Lawyers have long said that the judges are subject to less strict requirements than lower court judges, despite having a major impact on the lives of US residents.
Uncomfortable questions
The ProPublica report also said Thomas has been vacationing for years at a Crow-owned resort in New York’s Adirondacks. Since Crow owns the resort through a company, the news organization reported, those stays may also need to be reported under the newly clarified guidelines.
But beyond the potential legal violations, the report also raised broader questions about the Supreme Court’s sensitivity to outside influence.
ProPublic reported that Thomas’s stay coincided with executives from influential companies, including Verizon and PricewaterhouseCoopers, as well as major Republican donors and a leader representing the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.
A painting at the resort also shows Thomas talking to Leonard Leo, the leader of the Federalist Society, a legal organization that observers say played an important role in orchestrating the Supreme Court’s right-wing movement, according to the ProPublica- report.
On Friday, Sen. Whitehouse wrote in response to Thomas’ statement, “If you smoke cigars with Leonard Leo and other right-wing fixers, you should know that they don’t just do business in court — their case IS the court.” ”
Clarence Thomas seems to have completely ignored his ethical obligations.
This is a huge scandal. https://t.co/2W051TNsKb
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) April 7, 2023
For his part, Crow, who has long used his immense wealth to support conservative causes, said in a statement to ProPublica that he was “not aware of any of our friends ever lobbying or trying to influence Judge Thomas in any case, and I would never do that. invite everyone who I think had the intention to do so”.
ProPublica’s report is the latest in a series of media reports over the years about Crow’s lavish gifts to the Thomases. Major news outlets have previously reported that Crow gave Thomas a $19,000 Bible that once belonged to famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass, which the Justice Department did mention in its financial disclosures.
Crow also gave about $500,000 to Liberty Central, a group Ginni Thomas founded in 2009 with ties to the conservative Tea Party movement, according to the news publication Politico.
Crow’s statement said Clarence and Ginni never asked Thomas for the “hospitality” he showed them.
“We never asked about a pending or lower court case, and Judge Thomas never discussed one, and we never tried to influence Judge Thomas on legal or political issues,” he said.
For his part, Thomas has long been dogged by ethical questions, dating back to his 1991 confirmation hearing, which was defined by allegations of sexual harassment by former staffer Anita Hill. Thomas continues to deny those allegations.
His wife’s work as a conservative political activist has also raised eyebrows, especially after the US media published 29 text messages last year in which Ginni Thomas urged former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, to cling to the lie that the 2020 election was stolen.
She called the election — in which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden — the “greatest Heist of our History.”
Despite the revelations, Thomas has refused to back down as the court weighed cases related to the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, in which rioters stormed the seat of the US legislature, spurred on by Trump’s false claims.