According to information provided Thursday by the Senate Judiciary Committee, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas did not tell the public about three trips that were paid for by GOP megadonor Harlan Crow.
The panel said Thomas didn’t tell them about three trips he took on private jets paid for by Crow: a trip from St. Louis to Montana and back to Dallas in 2017; a trip from Washington, D.C., to Savannah, Ga., and back in 2019; and a trip from Washington, D.C., to San Jose and back in 2021.
Documents and other information that Crow gave to the committee from seven years ago were used to get the information.
Crow’s pile of papers also had details about his trips to Indonesia and California in 2019. These trips included a private jet for each and an eight-day boat trip in Bali. The committee was told that a recent report put the total amount of gifts Thomas has gotten at almost $4.2 million, which is a lot more than any other justice.
Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said in a statement, “Nearly $4.2 million in gifts and even that wasn’t enough for Justice Thomas. The Committee found at least three other trips that he has failed to disclose to date.”
“New information, like what we shared today, is coming out of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s ongoing investigation into the Supreme Court’s ethical crisis. This makes it very clear that the highest court needs an enforceable code of conduct because its members continue to refuse to meet the moment.”
Through a lawyer, Thomas fought back against the claims.
Thomas’s lawyer, Elliot S. Berke, said that the information Crow gave was protected by the “personal hospitality exemption” and did not need to be made public.
“Last year, the Judicial Conference changed this rule, and Justice Thomas has fully followed the new disclosure rule,” Berke said in a statement. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts’ Guide to Judiciary Policy used to say that federal judges shouldn’t report gifts of personal hospitality based on personal ties. This has now been changed.
Justice Thomas and many other federal judges were told that they did not have to report offers of personal hospitality from friends who did not have business before the Court. Justice Thomas has already explained this.
As more questions arose about the gifts justices got, Durbin also said that the information from Crow was gathered through a subpoena.
“Because we are investigating and giving permission to subpoena, we are giving the American people a better idea of how bad it is that Supreme Court justices have been with ethics and why ethics need to be changed,” Durbin said.
“Even though his approval rating is almost at an all-time low and there are never-ending, self-inflicted scandals, Chief Justice [John Roberts] still refuses to use his power to make an enforced code of conduct,” the No. 2 Senate Democrat said. It’s still our goal to get the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act passed until he does something.
Crow’s office said in a statement that he agreed to hand over seven years’ worth of documents and information in exchange for the committee ending its investigation into the wealthy Republican donor. This was not long before the committee’s findings were made public.
In a statement, Crow’s office said, “Mr. Crow reached an agreement with the Senate Judiciary Committee to respond to its requests for information going back seven years.” “Even though Mr. Crow had serious and ongoing concerns about the legality and necessity of the investigation, he negotiated with the Committee in good faith from the start to settle the matter.”
As part of the deal, the Committee agreed to stop looking into Mr. Crow, the statement said.
Durbin said earlier this week that there “may be some new evidence that comes out” in the next few days, but he didn’t say anything else. He denied that it had anything to do with the tapes of Justice Samuel Alito talking to a left-leaning filmmaker that were just made public.
“Some of the justices have taken gifts and not reported them, so it has to do with their morals,” he said Monday.
The latest news comes as Democrats are still trying to pass a package of rules to improve the ethics of the Supreme Court. Democrats tried to use unanimous agreement to bring the bill to the floor, which was written by Durbin and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). But Republicans stopped them.
