Justice Clarence Thomas said Friday that he did not disclose luxury travel paid for by a Republican donor because he was advised at the time that he did not have to report it.
In a rare statement sent via the Supreme Court’s public information office, Thomas said that the trips he and his wife, conservative activist Ginni Thomas, took with the donor Harlan Crow and his wife – whom Thomas describes as among his family’s “dearest friends” – were the “sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends” that he was advised did not require disclosure.
Thomas’ travel with the Crows, which included trips on the donor’s yacht and private jet, was the subject of a bombshell ProPublica report published Thursday. Congressional Democrats have called for an investigation into the matter and for a stronger ethics code for the justices, and some federal judges are also speaking out.
The justice notes that the guidelines for reporting personal hospitality have been recently changed.
“And, it is, of course, my intent to follow this guidance in the future,” Thomas said.
The ProPublica report describes Thomas accepting travel hospitality from Crow that included lavish trips to Indonesia, New Zealand, California, Texas and Georgia. Some of these trips reportedly included travel on Crow’s super yacht or stays at properties owned by Crow or his company.
Thomas’ critics quickly pushed back on his defense Friday, with Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse zeroing in on Thomas’ assurance that the Crows did not have business before the high court.
“Oh, please,” tweeted Whitehouse, who chairs a Senate Judiciary subcommittee that oversees the federal bench. “If you’re smoking cigars with Leonard Leo and other right-wing fixers, you should know they don’t just have business before the Court — their business IS…
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