Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas already faced scrutiny following a ProPublica report earlier this month that detailed years of unreported gifts from GOP megadonor Harlan Crow. The nonprofit outlet on Thursday reported yet another questionable exchange, this time about Thomas not disclosing that Crow bought property from him.
As ProPublica noted, it’s the “first known instance of money flowing from Crow to the Supreme Court justice,” prompting calls for not only the Supreme Court but the Justice Department to investigate.
Senate Judiciary Committee member Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, told me on Tuesday that he thought the initial Thomas revelations could be a “tipping point” for Supreme Court ethics reform. Following the latest ProPublica report, Whitehouse is pushing for Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate Thomas. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a government watchdog organization, noted Friday that, under the Ethics in Government Act, the attorney general can bring civil actions for knowingly and willfully falsifying or knowingly and willfully failing to file or report any information that such individual is required to report, with civil penalties up to $50,000 and the possibility of criminal sanctions as well.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has also said, after the initial ProPublica report, that it’s going to hold hearings. Yet Whitehouse told me on Tuesday that he thought the hearings would focus on the broader issue of Supreme Court ethics reform, rather than on Thomas himself. Perhaps the latest report will cause the committee to add Thomas to the agenda — and to the witness list.
Whoever’s asking questions of Thomas — and an authoritative body with enforcement power should be — I’ll reiterate some questions that I noted following the initial ProPublica report that would still be good to know the answers to:
- Does ProPublica’s report detail the full extent of gifts that Crow gave you over…
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