Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas Admitted he made three trips last year on a private jet owned by Republican mega-donor Harlan Crow.
This is the first time Thomas has reported being entertained by Crowe in years. In a report made public Thursday, the 75-year-old judge said he was complying with the federal judiciary’s new guidelines on reporting travel, excluding any earlier trips at Crowe’s expense, including a 2019 ride on a vehicle he owned. The yacht tours in Indonesia were made up of wealthy businessmen and benefactors of conservative causes.
The filing comes as the High Court has become increasingly concerned with ethics issues, with a series of reports showing that thomas over the years Received undisclosed expensive gifts from Crowe, including international travel.
Crowe also bought a house in Georgia thomas’ mother live on and Pay for two years of private school tuition Child raised by Thomas and his wife Ginni.
The report by investigative news site ProPublica also revealed that, Judge Samuel Alito Failed to disclose a private trip he took to Alaska in 2008, which was paid for by two wealthy Republican donors, one of whom has repeatedly sued the courts.
The Associated Press also reported the one in july Judge Sonia SotomayorWith the help of her staff, she has boosted her book sales through college visits over the past decade.
Supreme Court justices have no binding code of ethics and reject ideas that are adopted or imposed on them by Congress. All nine justices recently signed off on Chief Justice John Roberts’ ethics statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee this spring. roberts admitted Judges can do more to address ethical concerns.
But neither the statement nor Roberts’ comments reassured Senate Democrats.Democrat-controlled Committee approves court code of ethics Party line voting takes place in July. The bill has little chance of passing the Senate — it needs at least nine Republican votes, which Republicans strongly oppose — or the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
One of the trips Thomas reported was to Crowe Lodge in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York, which investigative news site ProPublica reported Thomas makes every year.
The other two were trips to Dallas, where he spoke at conferences hosted by the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.
Thomas noted that court officials advised him to avoid commercial travel during one of the trips in mid-May because of concerns for the safety of the judges Leak of Court’s Draft Abortion Opinion Overturned Roe v. Wade.
The judge also belatedly acknowledged that Crowe bought the home in Savannah, Georgia, where Thomas’ mother still lives. Thomas and other family members own the house, as well as two neighboring properties. The sale was completed in 2014, but Thomas said he mistakenly believed he didn’t have to report it because “the sale resulted in a capital loss”.
Thomas also corrected several other errors in previous reports when reporting that he and his wife had assets worth between $1.2 million and $2.7 million. These included leaving out accounts at a credit union worth between $100,000 and $250,000 last year and a life insurance policy in his wife’s name worth less than $100,000.
He noted that Thomas is considering whether to revise the previous report.
It comes nearly three months since Thomas and Alito’s annual financial report was released on Thursday. the other seven justices. Thomas and Alito were granted a 90-day extension.
Alito reported assets worth between $2.8 million and $7.4 million. While the majority of Alito’s stock holdings are in mutual funds, he retains shares in energy and other companies, which has sometimes forced him to withdraw from Supreme Court cases.
Alito, In an unusual column in the Wall Street JournalHe said he was under no obligation to report on the Alaska trip or recuse himself from any case involving the donor.
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