“The next trip Justice Thomas takes should be into retirement. Resign,” wrote one Democratic lawmaker.
The Senate Judiciary Committee revealed Thursday that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas took at least three additional undisclosed trips on a private jet owned by Texas billionaire Harlan Crow, a finding that prompted yet another round of calls for the right-wing judge to step down.
New details of Thomas’ luxury travel emerged from negotiations between the Senate committee—which authorized a subpoena for Crow last year—and the billionaire’s attorneys.
Documents the committee obtained from Crow “revealed travel and gifts that Justice Thomas has failed to disclose to date,” including a May 2017 private jet trip from St. Louis to Kalispell, Montana and a return flight to Dallas; a March 2019 private jet trip from Washington, D.C. to Savannah, Georgia and back; and a June 2021 private jet trip from Washington, D.C. to San Jose, California and back.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement that “nearly $4.2 million in gifts and even that wasn’t enough for Justice Thomas, with at least three additional trips the committee found that he has failed to disclose to date.”
“The Senate Judiciary Committee’s ongoing investigation into the Supreme Court’s ethical crisis is producing new information—like what we’ve revealed today—and makes it crystal clear that the highest court needs an enforceable code of conduct, because its members continue to choose not to meet the moment,” said Durbin. “As a result of our investigation and subpoena authorization, we are providing the American public greater clarity on the extent of ethical lapses by Supreme Court justices and the need for ethics reform.”
“Thomas should resign immediately and I urge all my colleagues to demand the same.”
The Senate panel’s revelations came days after Thomas belatedly disclosed two luxury trips funded by Crow, a megadonor to the Republican Party. Thomas claims he “inadvertently omitted” the trips when he filed an earlier disclosure form.
The judiciary committee’s Supreme Court investigation was spurred by a series of reports by the investigative outlet ProPublica, which uncovered dozens of billionaire-financed vacations Thomas has taken during his three decades on the bench. Ethics experts say Thomas likely violated the law by failing to disclose private jet flights and other gifts.
“A cadre of industry titans and ultrawealthy executives have treated him to far-flung vacations aboard their yachts, ushered him into the premium suites at sporting events, and sent their private jets to fetch him—including, on more than one occasion, an entire 737,” the outlet reported last August. “It’s a stream of luxury that is both more extensive and from a wider circle than has been previously understood.”
ProPublica also uncovered a luxury fishing vacation that Justice Samuel Alito took with hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer, who later had business before the Supreme Court.
Earlier this week, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) blocked Senate Democrats’ attempt to pass legislation that would require the Supreme Court to adopt a binding code of ethics and create new recusal requirements surrounding justices’ acceptance of gifts.
Following the judiciary panel’s new disclosures, Democratic lawmakers reiterated their calls for Thomas to resign.
“Clarence Thomas is corrupt as hell and the corruption at the Republican Supreme Court stinks to high heaven,” Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-N.J.) wrote on social media. “Thomas should resign immediately and I urge all my colleagues to demand the same.”
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) echoed Pascrell, writing: “The next trip Justice Thomas takes should be into retirement. Resign.”
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