Clarence Thomas of the US Supreme Court stated that he believed the luxury vacations he took with a billionaire Republican donor complied with regulations.
According to a report published by ProPublica earlier this week, Justice Thomas accepted vacations from real estate magnate Harlan Crow for nearly two decades.
Justices of the Supreme Court are required to submit annual disclosures of gifts.
According to Justice Thomas, he was led to assume that “this type of personal hospitality” was not applicable.
ProPublica said, the trips included several on Mr. Crow’s luxury yacht and private aircraft, as well as a week in the Adirondacks every summer.
According to the non-profit news website, a single excursion to Indonesia in 2019 could have cost up to $500,000 (£403,000).
Justice Thomas stated in a statement released on Friday that he had sought “guidance from my colleagues and other members of the judiciary” and was informed that “personal hospitality from close personal friends who did not have business before the Court was not reportable.”
The statement continued,
“Throughout my tenure, I have endeavored to adhere to the disclosure guidelines and to follow that counsel.”
Mr. Crow and his wife, Kathy Crow, have been among our closest friends for over twenty-five years, according to the chief justice.
Virginia Canter, a former government ethics attorney who worked for both Democratic and Republican administrations, told BBC News that there was no indication that Justice Thomas had obtained a formal opinion on the matter.
“There is no accountability for the court,” the lawyer who spoke with ProPublica for its report said. “Each justice appears to decide for themselves whom they will consult for advice and what rules apply.”
BBC News has not independently confirmed ProPublica’s reporting, which contrasted Justice Thomas’ public comments with lavish details of the travels and gifts.
“I favor RV parks. I favor Walmart parking lots to beaches and similar places,” he said in a documentary about his life. “I come from regular stock, and I prefer that – I prefer being surrounded by regular people.”
Mr. Crow, a prominent contributor to Republican and conservative political causes in the United States, told ProPublica that the travels with his wife Ginni Thomas were “no different from the hospitality that we have extended to many other dear friends.”
The statement reads,
“Justice Thomas and Ginni never requested any of this hospitality.”
Mr. Crow’s statement added that court cases were “never discussed” during the visits, and he is unaware of any attempts by other guests to “lobby or influence Justice Thomas on any cases.”
He stated,
“I would never invite anyone who I believed had any intention of doing so.” “These are social gatherings.”
According to ProPublica, gifts also included stays at the highly clandestine, all-male Bohemian Grove resort in California.
A number of Democratic legislators are now demanding an investigation and a stricter code of conduct for Supreme Court justices.
This transcends party and partisanship. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, stated on Twitter: “This level of corruption is shocking almost cartoonish.” Thomas should be impeached.
The impeachment of a Supreme Court judge begins with the House of Representatives crafting articles of impeachment, as is the case with all other officials.
In the House, a narrow majority is sufficient to impeach a federal judge, but a two-thirds majority is required for conviction in the Senate.
The current 50-50 divide between Republicans and Democrats in the Senate makes conviction exceedingly unlikely.
Justice Thomas is one of six justices on the nine-member Supreme Court who lean to the right.
This is not the first time that Justice Thomas’ private travels have been scrutinized.
In 2004, the Los Angeles Times reported that Justice Thomas had accepted gifts and private jet flights from Mr. Crow, including a $15,000 Abraham Lincoln statuette and a $19,000 Bible that once belonged to 19th-century African-American abolitionist Frederick Douglass.
At the time, Justice Thomas declined to comment. He did not disclose any more travels following the report.
In 2018, the conservative jurist was scrutinized after it was revealed that his wife, Ginni Thomas, had repeatedly urged Trump’s White House staff to overturn the 2020 presidential election. According to critics, the judge should have recused himself from cases involving the election.
Mrs. Thomas subsequently told the congressional committee investigating the riot on January 6 that she regretted “all those texts.”
The judge joined the Supreme Court in 1992, following a series of bruising Senate proceedings in 1991 in which he denied sexually harassing a female employee.
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