April 6 (UPI) — Democrats on Thursday angrily responded to a report that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife were longtime recipients of undisclosed luxury trips from a major Republican Party donor.
The Pro-Publica report details how Clarence and Virginia Thomas accepted multiple expensive trips over 20 years from Republican donor Harlan Crow, including flying to Indonesia on Crow’s private jet and spending nine days island-hopping on Crow’s yacht.
The trips, which also include weeks in the summer at Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks, were not included on Clarence Thomas’ financial disclosures, the report said.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said his committee will investigate.
“The highest court in the land shouldn’t have the lowest ethical standard,” Durbin said. “Justice Thomas’ lavish undisclosed trips with a GOP mega-donor undermine the trust that our country places in the Supreme Court. Time for an enforceable code of conduct for justices.”
Clarence Thomas did not respond to questions for the Pro Publica report.
Calling the matter “beyond … partisanship,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., tweeted, “This degree of corruption is shocking — almost cartoonish. Thomas must be impeached.”
Senate Judiciary Committee member Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., urged Judicial Conference action, saying the report on Thomas’ travel “cries out for the kind of independent investigation that the Supreme Court — and only the Supreme Court, across the entire government — refuses to perform.”
Pro-Publica reported the Thomases’ Indonesia trip would have cost more than $500,000 had they paid out-of-pocket. Clarence Thomas earns a $285,000 annual salary as a Supreme Court justice.
Crow, a real estate magnate, said in a statement to Pro-Publica that he has been “dear friends” with the couple since 1996.
“We have never asked about a pending or lower court case, and Justice Thomas has never discussed one, and we have never sought to influence Justice Thomas on any legal or political issue,” Crow said. ” More generally, I am unaware of any of our friends ever lobbying or seeking to influence Justice Thomas on any case, and I would never invite anyone who I believe had any intention of doing that. These are gatherings of friends.”
