Justice Clarence Thomas did not disclose additional luxury trips funded by billionaire patron [View all]

Source: The Independent

Saturday 21 December 2024 20:47 GMT


Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose two trips — which hadn’t been publicly reported — paid for by a billionaire Republican donor, a new Congressional report reveals. In the wake of ProPublica’s explosive 2023 report into Thomas’ failures to disclose his ties to wealthy donor Harlan Crow, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee conducted a 20-month investigation into the ethics challenges at the Supreme Court.

The report — spanning 97 pages plus 824 pages of supporting documents — was released Saturday, detailing two additional trips paid for by Crow that Thomas hadn’t previously disclosed.

More broadly, the report also captured an array of conflicts of interest and undisclosed gifts by justices, prompting the panel to recommend the nation’s highest court establish an enforceable code of conduct. Both 2021 trips had not been reported publicly before.

In July, Crow flew Thomas from Omaha, Nebraska, to Saranac, New York, on his private jet and hosted him at Camp Topridge, Crow’s 105-acre property in the Adirondacks. The second occurred months later in October, when Crow flew Thomas roundtrip from Washington, D.C. to New Jersey for the dedication of a statue. The conservative justice stayed with the billionaire in New York on his yacht, the report says. These trips were revealed in a letter from Crow to the committee.

Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/justice-clarence-thomas-luxury-trips-billionaire-b2668448.html