New Reports Ensnaring Clarence Thomas Warrant A Justice Dept Investigation, Lawyer Insists

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U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is still facing accusations of serious misconduct amid a continuing cascade of reports of the judge apparently benefiting from pricey services effectively gifted to him that went largely unreported.

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, where the president’s political party is in the majority, recently revealed a handful of apparently previously unreported flights that Thomas took thanks to Harlan Crow, a wealthy Republican supporter. A lawyer for Thomas insisted, in turn, that the flights fell under earlier exemptions for the reporting by judges of receiving that kind of amenity. The exception that the lawyer tried to cite covered so-called personal hospitality.

“This is dead wrong on the law. The “personal hospitality” exception does not cover transportation—only certain “gifts, entertainment, and lodging.” Some textualists. They’re out of arguments. Thomas has been willfully breaking the law. The DOJ needs to open this up,” wrote Alex Aronson on social media this Thursday. A lawyer, Aronson has previously worked at the federal Justice Department and with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The newly reported travel accommodations from which Thomas benefited characteristically drove a lot of concern.

“Clarence Thomas took more undisclosed trips financed by GOP donor Harlan Crow, Senate committee finds. You shouldn’t take the job if you’re not willing to preserve the integrity of the courts & the rule of law,” said ex-prosecutor Joyce White Vance.

Meanwhile, observers are still awaiting a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court on Trump’s potentially severely destabilizing claims of wide-ranging legal protections by mere virtue of once serving as president that supposedly should stop a key criminal case against him. The case accuses Trump of conspiring against the presidential election results from 2020, when Biden won.