As outrage continues to spread about unreported or underreported aspects of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s personal finances, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) have asked for a federal entity known as the Judicial Conference to refer Thomas for an investigation by the federal Justice Department.
That body helping oversee the nation’s courts has the specifically delineated authority in federal law to make such a referral. Reports have revealed that Thomas has engaged extensively with billionaire and GOP megadonor Harlan Crow, who provided Thomas with extremely expensive hospitality over the years at what was apparently no charge. There are specific requirements for the disclosure of gifts that federal judges including Thomas receive — requirements that cover travel like the private jet and yacht trips Thomas has taken thanks to Crow. The cost of one vacation could have reached half a million dollars if Thomas obtained it on his own, and the concern here is that all of this could help facilitate developing favor with Thomas, who is supposed to be an independent arbiter in the nation’s disputes and whose decisions could affect millions.
There’s now also reporting that’s revealed Crow made property purchases from Thomas that went undisclosed. “Justice Thomas reported his interest in those properties when he was an official in the George H.W. Bush administration, and continued to report his interest during his tenure on the Supreme Court,” Whitehouse and Johnson wrote. “However, when Crow bought those properties in 2014—potentially paying well over market value —Justice Thomas failed to report the sale, in an apparent direct violation of 5 U.S.C. § 13104(a)(5).”
The letter also noted how Thomas actually has a more expansive history of failing to comply with disclosure requirements, having left out his wife’s income for years despite previously abiding by the rules for providing information about that income stream. “Given this history, there is at least reasonable cause to believe that Justice Thomas intentionally disregarded the disclosure requirement to report the sale of his interest in the Savannah properties in an attempt to hide the extent of his financial relationship with Crow,” the Democrats wrote. “Potential violations of disclosure laws by officers of the highest court merit serious investigation, and it is well past time for the Supreme Court to align with the rest of the government on ethics requirements.”
