Justice Clarence Thomas took several more trips on the private plane of GOP megadonor Harlan Crow thanΒ wereΒ previously known, a top Senate Democrat revealed Thursday.
Associate Justice Clarence Thomas joins other members of the Supreme Court as they pose for a new group portrait Oct. 7, 2022, in Washington.Β Thomas has come under fire for his failure to include such trips on financial disclosure forms the justices release each year.
According to information obtained by Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, Thomas traveled on Crowβs private jet during trips in 2017, 2019 and 2021 between various U.S. states, as well as on a previously knownΒ 2019 trip to Indonesia, during which Thomas also stayed on Crowβs mega-yacht.
The newly revealed private plane tripsΒ add to the picture of luxury travelΒ enjoyed by Thomas and bankrolled by friends of the justice who have ties to conservative politics.
Thomas has come under fire for his failure to include such trips on financial disclosure forms the justices release each year, though he and his defenders argue that he followed the courtβs disclosure rules as they were understood at the time.
The revelation was likely to add to the tension between the high court, where conservatives hold a 6-3 majority, and Democrats on Capitol Hill, who have been pushing for more than a year for tighter ethics rules. A series of ethics scandals involving Thomas and, more recently, Justice Samuel Alito, have left public approval of the court at historic lows.
Last year, amid storiesΒ byΒ ProPublicaΒ on the justiceβs jet-setting lifestyle,Β the federal judiciaryβs policy-making body saidΒ thatΒ travel on private planes should be reported by the justicesΒ closing aΒ loophole that Thomas said had exempted him from reporting the βpersonal hospitalityβ he had received form his uber-wealthy friends. The courtβs critics argue that the current understanding of the disclosure rulesΒ should applyΒ retroactively.
Thomas, through a court spokeswoman,Β did not respond to a CNN inquiryΒ about the new revelations and why the trips were not disclosed.
He previously said that he was advised at the time that he was not required to disclose the hospitality he received from the Crows, but that he intended to follow the recent changes to the guidance going forward.Β His defenders have pointed to a 2012 letter from the Judicial Conference, which administers the regulations for judgesβ financial disclosures, that cleared him of claims at the time that he should have been reporting his trips with Crow.
Last week, with the release of his financial disclosures for 2023,Β Thomas saidΒ he had βinadvertently omittedβ from previous financial filingsΒ a hotel stay paid by theΒ Crows during the 2019 trip to Indonesia andΒ his accommodations that same year at a private club they are membersΒ of in Monte Rio, California.
Yet he did not disclose his travel on Crowβs private plane forΒ eitherΒ ofΒ those trips that was revealed by Durbin.
In addition to that trip, according to the documents released byΒ Durbin, Thomas traveled on Crowβs plane from St. Louis to Montana and then on to Dallas in 2017;Β on a 2019 round trip fromΒ Washington, D.C., to Savannah, Georgia; and on a 2021 round trip from Washington, D.C., to San Jose, California.
βThe Senate Judiciary Committeeβs ongoing investigation into the Supreme Courtβs ethical crisisΒ is producing new informationΒ β like what weβve revealed todayΒ β andΒ makes it crystal clear that the highest court needs an enforceable code of conduct, because its members continue to choose not to meet the moment,β Durbin said in a statement that pointed to Supreme Court ethics legislation put forward by Senate Democrats. A procedural maneuver by Durbin on Wednesday to pass the bill on the Senate floor was blocked by Republicans.
Mark Paoletta, a former top Trump administration official and prominent Thomas ally, said on X that Thomas disclosed the hotel and private club stays from the previous trips because they were not covered under the personal hospitality exemptionΒ β even before the 2023 changes to the disclosure guidance. He argued that a justiceβs stays on a friendβs βhome, planesβ and βboatsβ were exempted under the rules until the 2023 revision.
Durbin and other Democrats launched probes into gifts and lavish travel ThomasΒ received after a bombshell ProPublica report that detailed the Indonesia trip with CrowΒ β during which Thomas and his wife Ginni Thomas stayed on Crowβs 162-foot yachtΒ β and other extravagant trips that the Thomases took with Crow and Crowβs wife.
CrowΒ β whom Thomas has described as among his familyβs βdearest friendsβΒ βΒ has said that he has never talkedΒ to Thomas about matters in front of the judiciary.
βMr. Crow reached an agreement with the Senate Judiciary Committee to provide information responsive to its requests going back seven years,β Crow spokesperson Michael Zona said of the information revealed Thursday.
βDespite his serious and continued concerns about the legality and necessity of the inquiry, Mr. Crow engaged in good faith negotiations with the Committee from the beginningΒ to resolve the matter. As a condition of this agreement, the Committee agreed to end its probe with respect to Mr. Crow,β Zona added.Β
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