WASHINGTON β€” A nearlyΒ two-year investigationΒ by Democratic senators ofΒ Supreme CourtΒ ethics details more luxury travel by JusticeΒ Clarence ThomasΒ and urges Congress to establish a way to enforce a newΒ code of conduct.

The report also calls for changes in the Judicial ConferenceΒ β€” the federal courts’ oversight body led by Chief JusticeΒ John RobertsΒ β€”Β and further investigation by Congress.

However, any movement on the issue appears unlikely as Republicans prepare to take control of the Senate in January, underscoring the hurdles in imposing restrictions on a separate branch of government even asΒ public confidenceΒ in the court fell to record lows.

The Supreme Court is seen Oct. 7 in Washington.

The 93-page report released Saturday by the Democratic majority of the Senate Judiciary Committee found additional travel taken in 2021 by Thomas but not reported on his annual financial disclosure form: a private jet flight to New York's Adirondacks in July and jet and yacht trip to New York City sponsored byΒ billionaire Harlan CrowΒ in October, one of more than two dozen times detailed in the report that Thomas took luxury travel and gifts from wealthy benefactors.

The court adopted its firstΒ code of ethicsΒ in 2023, but it leaves compliance to each of the nine justices.

β€œThe highest court in the land can’t have the lowest ethical standards,” the committee chairman, Illinois Sen.Β Dick Durbin,Β said in a statement. He has long called for an enforceable code of ethics.

Members of the Supreme Court sit for a group portrait Oct. 7, 2022, at the Supreme Court building in Washington. Bottom row, from left, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts, Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Elena Kagan. Top row, from left, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Justice Neil Gorsuch, Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Republicans protested theΒ subpoenasΒ authorized for Crow and others as part of the investigation. No Republicans signed on to the final report, and no formal report from them was expected.

A spokesman for Crow said he voluntarily agreed to provide information for the investigation, which did not pinpoint any specific instances of undue influence. Crow said in a statement that Thomas and his wife Ginni had been unfairly maligned. β€œThey are good and honorable people and no one should be treated this way,” he said.

Attorney Mark Paoletta, a longtime friend of Thomas who was tapped for the incoming Trump administration, said the report was aimed at conservatives whose rulings Democrats disagreed with.

β€œThis entire investigation was never about β€˜ethics’ but about trying to undermine the Supreme Court," Paoletta said in a statement posted on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

The court did not immediate respond to a request for comment.

Associate Justice Clarence Thomas joins other members of the Supreme Court as they pose for a new group portrait Oct. 7, 2022, in Washington. Thomas has come under fire for his failure to include trips on financial disclosure forms the justices release each year.

Conservative activist Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, walks to a room Sept. 29, 2022, at the O'Neill House Office Building in the Capitol complex for an interview with the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection in Washington.

Thomas in the past said he was not required to disclose the trips that he and his wife, Ginni, took with Crow because the big donor is a close friend of the family and disclosure of that type of travel was not previously required.

The new ethics code does explicitly require it, and Thomas since went back and reported some travel.

Crow maintained that he has never spoken with his friend about pending matters before the court.

The report traces back to JusticeΒ Antonin Scalia, saying he β€œestablished the practice” of accepting undisclosed gifts and hundreds of trips over his decades on the bench.

The late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg and retired Justice Stephen Breyer also took subsided trips but disclosed them on their annual forms, it said.

The investigation found that Thomas accepted gifts and travel from wealthy benefactors worth more than $4.75 million by some estimates since his 1991 confirmation and failed to disclose much of it. β€œThe number, value, and extravagance of the gifts accepted by Justice Thomas have no comparison in modern American history,” according to the report.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Jr. and his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, attend the funeral Reverend Billy Graham at the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol Building on Feb. 18, 2018, in Washington.

It also detailed aΒ 2008 luxury tripΒ to Alaska taken by JusticeΒ Samuel Alito. He said he was exempted from disclosing the trip under previous ethical rules.

Alito declined calls to withdraw from cases involvingΒ Donald TrumpΒ or theΒ Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol after flags associated with the riot were seen flying at two of Alito's homes. Alito said his wife raisedΒ the flags.

Thomas also ignored calls to step aside from cases involving Trump, though Ginni Thomas supported Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election that the Republican lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

The report also pointed to scrutiny of JusticeΒ Sonia Sotomayor, who, aided by her staff, advancedΒ sales of her booksΒ through college visits over the past decade. Justices also heard cases involving their book publishers, or involving companies in which justices owned stock.

Biden has been the most prominent Democrat calling for a binding code of conduct. JusticeΒ Elena Kaganhas publicly backedΒ adopting an enforcement mechanism, though some ethics experts said itΒ could be legally tricky.

JusticeΒ Neil GorsuchΒ recently cited the code when he recused himself from anΒ environmental case. He faced calls to step aside because the outcome could stand to benefit a Colorado billionaire whom Gorsuch represented before becoming a judge.

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