The Daily Populous Thursday July 11st, 2024 day edition
Authored by newsweek.com and submitted by Mission_Routine_2058

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas took three trips that he did not include in financial disclosure forms, the Senate Judiciary Committee said on Thursday.

Thomas, a conservative and the longest-serving member of the present Court, has faced significant criticism over accepting luxury trips from billionaire Republican Party donor Harlan Crow.

The three trips cited by the Senate Judiciary Committee include a private jet flight from Missouri to Montana in May 2017; a second private jet flight from Washington, D.C., to Georgia and back in March 2019; and a further flight from D.C. to California in June 2021.

Senator Dick Durbin, chair of the Judiciary Committee, said the trips in question were listed in information provided to the committee by Crow. The new information has led to criticism from Democrats and renewed calls for Thomas to resign.

United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas poses for an official portrait at the East Conference Room of the Supreme Court building on October 7, 2022 in Washington, D.C. He is under pressure over... United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas poses for an official portrait at the East Conference Room of the Supreme Court building on October 7, 2022 in Washington, D.C. He is under pressure over newly revealed luxury trips. More Alex Wong/Getty Images

The private jet flights are in addition to two paid vacations that Thomas revealed in new financial filings last week.

Thomas filed a financial disclosure report on Friday that included two amendments for 2019 trips he took that were paid for by Crow.

The filing included two separate trips from 2019 that were paid for by the Crows, including a trip to Bali, Indonesia, on July 12, 2019; and another trip to Monte Rio, California, from July 18 to 21, 2019. The filing says that the items paid for during the trips included "food and lodging" at a hotel and a "private club."

Newsweek has reached out to the U.S. Supreme Court via email for comment on Thomas' trips.

In an emailed statement provided to Newsweek on Thursday, the office of Harlan Crow said: "Mr. Crow reached an agreement with the Senate Judiciary Committee to provide information responsive to its requests going back seven years. Despite 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 beginning to resolve the matter. As a condition of this agreement, the Committee agreed to end its probe with respect to Mr. Crow."

Criticism of these newly revealed trips comes more than a year after ProPublica reported that Thomas and his wife, lawyer and conservative activist Ginni Thomas, took trips paid for by Crow almost on a yearly basis for over two decades.

The report said that Thomas had received vacations, including a previously unreported trip on a yacht around the Bahamas, as well as 26 private-jet flights and eight helicopter flights, among other gifts.

In a statement responding to that report in April 2023, Thomas said: "Harlan and Kathy Crow are among our dearest friends, and we have been friends for over twenty-five years. As friends do, we have joined them on a number of family trips during the more than quarter century we have known them.

"Early in my tenure at the Court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable. I have endeavored to follow that counsel throughout my tenure, and have always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines," the statement went on.

"These guidelines are now being changed, as the committee of the Judicial Conference responsible for financial disclosure for the entire federal judiciary just this past month announced new guidance. And, it is, of course, my intent to follow this guidance in the future," the statement said.

The Supreme Court announced a new code of conduct for justices in November 2023.

In September last year, ProPublica published a further report detailing Thomas' yearslong friendships with libertarian billionaires Charles Koch and his late brother, David.

That report revealed that Thomas had attended an annual donor summit hosted by the Koch network—one of the largest and most influential political organizations in the U.S.—and that his regular trips to the private Bohemian Grove retreat would have allowed the brothers to meet with him in secret.

Justice Thomas visited the Bohemian Grove, an all-male retreat that "attracts some of the nation's most influential corporate and political figures," according to ProPublica.

Thomas has attended the Bohemian Grove for 25 years as a guest of Crow, while the justice has also traveled to a private resort in the Adirondacks owned by his wealthy friend, ProPublica reported.

Odd_Tone_0ooo on July 11st, 2024 at 00:17 UTC »

I can’t even accept a free lunch as a govt employee. How does he get away with this shit. Some balls on that guy.

Gym-for-ants on July 10th, 2024 at 22:26 UTC »

It’s hard to believe anyone has the actual full list because more trips/loans/flights/etc keep slowing leaking

Mission_Routine_2058 on July 10th, 2024 at 22:16 UTC »

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been accused of not disclosing a yacht trip to Russia and a private helicopter flight to a palace in President Vladimir Putin’s hometown, among a slew of other gifts and loans from businessman Harlan Crow.

Buried on page 14 of a letter that two Democratic senators sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday, in which they urged Garland to appoint a special counsel to probe Thomas, was an astonishing list of dozens of “likely undisclosed gifts and income” from Crow, Crow’s affiliated companies, and “other donors.”

In the letter, Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) said Thomas, one of the court’s staunchly conservative justices, even may have committed tax fraud and violated other federal laws by “secretly” accepting the gifts and income potentially worth millions.

“The Senate is not a prosecutorial body, and the Supreme Court has no fact-finding function of its own, making the executive role all the more important if there is ever to be any complete determination of the facts,” reads the letter requesting the appointment of a special prosecutor.

“We do not make this request lightly,” said the letter.

The list of potentially secret gifts also includes a loan of more than $267,000 provided by Thomas’ close friend Anthony Welters, the yacht trip to Russia from the Baltics, and the helicopter ride to Yusupov Palace in St. Petersburg. ProPublica first reported last year on the existence of extensive undisclosed gifts and lavish trips from Crow........