Add three more private jet rides in the account of gifts received by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas from right-wing billionaires. A Senate investigation into Thomas' relationship with conservative philanthropist Harlan Crowe revealed three additional, unreported trips by the justice on Crowe's private jet.
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee obtained information about the flights through a written response from Thomas' attorney, who revealed the justice had flown Crow's plane to Glacier National Park in Montana, Washington, D.C., and Georgia.
Thomas' relationship with Crowe, and the billionaire's many lavish gifts to him, have been heavily reported by ProPublica over the past year. These include rides on private jets and luxury yachts, expensive vacations, tuition payments, and even buying real estate. Last week, Thomas revealed two additional trips to Bali and California that Crowe paid for in 2019, claiming he had “inadvertently omitted” them from earlier financial disclosures.
Senate Democrats noted that despite the disclosure of Thomas' “eight-day yacht trip” to Bali, “Crowe's documents show different dates for the trip to Indonesia in July 2019, further calling into question the accuracy of the details that Judge Thomas decides to reveal.”
The report led to an investigation by Senate Democrats into possible ethics violations stemming from Thomas' relationship with the GOP donor. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who chairs the committee investigating Thomas, wrote in a statement that “as a result of our investigation and subpoena authorization, we are providing the American public with greater clarity about the extent of the ethical lapses from the Supreme Judges and the need for ethics reform'.
It's “clearly clear that the high court needs an enforceable code of conduct,” Durbin added. “Despite an approval rating at near all-time lows and endless, self-inflicted scandals, Justice Roberts still refuses to use his existing authority to implement an enforceable code of conduct. Until he acts, we will continue our push for the Supreme Court Ethics, Impeachment and Transparency Act to become law.”
The clamor for a binding code of conduct for Supreme Court justices has reached a fever pitch in recent weeks after two flags associated with the 2020 “Stop The Steal” movement were seen flying outside homes owned by Justice Samuel Alito.
In a secret recording provided exclusively to rolling rock, Alito complained that “groups that are very well funded by ideological groups” were inciting attacks on the court. “ProPublica gets a lot of money and they've spent a fortune investigating Clarence Thomas, for example. You know, everything he's done his whole life,” Alito said. “And they've done some of that to me, too,” he added. “They look for any little thing they can find and try to make something out of it.”
from our partners at https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/clarence-thomas-three-private-jet-trips-senate-investigation-1235039886/