Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas failed to publicly disclose additional travel provided by GOP mega-donor Harlan Crow, a top Democratic senator said Monday, adding to the mounting scrutiny the high court faces over its ethics practices.
In a Monday letter to Crow’s lawyer, Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said the committee’s review of international flight records from Customs and Border Protection found Thomas and his wife, Virginia, traveled on a round-trip flight between Hawaii and New Zealand in November 2010.
“To date, Justice Thomas has never disclosed this private jet travel on any financial disclosure forms, even though Justice Thomas has amended disclosures to reflect other international travel on Mr. Crow’s private jet,” Wyden wrote.
Justices are required to file financial disclosure forms each year that include any external sources of income or gifts. Thomas’s latest financial disclosure included an amendment to a filing made half a decade ago to include two trips paid for by Crow, but did not address the November 2010 round-trip flights, Wyden said.
The New York Times first reported Wyden’s letter.
The flights are the latest instance of Thomas failing to disclose trips paid for by Crow. It comes less than two months after the Senate Judiciary Committee found Thomas did not disclose an additional three trips he took on private jets funded by Crow in 2017, 2019 and 2021.
Wyden said he was “deeply concerned” Crow was giving Thomas, a public official, “extravagant gifts” in order to write them off to lower his tax bill.
The Oregon Democrat requested Crow’s lawyer send over additional information about the private jet and superyacht trips.
A spokesperson for Crow said the mega-donor has “already addressed Senator Wyden’s inquiries, which have no legal basis and are only intended to harass a private citizen.”
“Congress has no role in tax enforcement. Mr. Crow and his businesses are in good standing with the IRS,” the spokesperson added. “He has always followed applicable tax law as advised by national accounting firms who serve as his tax advisors. It’s concerning that Senator Wyden is abusing his committee’s powers as part of a politically motivated campaign against the Supreme Court.”
The Hill has reached out to the Supreme Court and Thomas’s lawyer for comment.
Thomas, 76, has maintained in the past he is not required to disclose the various trips because they are considered personal hospitality from a close friend without business before the court, The Associated Press reported.
The Supreme Court and its justices have faced increasing criticism over the past year after ProPublica published a series of investigative reports last year detailing various undisclosed luxury trips, gifts, and questionable extrajudicial activities involving Thomas and other justices.
The reports delved into the billionaires, including Crow, behind these gifts and free travel over the years in a series titled “Friends of the Court.”
President Biden last week revealed his threefold proposal to reform the high court, including 18-year term limits for the nine justices, which would enable a sitting president to appoint a new justice every two years. The proposal also includes a binding code of conduct.
There is also an ongoing effort among Senate Democrats to pass a Supreme Court ethics package. Democrats attempted to move the bill, authored by Senate Judiciary Chair Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), on the floor via unanimous consent, but it was blocked by Republicans.