Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been accused by a top Democratic senator of failing to disclose two flights on a private jet owned by a billionaire Republican donor.
Ron Wyden, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said Judge Thomas failed to declare a round trip from Hawaii to New Zealand with his wife on Harlan Crow’s private jet in 2010.
He used a letter to Crow’s attorney to accuse the real estate mogul of “showering a public official with extravagant gifts and then canceling those gifts to reduce his taxes.”
A spokesperson for Crow told US media that Wyden’s investigations “had no legal basis and were only intended to harass a private citizen”, and that Crow had “always followed applicable tax law”.
“It is concerning that Senator Wyden is abusing his committee’s powers as part of a politically motivated campaign against the Supreme Court,” said a Crow spokesman, Michael Zona.
Judge Thomas has not commented publicly on the letter. The Supreme Court did not immediately respond to a question from the BBC.
Justice Thomas has previously said that he believed he did not need to report trips with close friends who do not have business to the Supreme Court.
It is the latest criticism against the conservative judge, whose previous trips on private planes and yachts have come under scrutiny.
Under a new disclosure system, the judge in June amended his annual disclosure to include two trips with Crow in 2019: one to Bali and another to California.
However, Wyden alleged in his letter that the judge had used private jets paid for by Crow at least 17 times in the past eight years.
The Oregon senator also cited a new trip that he said had not been publicly reported.
Wyden subpoenaed U.S. Customs and Border Protection records about a trip from Hawaii to New Zealand in 2010 by the judge and his wife, Virginia, on Crow’s private jet.
The White House said Wyden’s letter strengthened President Joe Biden’s case for radical reforms to the court, which is currently dominated by conservatives.
Last week, Biden proposed establishing term limits for judges, who are currently lifetime appointments, and an enforceable code of conduct.
It would be difficult to pass such changes in Congress.
The White House said Monday that “America’s most powerful court should not be held to the lowest ethical standards, and conflicts of interest at the Supreme Court cannot go unchecked.”
The increased focus on judicial ethics has drawn scrutiny from other members of the Supreme Court.
Last year it emerged that Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a liberal, did not recuse herself from three cases involving Penguin Random House, which had paid her more than $3m (£2.4m).
