Washington (AP) – Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas did not publicly reveal additional trips in the private jet of the Megadonor of the Republican Party Harlan Crow, a superior Democratic senator who supports an impulse of the electoral year to adjust the ethics rules of the Superior Court, he said Monday on Monday.
Thomas and his wife, Virginia, took a round trip between Hawaii and New Zealand in November 2010, according to international flight records maintained by customs and border protection, wrote Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore.
The letter to Crow’s lawyer is part of an investigation that Wyden, president of the Senate Finance Committee, opened after Several reports That Thomas had received for years the unleashed luxury trips of Crow.
Wyden’s letter requires additional information about Jet and Superyates private trips. “I am deeply concerned that Mr. Crow has been bathing a public official with extravagant gifts, then canceling those gifts to reduce his tax bill,” he wrote. The letter was first reported by the New York Times.
A Crow spokesman said he has always followed the tax law and that Wyden’s investigations “have no legal basis.” “It is worrying that Senator Wyden is abusing the powers of his committee as part of a politically motivated campaign against the Supreme Court,” said spokesman Michael area in a statement.
The Senate Judicial Committee previously discovered at least three additional trips in its own investigation, including Indonesia and California.
The Democrats, including President Joe Biden, are pressing separately the changes in the Superior Court and seek .
In recent days, Judge Elena Kagan has expressed her support for a code of ethics enforceable for her and her colleagues. Judge Neil Gorsuch, in an interview with Associated Press last week, declined to comment on proposals on ethics and term limits for the Superior Court.
The judges are filled Financial dissemination forms Every year details any external source of income or gifts. The form that Thomas completed in 2010 does not include any flight on board the Crow’s jet, Wyden wrote.
Thomas did not immediately respond to a request for comments sent to the court.
The 76 -year -old justice has argued that it is not obliged to reveal the many trips because they are equivalent to the personal hospitality of a close friend without business before the court.
The November 2010 trip arrived a month after Thomas flew to the capital of Trinidad and Tobago, on a private plane owned by his friends, Anthony and Beatrice Welters, The Times said previously. Beatrice Welters served as an American ambassador to the country in the Caribbean, and was appointed by President Barack Obama.
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This story has been corrected to show that Beatrice Welters, not Anthony Welters, served as an American ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago in 2010.
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Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Mark Sherman contributed to this report.
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