The conservative judge of the Supreme Court Clarence Thomas did not reveal more private trips on a plane owned by the mega right -wing donor Harlan Crow, a Democratic senator said Monday, in the midst of an ethics scandal topped and lawsuits of judicial reform.
“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,” said Ron Wyden, from Oregon, president of the Senate Finance Committee, a Crow lawyer in a letter.
“This concern only increases by the recent discovery of the International Travel Committee, additional revealed in Mr. Crow’s private jet by Judge Thomas.”
The committee, said Wyden, “obtained international flight records that showed that on November 19, 2010, Judge Thomas and his wife (right -wing activist Ginni Thomas) flew from Hawaii to New Zealand in New Zealand in the private jet of Mr. Crow, before flying from New Zealand to Hawaii on the plane a week later on November 27, 2010. Crow was also a passenger on these flights.
“To date, Judge Thomas has never revealed this private Jet trip in any financial dissemination forms, although Judge Thomas has modified disseminations to reflect other international trips in Mr. Crow’s private jet.”
Thomas was confirmed in 1991, after the storm hearings in which he was accused of sexual harassment for Anita Hill, law teacher. More than 30 years later, he is the oldest rightist in a court controlled by Republican nominees, 6-3.
Gifts to Thomas, without declaring and mainly from Crow, but also from other sources and other judges, have fueled an ethical crisis. Apparent political sympathies between the judges, and the family members, with Ginni Thomas who participated in the attempt of Donald Trump to cancel the 2020 elections, have only added fuel to the fire.
The Non -Profit Writing Room won a Pulitzer award for its reports on the subject. In Congress, the progressive New York Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has led to calls to Thomas and Samuel Alito, his fellow Arch-Rightwinger, who are accused and eliminated, a political prawn without a realistic successful possibility.
The judges of the Supreme Court are nominally subject to the same rules of ethics as all federal judges, but in practice the police. A code of ethics was introduced last November, but remains without external means of application.
Elena Kagan, one of the three liberals in court, has requested a better application of ethics rules. John Roberts, the president of the right, apparently remains motionless. Despite Wyden’s calls and other Democrats, Roberts has refused to testify in Congress.
Meanwhile, the Roberts Court has delivered important conservative victories, including the elimination of federal abortion law and saying that the presidents enjoy immunity for some acts.
Joe Biden recently introduced reform proposals, including term limits. In response to the president’s proposal, Neil Gorsuch, the first of the three right -wing designated in four years during Trump’s presidency, used an interview with Fox News to warn: “I only say: Be careful.”
Thomas has said that he initially believed that he did not have to reveal gifts from donors. In the case of Crow, a real estate billionaire known for collecting memories associated with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, Gifts to Thomas also included resort stays, a purchase of property and payment of school rates.
Thomas did not comment immediately about Wyden’s letter.
As reported by the New York Times, a Crow spokesman said that his lawyers “had already addressed the investigations of Senator Wyden, who have no legal basis and only intend to harass a private citizen.”
Crow “Consider this issue resolved,” they said.
Wyden said he was “worried that so far he could not determine even determine the total scope of the possible fiscal abuse in question.”
A committee spokesman told the Times that the panel still expected Crow to provide tax records voluntarily.
Wyden said: “Neither Mr. Crow nor Judge Thomas has revealed the full scale of the use of Thomasas of Michaela Rose (Crow’s Sortyatht) and private airplanes courtesy of Mr. Crow, even when Congress continues to discover international additional airplane trips with Mr. Crow that Judge Thomas did not reveal on his presentations of ethics.”
Citing presentations recently updated by Thomas, “to include an eight -day trip aboard Michaela Rose in Indonesia in 2019,” Wyden said justice “has not yet revealed other trips” in Crow’s Yacht. “
He added: “Public reports show evidence that Judge Thomas was a passenger aboard the Rose of Michaela in Greece, New Zealand and elsewhere.
“In addition, a relative of Judge Thomas has declared that he personally witnessed Judge Thomas traveling aboard Michaela Rose in the Caribbean, Russia and the Baltic, with the trip to Russia that also includes helicopter walks.”
Caroline Ciccone, president of responsible .us, a group that campaigns for judicial reform, said: “The undue influence exerted by rich and powerful people like Harlan Crow about Judge Thomas highlights systemic corruption that cannot be ignored.”
Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman, said that Wyden had “strengthened (ed) the case (the president) for common sense reforms that are backed by constitutional experts throughout the political spectrum, as well as the vast majority of the US people.
“The most powerful court in the United States should not be subject to the lowest ethical standards, and conflicts of interest on the Supreme Court cannot run out of control.”
