Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has spent decades receiving free luxury tips from a conservative billionaire, according to a new report.

The report indicates that Thomas may have broken federal law by failing to disclose these gifts. The previously undisclosed trips also go against ethical norms for federal judges and raise questions concerning what kind of influence wealthy conservative interests have hand on Justice Thomas.

ProPublica published an extensively-researched article detailing how Clarence Thomas and his wife Ginny have enjoyed extremely expensive luxury vacations and travel courtesy of their friendship with Harlan Crow, a Dallas-based billionaire and major donor to Republican causes who befriended Thomas in the 1990s.

Although Thomas has never publicly disclosed these trips, ProPublica traced documents and interviewed dozens of people, including service staff and other vacation attendees, to find out details about a variety of luxury trips that Justice Thomas has taken over a span of more than 20 years. These trips include voyages on Crow’s superyacht, as well as flying on private jets and staying at ultra-exclusive resorts, all owned or paid for by Crow. If Thomas had chartered a similar yacht and jet such as the ones he used for free, ProPublica estimates that he could have paid around $500,000.

 

These trips, and the fact that they have remained secret until now, have raised serious ethical and even legal concerns. ProPublica interviewed legal and ethics experts who claim that keeping these trips secret violated a law that requires federal officials to disclose gifts.

Other sources say that keeping the trips secret may have been legal but might remain unethical. According to the Insider, the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 requires Supreme Court justices and other federal judges to report any gifts they receive, but they are not required to report “personal hospitality,” which the Insider says includes “food, lodging and entertainment.” Even if Thomas did not break the law, however, he may have placed himself in a compromising position by accepting such lavish gifts and by vacationing with other wealthy conservative business owners who may have tried to influence him. One retired federal judge says that “it’s incomprehensible to me that someone would do this.”

The latest reports against Thomas come as he and his wife remain under fire. Ginni Thomas, a conservative political activist, has been heavily scrutinized for her involvement in pushing anti-Democratic conspiracy theories and for her connections to the January 6 insurrection. Although Mrs. Thomas has maintained that she has not done anything wrong, investigations and released messages have shown that she continuously pushed the lie that Joe Biden and Democrats had stolen the 2020 election, and she privately pressured Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to intervene to prevent Joe Biden from taking office. Justice Thomas, meanwhile, has refused to recuse himself from cases involving January 6, despite his wife’s connections to the Trump “stop the steal” movement that led to the insurrection. With today’s report on Thomas, Congressman Ted Lieu has called on the justice to resign, while Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has called on Congress to impeach Thomas.

 

 

 

Given that Thomas has brushed aside previous calls to step aside, it is unlikely he will do so now, but scrutiny of his activities will only grow based on this latest scandal.

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