US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has released his first public statement since once again coming under fire from court watchdogs and US lawmakers following a ProPublica investigation finding that the conservative justice has accepted luxury trips from a prominent Republican donor for more than two decades.
In his response on 7 April, Justice Thomas called Texas developer Harlan Crow – an influential GOP donor who has supported right-wing candidates, causes and legal efforts – one of his “dearest friends”.
“As friends do, we have joined [Mr Crow and his wife] on a number of family trips during the more than quarter century we have known them,” according to his statement.
“Early in my tenure at the Court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable,” he stated.
Justice Thomas added that he has “endeavored to follow that counsel” during his life tenure as one of the nine justices on the nation’s highest court.
Reporting from ProPublica found that the justice had accepted trips to Indonesia and New Zealand on board Mr Crow’s superyacht, regularly flies on his private jet, and joins annual summer trips to his Adirondacks resort – trips that would otherwise cost tens of thousands of dollars but do not appear anywhere on his financial disclosures.
Ethics law experts believe the absence of such trips from those disclosure forms likely violate federal law.
Federal law mandates that justices file annual financial disclosures including outside income and income from their spouses; justices are prohibited from accepting gifts from anyone with business before the court, but until recently, the definition of “personal hospitality” was not clearly defined.
Justice Thomas noted the recently revised rules adopted by a committee of the Judicial Conference to clarify some of that reporting.
“And, it is, of course, my intent to follow this guidance in the future,” he said.
A statement from Mr Crow did not deny that he extended “hospitality” to Justice Thomas and his wife Virginia “Ginni” Thomas “over the years” after becoming friends in 1996, but he said the time they spent together was “no different from the hospitality we have extended to our many other dear friends.”
In the wake of the report, progressive members of Congress including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar renewed their demands for the impeachment of Justice Thomas, who has been the subject of scrutiny over other apparent donations and allegations of conflicts of interest with investigations into January 6 and Donald Trump.
Following a report from The Los Angeles Times in 2004 revealing Justice Thomas had accepted expensive gifts and private plane trips from Mr Crow, he appeared to stop reporting them altogether.
Since 2004, Justice Thomas has reported only two gifts: an award from Yale Law School and a bust of Frederick Douglass, which was given to him by Mr Crow.
Democratic lawmakers have also called for urgent ethics legislation and codes of conduct to which members of the Supreme Court must adhere. District and appeals court judges are bound by a judicial ethics code, but justices on the nation’s highest court are not.
Civil rights groups, left-leaning court reform organisations and ethics watchdogs have also demanded congressional inquiries into the Supreme Court and its ties to powerful donors and special interests.
