WASHINGTON — Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas issued a rare statement Friday in response to an investigative news report about unreported trips he received from a Republican donor that renewed Democratic criticisms of the high court’s ethical standards.
The statement followed a ProPublica report Thursday that for years Thomas did not disclose that he went on international vacations and received free flights on a private jet from billionaire and Republican donor Harlan Crow.
Thomas’ statement said he considers Crow and his wife “among our dearest friends, and we have been friends for over twenty-five years. As friends do, we have joined them on a number of family trips during the more than quarter century we have known them.”
