WASHINGTON — The federal courts’ policymaking body in 2011 mishandled ethics complaints surrounding financial disclosures by Justice Clarence Thomas, a sitting federal judge testified Wednesday.
While those complaints are more than a decade old, how the Judicial Conference of the United States approached them has fresh relevance, with Senate Democrats pushing the same body to consider recent revelations about Thomas’ close ties with Dallas real estate billionaire Harlan Crow.
“The Judicial Conference actions then are the prequel to what is in front of it now,” said Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., as he convened Wednesday’s subcommittee hearing on the topic.
