Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas responded Friday to mounting criticism over his luxury vacations funded by a billionaire conservative mega-donor—stressing that the pair are long-time friends and the jaunts were simply “personal hospitality” rather than business-related.
In a statement from the court, Thomas said he’d had a decades-long relationship with Harlan Crow, a wealthy Texas businessman who ProPublica revealed on Thursday had funded at least five trips for Thomas since 2008. Among the trips, the outlet reported, included stays on the Republican donor’s 162-foot superyacht and private resorts.
“Harlan and Kathy Crow are among our dearest friends, and we have been friends for over twenty-five years,” Thomas said. “As friends do, we have joined them on a number of family trips during the more than quarter century we have known them.”
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The bombshell article has spurred criticism and raised questions about whether accepting gifts from a wealthy donor could create a conflict of interest for a member of the country’s highest court.
ProPublica reported that for years, Thomas has failed to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gifts on his annual financial disclosures, which are intended to provide transparency about the Supreme Court. In a statement to ProPublica, Crow said that Thomas and his wife, Ginni, “never asked for any of this hospitality,” nor did the group ever discuss a court case.
Several congressional Democrats, however, have expressed outrage and called for an investigation into Thomas—and even for the justice to be impeached.
“The highest court in the land shouldn’t have the lowest ethical standards,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-IL) said in a Thursday statement, vowing that his committee would act on the matter. “This behavior is simply inconsistent with the ethical standards the American people expect of any public servant, let alone a justice on the Supreme Court.”
Thomas, however, pushed back on Friday, insisting that the trips were not related to his judicial duties because they were “personal” in nature.
“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 added. “I have endeavored to follow that counsel throughout my tenure, and have always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines.”
Thomas went on to acknowledge that “these guidelines are now being changed, as the committee of the Judicial Conference responsible for financial disclosure for the entire federal judiciary just this past month announced new guidance.”
“And, it is, of course, my intent to follow this guidance in the future,” he said.
