Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of US, admitted receiving luxury trips, private jet flights and a real estate transaction from a Texas billionaire. The statement was made last Thursday, the 31st, in its annual financial disclosure form.
For security reasons, Thomas included a statement defending his trip with billionaire Harlan Crow, who donated to conservative causes. In 2022, the judge’s official statement did not reveal free holidays in Bali aboard Crow’s 49meter yacht or stays in luxury hotels paid for by the billionaire.
US lawmakers have renewed their calls for a stricter ethics code after revelations that Justices Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. accompanied billionaires on lavish vacations but failed to report the trips. Although they are required to submit annual reports on their investments, donations and travel, federal judges are not subject to binding ethics rules.
Judges file financial forms every spring and most were released in early June. However, Thomas and Alito requested a 90day extension, which was only announced last Thursday.
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According to Thomas, he flew on the tycoon’s private jet because he was advised to avoid commercial travel following the publication of the project that abolished the constitutional right to abortion.
“Due to the increased security risk, the May flights were operated for business travel on private aircraft as security personnel recommended noncommercial travel when possible,” Judge Thomas wrote.
Judge first reported on private jet travel in the 1990s, and even as these revelations died down in the mid2000s, he continued these trips throughout the decades. The nature of Thomas and Crow’s relationship was raised after the extent of the mogul’s generosity was questioned and the judge failed to disclose related information.
Crow treated Thomas to a series of luxurious trips, including flights on his private jet, island hopping on his yacht and vacations at his estate in the Adirondacks, New York. The billionaire also bought the judge’s mother’s home in Savannah, Georgia, and paid some of the judge’s greatnephew’s private school tuition.
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Judge Alito, in turn, admitted that while vacationing at a luxury fishing cabin in Alaska in 2008, he enjoyed a private plane provided to him by multimillionaire Paul Singer. In the years that followed, Singer repeatedly had to file lawsuits in court.
Both judges insisted that these gifts and trips were not reportable at the time. Alito defended his actions, saying he was not required to report the trip because “judges have generally interpreted this discussion of ‘hospitality’ to mean that lodging and transportation to social events are not reportable gifts.” Furthermore, the private flight was “It was a transport for a purely social event,” he added.
In March, the United States Judicial Conference, the policymaking body of the federal courts, announced a change to rules for gift and travel reporting, including a requirement to disclose private jet flights. Under the previous rules, Thomas said, he was told he didn’t have to disclose “gifts he received as personal hospitality from an individual.”
But now the judge said he had sought legal advice to “continue to work with Supreme Court staff and committee staff to obtain guidance on whether his reports from previous years should be further amended.” Still, Judge Thomas left other acts of generosity he received unanswered.
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Judge Thomas’ attorney, Elliot S. Berke, said in a statement that he had reviewed the judge’s records and was “confident that there was no intentional ethical transgression and that all previous reporting errors were entirely unintentional,” Berke charged and “leftwing ‘watchdog’ groups” to attack the justice system for “alleged ethical violations, stemming largely from their relationships with private friends who happen to be wealthy.”