Monday, August 05, 2024


Sounds Like There Were More Harlan Crow Flights

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By Nicole Lafond
August 5, 2024 

As part of his committee’s investigation into the friendly relationship between conservative megadonor Harlan Crow and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR) revealed in a letter on Monday yet another unreported instance of luxury travel that, it appears, Crow gifted Thomas.

Writing to Crow’s attorney, Wyden said that his panel’s review of Customs and Border Protection records showed that Thomas and his wife Ginni Thomas — a conservative activist whose own work has raised questions about the Supreme Court justice’s impartiality, specifically on cases related to Jan. 6 — took a round trip flight on Crow’s private jet between Hawaii and New Zealand in 2010.

The travel was never disclosed on any financial disclosure forms, “even though Justice Thomas has amended disclosures to reflect other international travel on Mr. Crow’s private jet,” Wyden wrote in the letter, in which he requested that Crow’s attorneys actually comply with his requests for additional information about the financial relationship between the two men.

“I am deeply concerned that Mr. Crow may have been showering a public official with extravagant gifts, then writing off those gifts to lower his tax bill,” Wyden wrote.

While Thomas has not yet publicly commented on the new details Wyden surfaced in the letter, it is, of course, just one of many revelations made public either by congressional investigators or journalists over the last dozen-some months as Thomas’ penchant for accepting and not disclosing gifts from the right-wing donor propels calls for Supreme Court ethics reform. Wyden’s investigation is just one of many attempts in recent weeks and months from Democrats to push for more oversight of those sitting on the high court.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY) last month introduced articles of impeachment against Justices Thomas and Samuel Alito for not disclosing travel paid for by benefactors and for not recusing themselves from cases related to Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, despite clear and present conflicts of interest. Just last week, President Biden also proposed term limits for Supreme Court justices, as well as other reforms.

In his letter, Wyden asked Crow’s attorneys to comply with his requests so that the panel could “better understand the means and scale of Mr. Crow’s undisclosed largess to Justice Thomas” as it works to write legislation to prevent such behavior moving forward.

Read the letter here.



Supreme Court justice didn't disclose travel, says senator

Christal Hayes
BBC News, Los Angeles
Reuters


Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been accused by a top Democratic senator of failing to disclose two flights on a private jet owned by a billionaire Republican donor.

Ron Wyden, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said that Justice Thomas did not declare a roundtrip from Hawaii to New Zealand with his wife on Harlan Crow's private jet in 2010.

He used a letter to Mr Crow's lawyer to accuse the property mogul of "showering a public official with extravagant gifts then writing off those gifts to lower his tax".

A spokesman for Mr Crow told US media Mr Wyden's inquiries had "no legal basis and are only intended to harass a private citizen", and that Mr Crow had "always followed applicable tax law".

"It’s concerning that Senator Wyden is abusing his committee’s powers as part of a politically motivated campaign against the Supreme Court," said a spokesman for Mr Crow, Michael Zona.

Justice Thomas has not commented publicly on the letter. The Supreme Court did not immediately respond to an inquiry from the BBC.

Justice Thomas has previously said that he believed he did not need to report trips with close friends who do not have business before the Supreme Court.

It is the latest criticism against the conservative judge, whose previous travel on private jets and yachts have previously come under scrutiny.

Under a new disclosure system, the judge in June amended his annual statement to include two trips with Mr Crow in 2019 - one to Bali and another to California.

However, Mr Wyden alleged in his letter that the judge had used private jets paid for by Mr Crow at least 17 times in the last eight years.

The Oregon senator also cited a new trip that he said had not been reported publicly.

Mr Wyden cited US Customs and Border Protection records of a trip from Hawaii to New Zealand in 2010 by the judge and his wife, Virginia, on Mr Crow's private jet.

The White House said Mr Wyden's letter strengthened President Joe Biden's case for sweeping reforms to the court, which is currently dominated by conservatives.

Mr Biden last week proposed establishing term limits for justices, which are currently lifetime appointments, and an enforceable code of conduct.

Such changes would be difficult to pass in Congress.

The White House said on Monday that "the most powerful court in the United States shouldn't be subject to the lowest ethical standards, and conflicts of interest on the Supreme Court cannot go unchecked".

The heightened focus on court ethics has drawn scrutiny to other Supreme Court members.

It emerged last year that Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a liberal, did not recuse herself from three cases involving Penguin Random House, which had paid her more than $3m (£2.4m).

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