A top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee is calling for the U.S. Dept. of Justice to open an investigation into the questionable or even possibly unlawful actions over the past two decades of Justice Clarence Thomas. Two bombshell reports from ProPublica over the past week have led some to label the financial dealings and refusal to disclose massive luxury gifts “corruption” by the far-right Supreme Court justice who has sat on the nation’s highest court since 1991.
U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), lamenting the inaction of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, issued a statement Thursday night, citing Justice Thomas’ “apparent brazen disregard,” and calling for DOJ to act, as HuffPost reports.
“It would be best for the Chief Justice to commence a proper investigation, but after a week of silence from the Court and this latest disturbing reporting, I’m urging the Judicial Conference to step in and refer Justice Thomas to the Attorney General for investigation,” Sen. Whitehouse wrote.
The Judicial Conference is a little-known committee comprised of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the chief judge of each judicial circuit, and other federal judges.
Sen. Whitehouse’s call for DOJ investigation comes after House and Senate Democrats sent a letter to the Chief Justice one week ago about Justice Thomas, but apparently received no response. It also comes after the Senate Judiciary Committee, also one week ago, sent Chief Justice Roberts a letter on the same topic, and also apparently received no response.
“In addition to the luxury vacations and private jet use, [billionaire GOP mega donor Harlan] Crow purchased Thomas’ ancestral home in Georgia where his mother still resides from him for an inflated price, ProPublica reported on Thursday. While Thomas had listed his interest in the home on his financial reports in the past, he did not disclose the sale to Crow as required by law,” HuffPost adds.
Whitehouse’s statement cites the Ethics in Government Act, and says he has “reupped his call for the Chief Justice of the United States to launch an ethics investigation into Justice Thomas’s financial relationship with a politically active billionaire and apparent brazen disregard for disclosure laws.”
“New reporting from ProPublica found that Harlan Crow, a Republican megadonor, purchased several properties from Justice Clarence Thomas in 2014. Justice Thomas did not disclose the sales on his financial disclosure forms as clearly required by law,” Whitehouse writes. “Today’s story follows another bombshell ProPublica report exposing that Justice Thomas and his wife accepted extravagant vacations on Crow’s dime, including individual trips worth as much as $500,000. Last week, Whitehouse and Representative Hank Johnson (D-GA) led their colleagues in a letter calling on the Chief Justice to investigate the allegations against Justice Thomas.”
Friday morning on Twitter, Sen. Whitehouse said, “Of all people, Supreme Court justices should not be operating outside the law. The task of investigating these violations is conferred by law on the Attorney General.”
In his Thursday statement Sen. Whitehouse also noted, “Last spring, Whitehouse and [Rep. Hank] Johnson wrote to Chief Justice Roberts requesting that he ensure that Justice Thomas recuse himself from cases involving his wife’s activities related to the 2020 election and the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Thomas has refused to recuse himself, or acknowledge the possible conflict of interest, in multiple cases. Chief Justice Roberts has taken no known action on this matter to date.”
