A request for an investigation into US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for alleged financial disclosure failures has been referred to the US Judicial Conference’s Committee on Financial Disclosure, according to reports.
Democratic lawmakers, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Representative Hank Johnson of Georgia, had asked the Judicial Conference to refer the matter to US Attorney General Merrick Garland, according to the Washington Post and Politico.
Whitehouse and Johnson said in a letter that “there is at least reasonable cause to believe that Justice Thomas intentionally disregarded the disclosure requirement” when he failed to report the sale of his interest in three properties in Savannah, Georgia, to his wealthy friend Harlan Crow, a billionaire and a Republican donor. In such cases, a referral is required, the lawmakers’ letter said.
The lawmakers also cited a ProPublica report that said Thomas accepted luxury trips from Crow that included jet flights, cruises on a superyacht, and stays at Crow’s private resorts.
The Committee on Financial Disclosure is made up of 16 federal judges.
The Washington Post cited one prior occasion in which the Department of Justice investigated the travel expenses of a federal appeals judge. There was no prosecution following the 2014 investigation.
The issue of transparency in the Supreme Court has been a topic of debate for some time, with many calling for greater disclosure of financial information from the justices. Justice Thomas has been the subject of particular scrutiny in this regard, as he has been accused of failing to disclose certain financial information in the past.
In 2011, Justice Thomas was accused of failing to disclose his wife’s income from the conservative Heritage Foundation and other organizations. He later amended his disclosure forms to include the information. In 2018, he amended several years of disclosure reports to add details about his wife’s employment and income.
The current allegations against Justice Thomas stem from his failure to report the sale of his interest in the three properties in Savannah to Crow. According to the lawmakers’ letter, Thomas sold the properties for $680,000 in 2019, but did not report the transactions on his annual financial disclosure forms for that year. The lawmakers said that the failure to report the transactions violated federal law and the Code of Conduct for United States Judges.
The lawmakers also cited the ProPublica report, which detailed a series of luxury trips that Thomas and his wife took with Crow. According to the report, the trips included flights on Crow’s private jet, stays at his private resorts, and cruises on his superyacht. The lawmakers said that the acceptance of these gifts and trips may have created a conflict of interest for Thomas, and that he may have been required to recuse himself from certain cases involving Crow or his businesses.
The referral of the matter to the Committee on Financial Disclosure is a significant development, as it could result in further scrutiny of Justice Thomas’s financial disclosures and potential disciplinary action. The committee has the authority to request additional information from Thomas and to refer the matter to the Department of Justice if it believes that a violation of federal law has occurred.
However, it is unclear at this time whether the committee will take any further action, and it is possible that the matter will ultimately be dropped without any disciplinary action taken against Justice Thomas.
Regardless of the outcome, the allegations against Justice Thomas highlight the ongoing debate over transparency and accountability in the Supreme Court, and may fuel calls for greater disclosure of financial information from the justices in the future.