Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (left) and billionaire Harlan Crow.
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Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas omitted at least three private jet trips donated by Republican megadonor Harland Crow from his annual financial disclosures, a top Senate Democrat claimed Thursday.
Illinois Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin said the trips included private flights in 2017, 2019 and 2021, which Thomas did not disclose.
Durbin’s office said it obtained documents disclosing the trips through a judicial panel authorized subpoena Crowe was investigated in November as part of a Supreme Court ethics inquiry.
Crowe’s office told CNBC it had reached a deal to provide the committee with relevant information dating back seven years in exchange for the committee dropping its investigation into the real estate mogul.
“While Mr. Crowe continues to have serious concerns about the legality and necessity of the investigation, he has engaged in good faith negotiations with the committee from the outset to resolve this matter,” Mr. Crowe’s office said in a statement.
The documents show Thomas took a private flight from St. Louis, Mo., to Kalispell, Montana, on May 5, 2017, and boarded a private flight on May 9, the senator’s office said in a news release. Flight back to Dallas, Texas.
Durbin’s office said Crowe’s documents also show a round-trip flight from Washington, D.C., to Savannah, Georgia, on March 23, 2019, and a flight from Washington, D.C., to San Jose, California, on June 29, 2021. Round trip flights.
Durbin said in a statement that the Senate investigation of the Supreme Court “clearly demonstrates that the Supreme Court needs an enforceable code of conduct as its members continue to choose not to abide by it.”
Spokespeople for Thomas and the Supreme Court did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
The Judiciary chairman released the information less than a week after Thomas revised the 2019 financial disclosure report he received from Crowe to include trips to Bali, Indonesia, and Monte Rio, California.
In his latest disclosure, Thomas said both trips were “inadvertently omitted” at the time.
First revealed by ProPublica Last year, they reported in an explosive investigation that the trip to Bali could have cost more than $500,000 if the conservative judge paid for it himself. Thomas did not specify the value of those trips in the amendment disclosed last week.
Thomas’ attorney, Elliot Berke, said in August 2023 that the judge correctly followed judicial guidance at the time that did not require him to disclose traffic circumstances.
The new information provided by Durbin also follows a recent analysis by the justice reform group Fix the Court, which found that Thomas accepted gifts worth millions of dollars during his more than three decades on the U.S. Supreme Court.
That number dwarfs the combined value of all gifts received by the other eight sitting justices, an analysis by Fix Court shows.
The court announced a code of conduct in November aimed at dispelling any “misconception” that its nine life-appointed members believed they were not adhering to ethical rules.
But the document, which has no apparent enforcement measures, has done little to quiet the voices of the court’s mostly Democratic critics. Their complaints are only growing as the court, where conservatives hold a 6-3 majority, prepares to hand down key rulings related to former President Donald Trump.
Durbin said Thursday the committee will continue to push as long as Chief Justice John Roberts refuses to adopt an enforceable code of conduct legislation This will subject the courts to new ethical and financial rules.
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