Ethics complaints about Judge Clarence Thomas referred to higher judicial panel

Complaints against the Supreme Court of Justice Clarence Thomas have been referred to a federal panel that oversees the nation’s financial disclosure laws, a senior judicial official said tuesday.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (DR.I.) and Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) last week called on the body that oversees the federal judiciary to refer Thomas for an investigation amid a series of explosive revelations that he did not report gifts from a billionaire friend for two decades. ProPublica published a series of short stories this month detailing the years of luxury vacations Thomas and his wife took with benefactor Harlan Crow, including a trip aboard Crow’s yacht and private jet. The publication later reported Crow had bought Thomas’s ancestral home and other land in 2014, where the judge’s mother continues to live without paying rent.

Thomas failed to report the transaction on his financial disclosure forms as required by law.

“There is reasonable cause to believe that Judge Thomas willfully failed to submit the required information,” the judge said. two democrats wrote with nearly two dozen other colleagues last week.

US District Judge Rosylnn Mauskopf told Whitehouse and Johnson that she had referred the matter to the Judicial Conference at their request. The body, which sets the rules for the federal judiciary, in March updated its disclosure rules include requirements that judges report gifts of lodging and hospitality.

“I have forwarded your letter to the Committee on Financial Disclosure of the Judicial Conference, which is responsible for implementing the disclosure provisions of the Ethics in Government Act and addressing allegations of errors or omissions in financial disclosure reporting,” Mauskopf wrote to lawmakers. .

It is unclear how the committee will move forward with the allegations. The Washington Post was the first to inform development.

He body It is made up of more than two dozen of the nation’s top circuit and district court judges and is headed by Chief Justice John Roberts of the Supreme Court.

Thomas responded to the report about his trip with Crow last week, saying he had sought guidance on travel early in his tenure on the Supreme Court. republicans have moved to shake the criticism of justice in the midst of revelations.

“(I) was informed that this type of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who had no business before the court, was not reportable,” he said at the time.

Thomas has not commented on the real estate transaction, the first evidence that money is moving directly from Crow to Thomas’ family.