Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday called for the impeachment of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas after the release of a bombshell ProPublica report which charged that he accepted multiple luxurious trips funded by a Republican megadonor.
The report alleged that Thomas and his wife, conservative activist Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, went on trips nearly every year funded by businessman Harlan Crow, a GOP megadonor, that were not disclosed on his public financial filings with the high court.
The nonprofit journalism organization said that the hospitality included trips to Georgia, Texas and New Zealand, as well as voyages aboard Crow’s yacht and private jet, and visits to the businessman’s private resort in the Adirondacks. The outlet detailed that a 2019 trip to Indonesia would have cost upwards of $500,000 had Thomas chartered a plane and yacht himself.
Supreme Court justices, like other federal judges, are required to file an annual financial disclosure report which asks them to list gifts they have received. It was not clear why Thomas omitted the trips, but under a judiciary policy guide consulted by The Associated Press, food, lodging or entertainment received as “personal hospitality of any individual” does not need to be reported if it is at the personal residence of that individual or their family. That said, the exception to reporting is not supposed to cover “transportation that substitutes for commercial transportation” and properties owned by an entity.
In a statement to the outlet, Crow said that Thomas “never asked for any of this hospitality,” adding that it was “no different from the hospitality we have extended to our many other dear friends.”
Crow told ProPublica that he and his wife have been friends of Thomas and his wife since 1996, five years after Thomas joined the high court.
Crow added that he “never asked about a pending or lower court case, and Justice Thomas has never discussed one, and we have never sought to influence Justice Thomas on any legal or political issue.”
ProPublica's story says that Thomas has been vacationing at Crow’s lavish Topridge resort virtually every summer for more than two decades. During one trip in 2017, other guests included executives at “Verizon and PricewaterhouseCoopers, major Republican donors and one of the leaders of the American Enterprise Institute, a pro-business conservative think tank,” ProPublica reported.
“I am unaware of any of our friends ever lobbying or seeking to influence Justice Thomas on any case, and I would never invite anyone who I believe had any intention of doing that,” Crow told the outlet. “These are gatherings of friends.”
In a rare statement issued Friday, Justice Thomas said that he did not disclose the trips with the Crows because he was advised at the time he did not have to do so.
"Harlan and Kathy Crow are among our dearest friends, and we have been friends for over twenty-five years," Thomas wrote. "As friends do, we have joined them on a number of family trips during the more than quarter century we have known them."
"Early in my tenure at the Court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable," the justice continued.
"I have endeavored to follow that counsel throughout my tenure, and have always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines," he added. "These guidelines are now being changed, as the committee of the Judicial Conference responsible for financial disclosure for the entire federal judiciary just this past month announced new guidance. And, it is, of course, my intent to follow this guidance in the future."
Last month, the federal judiciary beefed up disclosure requirements for all judges, including the high court justices, although overnight stays at personal vacation homes owned by friends remain exempt from disclosure.
In a Twitter post Thursday, Ocasio-Cortez wrote that the “degree of corruption is shocking — almost cartoonish,” and called for Justice Thomas’ impeachment.
“This is beyond party or partisanship,” the New York progressive wrote, adding: “Barring some dramatic change, this is what the Roberts court will be known for: rank corruption, erosion of democracy, and the stripping of human rights.”
This is not the first time Ocasio-Cortez has called for Thomas’ impeachment or resignation: The New York Democrat was part of a chorus of voices in the Democratic Party calling for such an action last year in the wake of reporting that his wife sent text messages to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows urging him to act to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
“Clarence Thomas should resign,” she wrote on Twitter at the time. “If not, his failure to disclose income from right-wing organizations, recuse himself from matters involving his wife, and his vote to block the Jan 6th commission from key information must be investigated and could serve as grounds for impeachment.”
Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the upper chamber’s No. 2 Democrat, called the report “a call to action” and said that the panel he leads will take action.
“The highest court in the land shouldn’t have the lowest ethical standards,” he wrote in a statement released by the Senate Judiciary Democrats, adding: “Today’s report demonstrates, yet again, that Supreme Court Justices must be held to an enforceable code of conduct, just like every other federal judge.”
Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, another prominent Senate Democrat, said that the report “cries out for the kind of independent investigation that the Supreme Court — and only the Supreme Court, across the entire government— refuses to perform.”
“Who were Thomas’s companions on these free undisclosed vacations, and what interests did those undisclosed companions have before the Court? The question is obvious,” Whitehouse wrote on Twitter. “All of this needs robust investigation, and it’s the Chief Justice’s job to make ure that occurs.”