Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas took at least three previously unreported trips on private jets paid for by billionaire Republican megadonor Harlan Crow, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin revealed on Thursday.

Thomas has kept the trips on private jets and Crow’s yacht hidden from the public eye for years until media outlets began revealing the relationship last year. 

What You Need To Know

  • Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas took at least three previously unreported trips on private jets paid for by billionaire Republican megadonor Harlan Crow, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin revealed on Thursday
  • A subpoena of Crow has revealed three trips that Thomas has yet to disclose despite increased scrutiny
  • A nonprofit watchdog group recently reported that Thomas received as much as $4.2 million in gifts between 2004 and 2023, at least ten times as much as the next closest justice over the same period
  • The justices adopted an ethics code in November, though Democrats say it is not strong enough because it lacks enforcement

Now, Durbin says, a subpoena of Crow has revealed three trips -- in 2017, 2019 and 2021 -- that Thomas has yet to disclose despite increased scrutiny on his relationship with powerful conservative benefactors and the Supreme Court’s lack of institutional transparency. A nonprofit watchdog group recently reported that Thomas received as much as $4.2 million in gifts between 2004 and 2023, at least ten times as much as the next closest justice over the same period.

“Nearly $4.2 million in gifts and even that wasn’t enough for Justice Thomas, with at least three additional trips the Committee found that he has failed to disclose to date,” Durbin said in a statement. “The Senate Judiciary Committee’s ongoing investigation into the Supreme Court’s ethical crisis is producing new information—like what we’ve revealed today—and makes it crystal clear that the highest court needs an enforceable code of conduct, because its members continue to choose not to meet the moment.”

Durbin went on to specifically criticize Chief Justice John Roberts, who has largely been uncooperative with Democrats’ efforts to push for accountability from the court he oversees.

“Despite an approval rating near all-time lows and never-ending, self-inflicted scandals, Chief Justice Roberts still refuses to use his existing authority to implement an enforceable code of conduct. Until he acts, we will continue our push for the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act to become law,” Durbin added.

The Illinois Democrat said Thursday his committee obtained information from Crow that Thomas took three trips, and at least six flights, on Crow's private jet in 2017, 2019 and 2021. The panel also found evidence of private jet travel during trips to Indonesia and California that Thomas recently disclosed in an amendment to a 2019 financial disclosure report.

The Democratic-led Judiciary panel launched the investigation last year after several reports that Thomas had for years received undisclosed expensive gifts, including international travel, from Crow. The committee has since pushed the Supreme Court to adopt a stronger ethics code as trips by Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito came to light, along with six-figure book deals received by other justices.

There was no immediate comment from the court on the Senate report. In the past, Thomas has maintained that he is not required to disclose the many trips he and his wife took that were paid for the Texas megadonor because Crow and his wife Kathy are “among our dearest friends,” Thomas said in an April 2023 statement that he was advised by colleagues on the nation’s highest court and others in the federal judiciary that “this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable.”

Thomas, 75, and his wife, Virginia, have traveled on Crow’s yacht and private jet in Indonesia as well as stayed at his private resort in New York’s Adirondack Mountains, ProPublica reported last year. ProPublica wrote that it could have cost more than $500,000 had Thomas chartered a plane and yacht himself.

Last week, Thomas said in his annual financial disclosure that Crow paid for a hotel room in Bali, Indonesia, for a single night in 2019, and food and lodging at a private club in Sonoma County, California, the same year. But he did not report the plane flights or the stay on Crow’s yacht.

In a statement released minutes after the Judiciary panel released its report, Crow’s office said he reached an agreement with the committee to provide information responsive to its requests going back seven years, “despite his serious and continued concerns about the legality and necessity of the inquiry.” The panel voted in November to authorize a subpoena for Crow as part of the probe, despite protests from all committee Republicans.

Crow, a longtime GOP donor based in Dallas, has maintained that he has never spoken with his friend about pending matters before the court.

The Judiciary panel said it will release a full report later this year. But among the details Durbin released Thursday was a 2017 trip Thomas took on Crow’s jet from St. Louis to Montana, along with a return flight from Montana to Dallas; round trip private jet travel in 2019 from Washington to Savannah, Ga., and a round trip flight on a private jet from Washington to San Jose, California, in 2021.

The committee said it also has evidence of private jet travel for the 2019 trip to Indonesia, along with documentation of the eight-day yacht excursion.

The justices adopted an ethics code in November, though Democrats say it is not strong enough because it lacks enforcement. The code treats travel, food and lodging as expenses rather than gifts, for which monetary values must be reported. Justices aren’t required to attach a value to expenses.

Starting last year, the justices also must report private plane travel that is given to them. Thomas has declined to report trips he took before those rules went into effect.