A member of the Senate Judiciary Committee joined Democratic colleagues on the committee in sending a letter to Republican mega-donor Harlan Crow seeking information about gifts and travel given to Justice Clarence Thomas.
U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and 10 other Senators signed a May 8 letter to Crow, who is chairman of the board of Crow Holdings Securities, LLC, a real estate investment and development firm in Dallas, Texas, according to a press release.
During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Supreme Court ethics reform, Hirono “highlighted the absurdity of the Supreme Court’s lack of a code of ethics,” the release stated.
The letter to Crow seeks “to identify the full extent of Mr. Crow’s and the corporations’ gifts to Justice Thomas, what other individuals were able to gain special access to Justice Thomas, and any other Justices via the travel and lodging provided, and whether those individuals had interests before the Supreme Court,” according to the release.
“Recent investigative reporting has identified multiple instances in which you or entities you own, or control have made payments, purchased real estate, or provided gifts, travel, or other items of value to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and members of his family,” the letter stated. “Many of these gifts, transactions, and items of value had not been previously disclosed by Justice Thomas, in apparent contravention of the Supreme Court’s April 25, 2023 ‘Statement on Ethics Principles and Practices’ which claimed that Justices since 1991 ‘have followed’ the financial disclosure requirements provided in the Judicial Conference Regulations, and other applicable obligations. You have issued several public statements acknowledging these items of value that you have given to Justice Thomas and his family members.”
The letter also established a May 22 deadline for Crow to answer the committee’s questions.
Thomas, who took his seat on the Supreme Court on Oct. 23, 1991, was nominated by President George H.W. Bush as an associate justice, according to the Supreme Court website. He is the second Black justice on the Supreme Court, Oyez reported.
The information that Crow provides the committee would “help identify specific shortcomings in the ‘Statement on Ethics Principles and Practices,’ as well as current law, that legislation needs to address,” according to the letter.
Also signing the letter were U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-New Jersey), Alex Padilla (D-California), Dianne Feinstein (D-California), Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island), Christopher Coons (D-Delaware), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota), Jon Ossoff (D-Georgia), and Peter Welch (D-Vermont).