Kansas Crimson

Justice Clarence Thomas took a previously undisclosed flight on a private jet owned by GOP megadonor Harlan Crow in 2010, a top Senate Democrat said Monday – the latest in a series of revelations that come as the high court is under pressure to strengthen its ethics practices.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden said US Customs and Border Protection records reviewed by the committee showed Thomas and his wife, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, flew from Hawaii to New Zealand on Crow’s jet on November 19, 2010, and then returned on the jet a week later.

The flight was not listed on Thomas’ financial disclosure reports and is the most recent example of the conservative justice accepting luxury travel from Crow becoming public. Earlier examples of that travel documented by ProPublica last year – including travel on Crow’s yacht, the Michaela Rose – prompted widespread calls for ethics reform at the court.

“Neither Mr. Crow nor Justice Thomas have disclosed the full scale of the Thomas’s use of the Michaela Rose and private jets courtesy of Mr. Crow, even as the Congress continues to uncover additional international private jet travel with Mr. Crow that Justice Thomas failed to disclose on his ethics filings,” Wyden wrote in a letter to Crow’s attorney on Monday.

Shirley wrote: ↑Tue Aug 06, 2024 11:21 am SMFH!

Just because we've become desensitized to this shit because assholes like Thomas and Alito have no personal integrity and have done so much of this shit, doesn't mean it isn't outrageous. We deserve a whole fucking lot better. Whatever happened to public trust? Do they really not give a damn? This is so, so wrong!

...to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest...

Our children and grandchildren are being raised in this environment, where the guiding principle seems to be that if you can get away with it, it's OK-Go for it! I spent my entire childhood, and life, feeling as if there's someone watching me, and keeping score. It doesn't mean I didn't break the rules ocassionlly, but at least there was a voice in the back of my head telling me not to, and I felt guilty about it after the fact...