Justice Thomas accepted previously undisclosed private jet flight to New Zealand, Senate Democrat says

By John Fritze, CNN

(CNN) — 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.

Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, is focused on the potential tax implications of the gifts Crow made to Thomas.

“I am deeply concerned that Mr. Crow may have been showering a public official with extravagant gifts, then writing off those gifts to lower his tax bill,” Wyden wrote.

The New York Times first reported on Wyden’s letter.

A spokesman for Crow told CNN that the billionaire’s lawyers had “already addressed Senator Wyden’s inquiries, which have no legal basis and are only intended to harass a private citizen.”

“It’s concerning that Senator Wyden is abusing his committee’s powers as part of a politically motivated campaign against the Supreme Court,” the spokesman said.

Thomas did not respond to a request for comment.

President Joe Biden has made structural changes at the Supreme Court an issue during the waning months of his presidency. Biden has proposed term limits for Supreme Court justices and also an enforceable code of conduct.

White House spokesperson Andrew Bates on Monday said “today’s news strengthens the case” Biden made for reforms. “The most powerful court in the United States shouldn’t be subject to the lowest ethical standards, and conflicts of interest on the Supreme Court cannot go unchecked,” Bates said.

Thomas has come under fire for his failure to include such trips on financial disclosure forms the justices release each year, though he and his defenders argue that he followed the court’s disclosure rules as they were understood at the time. Last year, the federal judiciary’s policy-making body said that travel on private planes should be reported by the justices – closing a loophole that Thomas said had exempted him from reporting the “personal hospitality” he had received from friends.

Thomas has previously said that he was advised at the time that he was not required to disclose the hospitality he received from the Crows, but that he intended to follow the recent changes to the guidance going forward. In June, Thomas revised his disclosure form to formally disclose a 2019 trip to Indonesia paid for by Crow, a vacation that was at the center of the controversy over his travel.

In response to criticism, the Supreme Court adopted a code of conduct last year for the first time in its history. But the document relies on the justices themselves to police their ethics and that arrangement has drawn sharp criticism from Democrats and ethics experts.

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Aileen Graef contributed to this report.

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