US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas reportedly accepted luxury trips from a businessman without publicly disclosing them despite a federal law requiring the disclosure of most gifts, a media investigation found on Thursday, prompting Democratic senators to call for an investigation.
The report by ProPublica found that Mr Thomas has repeatedly gone on holiday with real estate magnate and Republican donor Harlan Crow, including on his private jet and superyacht in the US and around the globe.
The news outlet said the frequency of the gifts have “no known precedent in the modern history of the US Supreme Court”.
The report raises new questions over potential conflicts of interest involving the justices and the court, which has endured escalating criticism for its lack of a formal ethics code.
The nine justices of the court are the only federal judges who are not formally bound by a code of conduct.
Mr Crow told ProPublica in a statement that he and his wife have been friends with Mr Thomas and his wife since 1996 and have “never sought to influence Justice Thomas on any legal or political issue”.
Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Dick Durbin said his panel “will act” based on the report, without specifying what steps it would take.
Chief Justice John Roberts has said justices consult that code in assessing their own ethical obligations.
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said the report would give fresh momentum to his long-standing drive for legislation that would require the Judicial Conference of the US to create a code of ethical conduct for the court.
“It’s no longer OK for the Supreme Court to be the only federal court without a binding ethical code,” Mr Murphy said.
The ProPublica report is the latest revelation to prompt ethics concerns about Mr Thomas.
Previous reports of his wife Virginia “Ginni” Thomas's involvement in efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, along with Mr Thomas’s decision not to recuse himself from election-related cases, raised questions about his judicial impartiality.
Mr Thomas's failure to report the trips provided by Mr Crow appears to violate a federal law requiring justices, judges and other federal officials disclose most gifts, ProPublica reported, citing legal ethics experts.
Perhaps the court's most conservative member, Mr Thomas joined the bench for a lifetime appointment in October 1991 after being nominated by Republican President George HW Bush.
Agencies contributed to this report
