Washington — Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas took three undisclosed trips aboard a private jet provided by Republican megadonor Harlan Crow between 2017 and 2021, according to documents obtained by the Senate Judiciary Committee and released Thursday.
The records, which Crow turned over to the committee, show that Thomas traveled aboard Crow’s private jet in May 2017 on a flight from St. Louis, Missouri, to Kalispell, Montana, with a return flight to Dallas two days later.
The second newly revealed trip on the plane took place in March 2019, from Washington, D.C., to Savannah, Georgia, and back. The third, in June 2021, included roundtrip flights between Washington and San Jose, California.
The committee said the documents were obtained as a result of its vote to authorize a subpoena for Crow in November. In addition to Crow, the panel’s Democrats voted to subpoena to conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo, who refused to comply with their demand for information. Crow’s office said in April he had not received a subpoena from the committee.
A release from the committee noted that Thomas did not include the private jet travel in his most recent financial disclosure statement, which was released last week.
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“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,” Judiciary Committee chairman Dick 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.”
Crow’s office said in a statement that he reached an agreement with the panel to turn over information going back seven years in response to Democrats’ requests for lists of travel, gifts, lodging or other transactions he provided to any member of the Supreme Court.
“Despite his serious and continued concerns about the legality and necessity of the inquiry, Mr. Crow engaged in good faith negotiations with the Committee from the beginning to resolve the matter,” Crow’s office said. “As a condition of this agreement, the Committee agreed to end its probe with respect to Mr. Crow.”
Durbin said the documents also showed travel aboard Crow’s private jet for a trip to Indonesia in July 2019, an eight-day “yacht excursion” for that vacation and private jet travel for a July 2019 trip to Santa Rosa, California.
The two trips in July 2019, to Indonesia and California, were reported by Thomas in an amendment to his 2019 financial disclosure form, which was included in his latest disclosure last week. Thomas reported receiving food and lodging at a private club and hotel. He did not include the trips aboard the private plane or yacht. His report said the lodging information was “inadvertently omitted” from his original filing.
Durbin also said the dates of the Indonesia trip reported by Thomas differ from those listed in documents Crow provided.
