By Jess Bravin
WASHINGTON -- Senate investigators identified three more trips Justice Clarence Thomas took at billionaire Harlan Crow's expense but failed to report on financial disclosure forms, fueling concerns over the Supreme Court's sometimes haphazard compliance with ethics guidelines.
The revelations make "it crystal clear that the highest court needs an enforceable code of conduct, because its members continue to choose not to meet the moment," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D., Ill.), who released the trip records, said Thursday.
Under public and congressional pressure, the Supreme Court last year published its first ever code of conduct. But critics complained that the code has no enforcement mechanism and leaves decisions such as when to recuse themselves from a case to individual justices themselves.
Crow's attorney provided details of the trips to resolve a committee investigation into the lavish vacations and gifts the Dallas developer has given Thomas over several decades, many of which were uncovered by the news outlet ProPublica.
"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. As a condition of this agreement, the Committee agreed to end its probe with respect to Mr. Crow," the developer's office said Thursday.
Crow has said he never has discussed pending Supreme Court cases with Thomas.
Thomas didn't respond to a request for comment. Thomas previously has said he believed it was unnecessary to report trips Crow provided under an exception to disclosure requirements for personal hospitality.
Last year, the Judicial Conference, the federal judiciary's policymaking body, clarified its guidelines to specify that the exception applies to staying at a private home but that vacation expenses such as hotel bills or air travel must be reported.
The records released Thursday list trips Thomas took by private jet that Crow provided to Kalispell, Mont., in May 2017; Savannah, Ga., in March 2019 and San Jose, Calif., in 2021. The purpose of the trips wasn't recorded.
Write to Jess Bravin at Jess.Bravin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 13, 2024 16:22 ET (20:22 GMT)
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