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This 2020 photo shows Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas at the White House in Washington, DC.
CNN
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Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on Friday officially revealed a 2019 trip to Indonesia paid for by GOP megadonor Harlan Crow, a vacation that was at the center of controversy over his trip.
The Bali trip was the focus of ProPublica’s original report last year, which sparked months of headlines about posh trips accepted by judges. Although the news agency’s reporting publicized the trip, Thomas did not officially disclose it in his previous reporting.
Thomas’ annual financial disclosure, which typically discloses travel, gifts and outside income from the previous year, included a note at the end listing Harlan and Kathy Crow as the source of a trip to Bali in July 2019. The couple paid for “food”. and accommodation,” according to the report. Thomas placed no value on the journey.
Thomas also reported a Crows-paid trip to a private club in Monte Rio, California, that same month.
Annual returns, required by law, provide only a sketch of the financial status of judges and lower court judges. But the reports have attracted considerable attention in recent years, amid a series of ethics scandals involving private jet travel and luxury vacations accepted by some judges, as well as lucrative book deals.
Much of this attention has focused on two members of the conservative wing, Thomas and Samuel Alito. Thomas was criticized for a series of trips he accepted from Crow. Alito gained attention for attending a luxury fishing trip aboard a conservative hedge fund manager’s private jet. Most of these trips were not initially disclosed.
As in previous years, Alito was granted a 90-day extension for his report.
The judiciary’s governing body announced last year that it had tightened the rules. Previously, judges could refuse to disclose certain trips – including private jet travel – claiming they were granted as “personal hospitality.” Thomas, in particular, explained the trip as “personal hospitality” from “close personal friends.”
Judges and justices must make a “good faith estimate of fair market value” of that travel if the exact value cannot be readily obtained.
The reports, which cover the 2023 calendar year, are also the first released since the Supreme Court adopted a code of conduct for the first time in its history last fall. This code, which was also a response to the travel scandals, was adopted by the nine judges. But the document has drawn skepticism from ethics experts and some Democratic Democrats because it includes no enforcement mechanism.