Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas reportedly took dozens of a trips with a top Republican donor. Photo: AFP / Olivier Douliery
By Bernd Debusmann Jr
US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has said he believed luxury trips he took with a billionaire Republican donor followed guidelines.
A ProPublica report earlier this week said Justice Thomas had accepted vacations from real estate mogul Harlan Crow nearly every year for two decades.
Supreme Court justices are required to file annual disclosures of gifts.
Justice Thomas said that he had been led to believe that "this sort of personal hospitality" did not apply.
According to ProPublica, the trips included several on Crow's luxury yacht, the Michaela Rose, and private plane, as well as a week spent every summer in the Adirondack mountains.
One trip, to Indonesia in 2019, may have cost as much as $500,000 (NZ$797,000), according to the non-profit news website.
ProPublica also reported that the trip to Indonesia was not Thomas' first time onboard the Michaela Rose.
"He went on a river day trip around Savannah, Georgia, and an extended cruise in New Zealand roughly a decade ago," the publication said.
As a token of his appreciation for the New Zealand trip, ProPublica reported he gave one yacht worker a copy of his memoir. Thomas signed the book: "Thank you so much for all your hard work on our New Zealand adventure."
In a statement on Friday, Justice Thomas said that he had sought "guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary" and was told that "that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable".
"I have endeavoured to follow that counsel throughout my tenure, and have always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines," the statement added.
The top judge described Crow and his wife Kathy Crow as "among our dearest friends, and we have been friends for over twenty-five years".
Virginia Canter, a former government ethics lawyer who served under Democratic and Republican administrations alike, told BBC News there was no indication Justice Thomas sought a formal opinion on the matter.
"There's no accountability for the court ... each justice seems to decide for themselves who they're going to go for for advice and what rules apply," the lawyer, who spoke with ProPublica for its report, added.
BBC News has not independently verified ProPublica's reporting, which sought to contrast Justice Thomas' public comments with lavish details of the trips and gifts.
"I prefer RV parks. I prefer the Walmart parking lots to the beaches and things like that," he told a documentary about his life.
"I come from regular stock and I prefer that - I prefer being around that."
Crow, a leading donor to Republican and conservative political causes in the US, told ProPublica that the trips with him and his wife Ginni Thomas were "no different from the hospitality that we have extended to many other dear friends".
"Justice Thomas and Ginni never asked for any of this hospitality," the statement said.
The statement from Crow added that court cases were "never discussed" on the trips and that he is unaware of any attempts by other guests "lobbying or seeking to influence Justice Thomas on any cases".
"I would never invite anyone who I believe had any intention of doing that," he said.
"These are gatherings of friends."
Gifts also included stays at the highly secretive all-male Bohemian Grove resort in California, according to ProPublica.
Several Democratic lawmakers are now calling for an investigation and for a stricter code of conduct for Supreme Court justices.
"This is beyond party or partisanship. This degree of corrupting is shocking - almost cartoonish," New York Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on Twitter.
"Thomas must be impeached".
The process of impeaching a Supreme Court judge is the same as that used to impeach other officials, and begins with the House of Representatives drafting articles of impeachment.
While only a narrow majority is needed to impeach a federal judge in the House, a conviction in the Senate would require a two-thirds majority.
The current 50-50 split in the Senate between Republicans and Democrats means that a conviction is extremely unlikely.
Justice Thomas is one of six conservative-leaning justices of the nine-member Supreme Court.
The recent report is not the first time that Justice Thomas' private trips have come under scrutiny.
In 2004, the Los Angeles Times reported that Justice Thomas had accepted gifts and private jet flights from Crow, including a US$15,000 Abraham Lincoln bust and $19,000 Bible that once belonged to 19th century US black abolitionist Frederick Douglass.
Justice Thomas declined to comment at the time. He did not disclose any more trips following the report.
Last year, the conservative jurist came under scrutiny after it was revealed that his wife, Ginni Thomas, repeatedly urged Trump White House staff to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Critics said the justice should have recused himself from election-related cases.
Thomas later told the congressional committee investigating the 6 January riot at the US Capitol that she regretted "all those texts".
The judge entered the Supreme Court in after a bruising series of Senate hearings in 1991 in which he rejected an allegation that he sexually harassed a woman who worked for him.
- BBC with ProPublica