Latin Times
The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee accused conservative justices on the Supreme Court of violating federal disclosure laws after the panel released a report showing Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas failed to disclose luxury trips and gifts from wealthy contributors, CNN reported.
Democrats on the committee released the 93-page report on Saturday, just weeks before Republicans will take over the panel.
Sen. Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, said the report’s findings detailing the failure by Alito and Thomas to disclose the gifts “constitutes a violation of federal law.”
“Now more than ever before, as a result of information gathered by subpoenas, we know the extent to which the Supreme Court is mired in an ethical crisis of its own making,” Durbin said in a statement, CNN reported.
“It’s clear that the justices are losing the trust of the American people at the hands of a gaggle of fawning billionaires,” he added.
The report found additional trips taken by Thomas in 2021 but not reported on his annual financial disclosure form, the Associated Press reported.
They include a flight by private jet to New York’s Adirondacks in July and trips by jet and private yacht to New York City in October sponsored by billionaire Harlan Crow, the AP said.
They were among more than two dozen times Thomas took luxury trips and gifts from well-heeled benefactors.
Thomas has come under fire previously for accepting lavish gifts and travel from Crow.
The committee’s report also showed Alito took a lavish trip to Alaska in 2008.
Neither Thomas nor Alito disclosed the trips, saying they were exempt, citing previous rules.
The court established a code of ethics in 2023, but compliance is left up to the discretion of the nine justices.
Originally published by Latin Times
