A report published last week accusing Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas of inappropriately receiving lavish gifts from a wealthy friend is nothing more than a political hit, an expert claimed.
“This is just grasping at straws by the left desperate to take down Judge Thomas because he now has a working original majority in the court,” said Roger Severino, vice president of domestic policy and The Joseph C. and Elizabeth A. Anderlik Fellow at Heritage Foundation.
“This is politics. Simple and straightforward.“
Severino’s comments to Fox News Digital came in response to a ProPublica report Thursday he accused Thomas of receiving inappropriately lavish vacations from Republican mega-donor Harlan Crow.
The ProPublica report accuses Thomas of making trips around the world on Crow’s yacht and private jet without disclosing them and Crow acknowledged extending “hospitality” to Thomas but insisting he never asked for it and that the two families have been friends for decades.
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Judge Clarence Thomas has come under fire for reports that he failed to disclose the gifts of a major GOP donor. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
The ProPublica report claimed that travels by Thomas “have no known precedent in the modern history of the U.S. Supreme Court,” which Severino flatly rejected.
“There is no ‘there’ there because the judges have received gifts of hospitality from friends forever,” Severino said. “And many of the judges have made far more trips than Judge Thomas at anyone else’s expense, including Judge Breyer, who we know made at least 233 trips while on the bench.”
Severino explained that judges are allowed to accept invitations to friends’ properties for a dinner or vacation without paying for it or disclosing it.
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“There’s nothing to see here because there’s not a single allegation that accepting travel to a friend’s property in any way influenced Judge Thomas’s decision making,” Severino said. ‘That’s absurd. If you know anything about Judge Thomas, it is that he is in no way influenced by outside pressure. He is guided by the law and the constitution. Point.“
Severino accused liberals of giving a “pass” to perceived bias on the left, pointing out that the late Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg presided over a same-sex marriage before the Obergefell decision that federally recognized same-sex marriage.
“Does that know maybe bias where she should have backed off?” asked Severino. “The media was silent about that and that kind of thing is much closer to the core of impropriety in judging.”
Judges are not required to disclose invitations and travel that would be considered “personal hospitality” and the Supreme Court is not subject to any code of ethics.
The Washington Post reported that the Judicial Conference, the court’s policy-making body, decided last month that judges must report travel by private jet, which Severino says is further evidence that Thomas was following the rules.
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Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas speaking at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. on October 21, 2021 (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
“It actually reinforces even more the fact that he acted within the rules and according to the practice that has been understood for decades. Hospitality includes when someone picks you up to take you to their home or to their property. That is what hospitality is. happened to be a friend who made it in the world who’s been quite successful, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s a friend.”
Constitutional law professor and Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley told Fox News Digital that until recently, “even lower court judges were not required to report such travel under a personal hospitality exception.”
“Justice Thomas would not have been required to report the trips under the earlier rule,” Turley said. “Once again, Democrats and the media seem to be giving the same chilling responses to any story involving Thomas. This includes Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s patently absurd call for impeachment.”
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In terms of the ProPublica implication that Thomas’s relationship with Crow somehow influenced his rulings from the bench, Severino said, “No one with a straight face can say that Judge Thomas has been influenced by anyone, except by the Constitution and his best reading of it.”
Many liberals on social media called the ProPublica report a “bomb” and some called for his resignation.
At the same time, conservatives on Twitter repeated Severino’s conclusion that there is no “there there” in the report.
“Ridiculously stupid,” author Dinesh D’Souza wrote. ‘He’s going on vacation with a rich friend who also pays for dinner! Is this the best they have? Clarence Thomas’s real offense is being black and conservative.”
“I read the latest high-tech lynching of Clarence Thomas because he went on vacation with his rich boyfriend,” tweeted conservative communications director Greg Price. “I also read the disclosure laws for judges linked in the story that say they don’t have to report gifts from personal friends. ProPublica mysteriously left that out of their story.”
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The ProPublica article quoted multiple experts as decrying Thomas’s actions, including a retired judge appointed by former President Bill Clinton who called the justice’s actions “incomprehensible.”
Other experts, including legal ethics expert Stephen Gillers of the NYU School of Law, took a tone more akin to Severino’s.
Justice Thomas could plausibly argue, and I think he has argued (as have others) that as long as an invitation itself came from a ‘person’, not a company or business entity, it was ‘personal hospitality’ and he did not had to do. report it,” Gillers told the Washington Post.
On Friday, Thomas released a lengthy statement saying just that.
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Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas sits with his wife and conservative activist Virginia Thomas. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
“Harlan and Kathy Crow are among our best friends, and we have been friends for over twenty-five years,” Thomas said in a statement. “As friends do, we’ve joined them on a number of family outings over the more than quarter-century we’ve known them.
“Early at the beginning of my tenure on the Court, I sought the advice of my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was told that this kind of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who had no business before the Court, could not be reported. I have endeavored to follow that guidance throughout my tenure, and have always endeavored to comply with disclosure guidelines.”
Thomas acknowledged that the guidelines were changed last month and that it is his “intention to follow these guidelines going forward.”
Turley told Fox News Digital that Thomas was “right to release a public statement.”
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“Judges have long been guests of private hosts,” Turley said. “They are allowed to have friends and accept their hospitality. There is no evidence that Crow conducted business in court. Nevertheless, in my opinion, expensive gifts or benefits should be disclosed in the interests of the integrity of the court.”
“I’ve also long advocated for a code of ethics that applies in court. The question is where to draw the line so that judges aren’t constantly forced to treat every friend as a lobbyist or influence seeker.”
Andrew Mark Miller is a writer at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to [email protected].
