Democratic Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Ron Wyden said they have formally asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to criminally investigate the millions of dollars of undisclosed gifts Supreme Court Justice Clarence received and failed to report.
“The full scope of Justice Thomas’s non-disclosures is still unknown, but the evidence assembled thus far suggests that, since his appointment to the Supreme Court, Justice Thomas has secretly accepted gifts and income potentially worth millions of dollars. This conduct likely violates the Ethics in Government Act.” the senators' July 3, 2024 letter to AG Garland states.
“It is a crime ‘to knowingly and willfully . . . fail to file or report’ such information,” the letter continues. “Justice Thomas’s disclosure omissions also implicate federal prohibitions against making false statements to the government, and raise questions about Justice Thomas’s and his benefactors’ compliance with federal tax laws.”
Whitehouse and Wyden also want the special counsel to investigate whether conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo’s $25,000 consulting fee paid to wife Ginni Thomas “was part of a coordinated gift program or required any additional disclosures by the justice,” The Washington Post reported.
More from The Post:
Last month, Whitehouse and Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) asked the officials with the U.S. Judicial Conference, which oversees judicial ethics issues, to explain how they were handling the disclosures about Thomas. They have yet to receive an answer. The lawmakers had previously asked the conference to refer Thomas to the Justice Department for potential ethics violations.
It's about time!
