Senate Democrats Request Special Counsel to Investigate Clarence Thomas Gifts
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, and Ron Wyden (D-OR), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, announced on Tuesday that they have asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to investigate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
The press release read that the two senators sent a letter to Garland asking for an immediate probe into “potential violations of ethics, false statement, and tax laws by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and the benefactors who have supplied him with undisclosed gifts.”
“We do not make this request lightly. The evidence assembled thus far plainly suggests that Justice Thomas has committed numerous willful violations of federal ethics and false-statement laws and raises significant questions about whether he and his wealthy benefactors have complied with their federal tax obligations. Presented with opportunities to resolve questions about his conduct, Justice Thomas has maintained a suspicious silence,” wrote Whitehouse and Wyden, adding:
No government official should be above the law. Supreme Court justices are properly expected to obey laws designed to prevent conflicts of interest and the appearance of impropriety and to comply with the federal tax code. We therefore request that you appoint a Special Counsel authorized to investigate potential criminal violations by Justice Thomas under the disclosure, false statement, and tax laws; pursue leads of related criminal violations by donors, lenders, and intermediate corporate entities; and determine whether any such loans and gifts were provided pursuant to a coordinated enterprise or plan.
Thomas has raked in over $4 million in gifts during his career, including some $2.4 million in the last twenty years – according to recent data from watchdog group Fix The Court. The jaw-dropping amount far outpaces all the other judges’ gifts combined, with former Justice Antonin Scalia coming in second with $175,861 in gifts received in the last twenty years.
The data from Fix The Court also shows Justice Samuel Alito taking in some $170,095 in gifts, former Justice John Paul Stevens taking $79,059 and Ruth Bader Ginsburg taking in $55,014.
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