Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas\u2019s lavish travel provided by Republican donor Harlan Crow included two more flights aboard the billionaire\u2019s private jet that were not publicly disclosed, according to a letter Monday from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) to Crow\u2019s attorney.<\/p>\n
Wyden, the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, wrote that he is seeking additional information about travel that Crow provided to the justice and additional records because he is concerned that Crow might have improperly used the gifts to lower his tax bills, a claim Crow denies.<\/p>\n
The two flights add to a long list of travel and other perks Thomas has received from Crow, including private school tuition for a relative and the purchase of the home where Thomas\u2019s mother lived in Georgia.<\/p>\n
The largesse and other ethics controversies swirling around the court prompted President Biden to propose a biding ethics code and 18-year term limits for the justices last week, a package of overhauls that has little chance of passing Congress at the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe questions I\u2019ve been asking of Mr. Crow and Justice Thomas about these luxury trips and lavish gifts are not really all that complicated,\u201d Wyden said in a statement to The Washington Post. \u201cHow many of these trips happened, and when it comes to Mr. Crow\u2019s taxes, is everything on the level or did he claim a whole lot of personal travel as write-offs?\u201d<\/p>\n
U.S. Customs and Border Protection documents show Thomas and his wife, Virginia \u201cGinni\u201d Thomas, took a roundtrip flight from Hawaii to New Zealand aboard Crow\u2019s private jet in November 2010, according to the letter. Crow was onboard the flights.<\/p>\n
It was unclear how the Thomases traveled to Hawaii or how they got home.<\/p>\n
Wyden wrote that Thomas has not listed the flights in financial disclosure forms that Supreme Court justices are required to file, even though he has previously amended the forms to include other travel aboard Crow\u2019s jet.<\/p>\n
Thomas did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He has said disclosure rules at the time of the travel did not require him to report the flights because they fell under a \u201cpersonal hospitality\u201d exemption. Justices are now required to report such travel.<\/p>\n
Michael Zona, a spokesman for Crow, said in a statement that Wyden\u2019s inquiries are \u201cintended to harass a private citizen\u201d and that Congress has no role in tax enforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Crow and his businesses are in good standing with the IRS,\u201d Zona said. \u201cHe has always followed applicable tax law as advised by national accounting firms who serve as his tax advisors. It\u2019s concerning that Senator Wyden is abusing his committee\u2019s powers as part of a politically motivated campaign against the Supreme Court.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas\u2019s lavish travel provided by Republican donor Harlan Crow included two more flights aboard the billionaire\u2019s private jet that were not publicly disclosed, according to a letter Monday from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) to Crow\u2019s attorney. Wyden, the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, wrote that he is seeking additional information […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7314,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}