US Supreme Court Thomas will not lead to the Justice Department, according to Reuters

In Nat Raymond (NS:)

(Reuters) – A judicial policymaking body rejected a request by Democratic lawmakers to investigate claims that conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose gifts and trips made to him by a wealthy philanthropist.

Secretary of the U.S. Judiciary, the federal judiciary’s top policy-making body, Thomas made amendments in two letters citing several issues raised by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Representative Hank Johnson regarding amendments to annual financial disclosure reports.

In a separate letter, the conference rejected a request by the conservative group that liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s own disclosures be sent to the Justice Department in the same manner.

Jackson redacted her reports, the letter said. The letter was sent to President Donald Trump’s Republican nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, president of the Center for American Renewal.

In a statement, Whitehouse criticized the judicial branch’s response to inquiries about Thomas, saying it was “stepping over its legal duty to hold a Supreme Court justice accountable for misconduct.”

The judges and the center did not respond to requests for comment.

Democratic lawmakers filed a letter in April 2023 regarding Thomas, who is a member of the Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority, not reporting gifts from ProPublica and others, including a luxury trip from wealthy Texas businessman Halan Crow.

Their letter argued that Thomas willfully failed to comply with the financial disclosure requirements of the 1978 Government Ethics Act, which warranted a referral to the Justice Department.

Thomas said he was advised not to report that type of “personal hospitality” and promised to do so starting with his 2022 annual report, due in August 2023.

U.S. District Judge Robert Conrad, who heads the administrative arm of the Judiciary and serves as the Clerk of the Judiciary Assembly, wrote that starting in 2023, updating the judiciary’s financial disclosure requirements and clarifying when the personal hospitality exemption does not apply.

Thomas said he filed the amended financial disclosure reports after the cases first came out and agreed to follow the relevant guidance given to other federal judges, including the new policies.

“We have no reason to believe he did anything less,” Conrad wrote.

In refusing to make a referral to the Justice Department, Conrad cited “constitutional questions” about whether a judicial conference seeking further study could do so.

The lawmakers also asked the White House and another senator to appoint a special counsel to investigate similar cases in a direct letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland.