WASHINGTON (States Newsroom) — U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden urged billionaire GOP donor Harlan Crow’s attorney to provide details Monday on exactly when Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas stepped foot on Crow’s private jet and yacht and whether the donor deducted the trips on his taxes.
The questions from the Oregon Democrat add to the refrain from President Joe Biden, Democratic lawmakers, and ethics watchdogs who for months have been sounding the alarm over conflicts of interest by members of the high court.
Investigative reports have revealed luxury travel, school tuition, and property gifted to Thomas or his family members, as well as public political statements from justices or their spouses, including an upside-down American flag hoisted outside Justice Samuel Alito’s home after the violent riot at the U.S. Capitol following the 2020 election.
Wyden, chair of the Senate Committee on Finance, sent a letter Monday to Michael Bopp, an attorney for Crow, requesting the records as part of a committee probe into Thomas’ undisclosed luxury travel gifted by the conservative donor, including a 2010 roundtrip flight for Thomas and his wife from Hawaii to New Zealand, and a separate trip to Russia.
“The possibility that Mr. Crow may have lavished secret gifts on a sitting Supreme Court justice and then impermissibly reduced his taxable income by millions of dollars with impunity requires legislative scrutiny,” Wyden wrote.
The Senate Finance Committee has jurisdiction over tax policy.
‘A tax scheme’
Citing an investigative ProPublica report and previous correspondence from Bopp about Crow’s yacht usage, Wyden questioned why the entity that owned Crow’s yacht, the Michaela Rose, was previously organized as an S corporation and reported “sustained losses and lack of profits over the course of a decade.”
Wyden wrote the situation “has all the markings of a tax scheme to write off the cost of operating and maintaining a pleasure yacht used entirely for the Crow family’s enjoyment.”
“I seek to understand the means and scale of Mr. Crow’s undisclosed largesse to Justice Thomas to inform several pieces of legislation that the Committee is drafting,” Wyden wrote, adding that changes to the tax code and audit requirements for Supreme Court justices are on his legislative list.
A representative for Crow told States Newsroom in an emailed statement Monday that Crow’s attorneys have already addressed Wyden’s inquiries “which have no legal basis and are only intended to harass a private citizen.”
“Congress has no role in tax enforcement. Mr. Crow and his businesses are in good standing with the IRS. He has always followed applicable tax law as advised by national accounting firms who serve as his tax advisors. It’s concerning that Senator Wyden is abusing his committee’s powers as part of a politically motivated campaign against the Supreme Court,” the spokesperson wrote.
ProPublica first reported on Thomas’ longtime friendship with Crow in April 2023. Crow, a real estate developer, had not had any direct involvement with any Supreme Court cases since Thomas joined, though the court occasionally takes cases that could affect the broader real estate industry.
There is no enforceable standard to demand justices recuse themselves from cases in which they may have a conflict of interest.
Calls for Supreme Court ethics overhaul
Wyden’s is not the only voice scrutinizing Thomas’s acceptance of gifts from a well-known political donor.
Biden urged Congress in late July to “restore faith” in the court by passing an enforceable ethics code and term limits for the Supreme Court justices. U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana has said any legislation to that effect is “dead on arrival” in the Republican-led House.
Efforts in the Democrat-led U.S. Senate to pass ethics legislation have been stalled for over a year. A bill sponsored by Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse advanced out of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary along party lines in July 2023 but has not reached the chamber floor.
In November 2023, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to subpoena Crow and conservative operative Leonard Leo for information related to luxury travel gifted to Thomas and Alito.
In June, the Judiciary Committee revealed information provided by Crow that listed undisclosed travel by Thomas, including three domestic private jet flights as well as more details on a recently disclosed 2019 yacht trip to Indonesia.
Crow’s representative said Crow “was glad to reach an agreement with the Senate Judiciary Committee — the committee with jurisdiction over the judicial branch — to end its inquiry as part of an agreement that provided responsive information.”
According to an analysis of Supreme Court gift disclosures, the advocacy group Fix the Court reported that Thomas received gifts and travel totaling well over $4 million between 2004 and 2023.
