“For safety reasons”
US constitutional judge reveals donated luxury travel
9/1/2023 1:57 am
After massive criticism, Clarence Thomas explains that he allowed himself to be invited to fly in a real estate magnate’s private jet for security reasons. Errors in earlier statements happened by mistake, the US judge has his lawyer align.
Controversial US constitutional judge Clarence Thomas has reported several free trips on a private jet owned by a Texas billionaire. The statement of accounts follows massive public criticism of the private trips. Thomas has now explained that he traveled free of charge on the private jet of real estate magnate and Republican supporter Harlan Crow last year for security reasons. Thomas referred to the publication of a controversial decision by the Supreme Court to overturn abortion rights. He was advised, if possible, to travel non-commercially.
At the Supreme Court, whose nine judges are appointed for life and pass judgments that are groundbreaking in socio-political terms, Thomas is considered a voice on the far right. Especially when it comes to contentious issues that touch on Christian values and polarize people in a similar way, such as the right to an abortion, he usually takes strictly conservative positions.
A series of revelations have sparked controversy over gifts to judges in recent months. Thomas had reportedly accepted luxury travel from Crow without reporting them. In addition, the billionaire paid for Thomas’ grandnephew’s private school and bought Thomas’s house, where his mother lives.
“Always trying to obey the law”
The judge also failed to state that the billionaire donated $500,000 to a conservative lobby group founded by his wife, Ginni Thomas, much of which went to her as salary. Thomas had said the rules for reporting such stays had changed and that there was no Supreme Court case pending against Crow.
Thomas’ attorney Elliot Berke said the mistakes in previous statements were made inadvertently. The judge always tried to uphold the law. The criticism of Thomas was “ridiculous” and came from “left-wing organizations”.