This action is Democratic Senators’ Efforts deal with The ethics debate surrounding Thomas and the Supreme Court has been ongoing in recent years. A Whitehouse aide said it may be the first time they have asked for a special counsel to investigate a Supreme Court justice. Whitehouse sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee and Wyden is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
Jeremy Fogel, a former federal judge and president of the Berkeley Institute of Justice, said the Justice Department has the legal authority to appoint a special counsel to investigate Thomas, but whether it will actually do so is another matter. “Inevitably it’s going to be seen as political retaliation for a judge issuing a ruling he didn’t like,” he said. “I don’t see how you get out of that framework.”
The Justice Department has not commented on the request. Whitehouse and Wyden said in a statement that the evidence shows that Judge Thomas “knowingly and repeatedly violated federal ethics and false statement laws.”
“We do not make this request lightly,” they said. “The evidence gathered to date clearly demonstrates that Judge Thomas has knowingly and repeatedly violated federal ethics and false statement laws and raises serious questions about whether he and his wealthy benefactors complied with their federal tax obligations.”
Supreme Court lawyer Elliot S. Burke was formerly Said “We have always strived for full transparency and compliance with the law, including with respect to personal travel which is required to be reported,” Thomas said, adding that any failure to disclose information was “completely inadvertent.”
The senators specifically asked the Justice Department to investigate a $267,000 loan that Thomas took out in 1999 to buy a luxury motor coach., “They added that they have not received satisfactory answers from Mr Thomas about how the matter has been handled,” the report said. post.
FILE/Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, Virginia “Ginnie” Thomas, prepare for their official portrait in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 1, 1991. (AP Photo/Barry Tuma)
As Breitbart News reported last year, the Supreme Court disclosed the gifts it received after changes to financial disclosure rules.
“Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ financial disclosures this week have fueled hyperventilating attacks by left-wing Democrats, but in reality they show that their concerted attacks on the only Black conservative on the nation’s highest court are unfounded,” Ken Krukowski reported.
“Financial disclosure guidelines for federal judges were changed in March, and in response, Mr. Thomas disclosed additional details about past entertainment and gifts he had received. Critics who fervently disagree with his views on the Constitution and the law ferociously attacked these disclosures, arguing that they suggest wrongdoing,” he added.
Conservatives say this is court expansion in reverse: Some liberal Democrats pushed for a bill to expand the number of Supreme Court justices to add liberal justices, and when that failed, they launched a campaign to force the court’s most conservative justices to recuse themselves from high-profile cases.
