Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s lavish travel provided by Republican donor Harlan Crow included two more flights aboard the billionaire’s private jet that were not publicly disclosed, according to a letter Monday from Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., to Crow’s attorney.
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. 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’s mother lived in Georgia. 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.
“The questions I’ve been asking of Mr. Crow and Justice Thomas about these luxury trips and lavish gifts are not really all that complicated,” Wyden said in a statement to The Washington Post. “How many of these trips happened, and when it comes to Mr.
Crow’s taxes, is everything on the level or did he claim a whole lot of personal travel as write-offs?” U.S. Customs and Border Protection documents show Thomas and his wife, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, .