Two leading Democrats in the U.S. Senate requested that the Department of Justice open a criminal investigation into Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to see whether he violated any federal tax or ethics laws.
The lawmakers, Senators Ron Wyden from Oregon and Sheldon Whitehouse from Rhode Island, sent Attorney General Merrick Garland a letter last week asking that he appoint a special counsel to the case, the New York Times reported.
They want to look into Thomas’ alleged failure to disclose luxury travel, luxury gifts and many other perks that some of his wealthy friends — some of whom are major donors to the Republican Party — gave to him and his wife.
This is all coming as Democrats have been increasing the rhetoric about rules and regulations that the Supreme Court justices must adhere to, as they look to initiate stricter rules for financial disclosures and ethics.
In a joint statement, the two senators wrote:
“We do not make this request lightly. Supreme Court justices are properly expected to obey laws designed to prevent conflicts of interest and the appearance of impropriety and to comply with the federal tax code.
“No government official should be above the law.”
The senators have specifically asked a special counsel to investigate if Thomas violated tax and ethics laws when he failed to disclose as income a $267,000 gift he received in the form of forgiven debt for a luxury RV.
There were “repeated opportunities” that Thomas had to explain this alleged failure to disclose, the senators wrote, which should have been done to the Senate Finance Committee as well as the panel on federal courts at the Judiciary Committee.
Wyden is the chair of the Finance Committee, while Whitehouse is the chair of the Judiciary Committee.
In addition, the senators accused Thomas of displaying a “willful pattern of disregard for ethics laws,” which they said surpassed that of some other officials in the government whom the DOJ has investigated for “similar violations.”
On Wednesday, progressive Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York took this matter one step further, introducing articles of impeachment against Thomas and fellow conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
This revolves around the fact that both justices have refused to recuse themselves from some cases before the high court.
As she said during a House floor speech:
“Absent resignation, they must be removed.”
She then added later that night:
“Because of Alito’s and Thomas’ refusal to recuse, everyday Americans cannot, should not and will not believe that these justices, and consequently the court they serve, is working to uphold the Constitution and put the country ahead of their own individual self-interests.
“Reasonable Americans will and do believe that Justices Thomas and Alito are prone and subject to corruption, that the institution failing to punish them is broken and that consequently their impeachment is a constitutional imperative and our congressional duty.”
It’s likely that the two justices won’t even be impeached in the House, which is controlled by Republicans. Even if they somehow are, it would be hard to imagine they’d be removed from office by a Senate that Democrats only have a slight majority in.
