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(The Guardian) Clarence Thomas defends undeclared hospitality
Embattled supreme court justice Clarence Thomas says he believed the decades of lavish hospitality he received from a Republican mega-donor did not need to be disclosed.
The statement from the conservative justice released on Friday is his first response to the bombshell accusations by ProPublica the day before that he took travel on yachts and jets, and other gifts funded by the property billionaire Harlan Crow, but did not declare them.
Democrats are calling for Thomas’s impeachment.
In the lengthy statement, a rare move for a sitting supreme court justice, Thomas says, in part: Early in my tenure at the Court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable. I have endeavored to follow that counsel throughout my tenure, and have always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines.
Thomas says he will comply with tweaks made to disclosure rules for all justices and federal judges last month that require personal hospitality to be declared.
In his own statement, reported by Law and Crime, Crow insisted he and his wife Kathy were “dear friends” with Thomas and his wife Ginni, and “we have never sought to influence Justice Thomas on any legal or political issue”.
Embattled supreme court justice Clarence Thomas says he believed the decades of lavish hospitality he received from a Republican mega-donor did not need to be disclosed.
The statement from the conservative justice released on Friday is his first response to the bombshell accusations by ProPublica the day before that he took travel on yachts and jets, and other gifts funded by the property billionaire Harlan Crow, but did not declare them.
Democrats are calling for Thomas’s impeachment.
In the lengthy statement, a rare move for a sitting supreme court justice, Thomas says, in part: Early in my tenure at the Court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable. I have endeavored to follow that counsel throughout my tenure, and have always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines.
Thomas says he will comply with tweaks made to disclosure rules for all justices and federal judges last month that require personal hospitality to be declared.
In his own statement, reported by Law and Crime, Crow insisted he and his wife Kathy were “dear friends” with Thomas and his wife Ginni, and “we have never sought to influence Justice Thomas on any legal or political issue”.
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