Overview
- Justice Clarence Thomas publicly thanked Senator Ted Cruz for defending him on Cruz’s podcast, which published Monday, during a rare interview about the ethics controversy.
- A ProPublica probe published in 2023 documented decades of previously undisclosed benefits from billionaire Harlan Crow to Thomas, including private-jet travel, yacht vacations, VIP sporting passes, a $19,000 Bible once owned by Frederick Douglass, school tuition payments, and property transactions.
- Thomas later amended his financial disclosures and said he had “inadvertently omitted” some trips paid for by Crow.
- Conservative politicians including Cruz defended Thomas after the reporting while critics have pointed to Crow’s political donations to some defenders as a factor that raises questions about reciprocity and political ties.
- The Court adopted a first-ever code of ethics in 2023 that remains nonbinding and lacks an independent enforcement mechanism, and the episode is likely to renew calls for enforceable rules, congressional oversight of related contacts, and continued scrutiny of Ginni Thomas’s political activism.