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Justice Clarence Thomas faces impeachment calls over undisclosed luxury trips funded by conservative megadonor
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New York Times: Justice Thomas Says He Was Advised Lavish Gifts Did Not Need to Be Reported: Justice Clarence Thomas said on Friday that he had followed the advice of “colleagues and others in the judiciary” when he did not disclose lavish gifts and travel from a wealthy conservative donor. In a statement released by the Supreme Court, the justice said he believed he was not required to report the trips. “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,” Justice Thomas said. “I have endeavored to follow that counsel throughout my tenure, and have always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines.”
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Washington Post: Senate Democrats urge chief justice to investigate Thomas’s unreported gifts: Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee called on Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to investigate a report that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas accepted luxury trips around the globe for two decades from a prominent Republican donor without disclosing them.The revelations were made in a report last week from nonprofit news outlet ProPublica. The article detailed an array of trips — including travel on a superyacht and private jet — Thomas took that were funded by Harlan Crow, a Dallas business executive. The publication said Thomas typically spends about a week every summer at Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks. In a letter Monday to Roberts, Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, and other Democrats on the panel urged the chief justice to investigate the claims made in the ProPublica report. The Democrats also announced that the committee will hold a hearing on the “need to restore confidence in the Supreme Court’s ethical standards.”
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ProPublica: Clarence Thomas and the Billionaire: In late June, 2019, right after the U.S. Supreme Court released its final opinion of the term, Justice Clarence Thomas boarded a large private jet headed to Indonesia. He and his wife were going on vacation: nine days of island-hopping in a volcanic archipelago on a superyacht staffed by a coterie of attendants and a private chef. If Thomas had chartered the plane and the 162-foot yacht himself, the total cost of the trip could have exceeded $500,000. Fortunately for him, that wasn’t necessary: He was on vacation with real estate magnate and Republican megadonor Harlan Crow, who owned the jet — and the yacht, too. For more than two decades, Thomas has accepted luxury trips virtually every year from the Dallas businessman without disclosing them, documents and interviews show. A public servant who has a salary of $285,000, he has vacationed on Crow’s superyacht around the globe. He flies on Crow’s Bombardier Global 5000 jet. He has gone with Crow to the Bohemian Grove, the exclusive California all-male retreat, and to Crow’s sprawling ranch in East Texas. And Thomas typically spends about a week every summer at Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks.
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Washington Post: Opinion: It’s time for Clarence Thomas to come clean: Justice Clarence Thomas has inflicted incalculable damage on the Supreme Court — damage that requires action by Congress and the chief justice to strengthen ethics rules. But Thomas himself could take an immediate step to repair the injury to what is left of the court’s reputation for independence and integrity by providing an accounting of the all-expenses-paid trips he should have reported — but didn’t — on decades of financial disclosure forms. Yes, I know, little in Thomas’s history suggests he is inclined to go scouring his travel records. If he doesn’t, his colleagues — namely, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. — should insist on it, and so should the Judicial Conference of the United States, the body charged with reviewing the justices’ financial disclosure forms.
Unrepentant (and indicted) Trump faces even further legal hurdles, including investigations into mishandled classified documents and his attempt to subvert the 2020 election in Georgia
- RawStory: ‘Racists, lunatics, maniacs!’ Trump explodes at prosecutors in furious all-caps post: Former President Donald Trump on Monday morning wasn’t just content to attack the man whom he appointed to be his attorney general, he also lashed out at prosecutors of all stripes for purportedly leading political investigations into his conduct. Shortly after he criticized “slovenly” former Attorney General Bill Barr for saying he would likely be indicted for refusing to return top-secret government documents he’d stashed at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Trump took aim at every person investigating him with an all-caps rage post on his Truth Social platform. “THE ONLY REASON I HAVE THESE ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS INVESTIGATIONS AGAINST ME , HEADED UP BY RACISTS, LUNATICS, AND RADICAL LEFT MANIACS, IS FOR PURPOSES OF ELECTION INTERFERENCE,” Trump claimed. “IT WILL BE HARDER FOR THE DEMOCRATS TO CHEAT LIKE THEY DID IN 2020, SO THEY ARE GOING RIGHT TO THE OLD SOVIET UNION PLAYBOOK AND USING THE DOJ, FBI & OTHERS IN ‘JUSTICE’ TO INTERFERE IN OUR ONCE SACRED ELECTIONS. WE’VE GOT TO SWAMP THESE CHEATERS, AND WE WILL WIN!”
- Business Insider: Former AG Bill Barr says Trump should be ‘most concerned’ about the classified documents investigation: ‘He was jerking the government around’: Former Attorney General Bill Barr said that of all the legal battles surrounding former President Donald Trump, he should be “most concerned” about the investigation into his mishandling of classified documents. “He had no claim to those documents, especially the classified documents. They belonged to the government. And so, I think he was jerking the government around,” Barr said during an interview on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. The FBI seized dozens of classified documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate during a raid last year. Barr said he thinks Trump is likely to be indicted in the case.
- New York Times: Georgia Looms Next After Trump’s Indictment in New York: The indictment of Donald J. Trump in New York over hush-money payments to a porn star was a global spectacle, with the former president glumly returning to his old stomping grounds in Manhattan as TV networks closely tracked his procession of black SUVs on their way to the courthouse. But strip away the high drama, and the actual charging document in the case was far less grand — 34 felony counts of a fairly narrow and common bookkeeping charge that Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, described as the “bread and butter” of his office’s white-collar criminal prosecutions. In Georgia, however, there is another criminal investigation of Mr. Trump nearing completion, this one also led by a local prosecutor, Fani T. Willis of Fulton County. While nothing is certain, there are numerous signs that she may go big, with a more kaleidoscopic indictment charging not only Mr. Trump, but perhaps a dozen or more of his allies.
In The States
TENNESSEE: Expelled lawmaker reclaims seat, but tensions over racial injustice and the overreach of a legislative supermajority remain
- The Tennessean: Justin Jones returns to state legislature after unanimous Nashville Council appointment: Rep. Justin Jones left the Tennessee Capitol on April 6, expelled from the House of Representatives for leading a gun-control protest from the floor following a deadly Nashville school shooting. On Monday, hundreds of jubilant supporters marched alongside him as he walked up the Capitol steps to take back his seat. “I want to welcome the people back to the people’s house. I want to welcome democracy back to the people’s house,” Jones said in his first remarks back on the floor. “Last Thursday, members tried to crucify democracy, but today we have a resurrection.”
- Washington Post: Tenn. GOP deepens racial tension after expelling Black lawmakers: Tennessee House Republicans said it was a just a matter of decorum, the need to behave properly in the historic chamber of the state Capitol. Two newly elected Black lawmakers had disrupted the sanctity of the chamber, Republicans said, when the young legislators yelled into bullhorns and chanted with gun-control advocates during a protest that filled the gallery in the wake of a Christian school shooting last month that left six dead. A White female lawmaker had joined them and the trio — Justin Jones, 27, Justin Pearson, 29, and Gloria Johnson, 60 — quickly became known as the “Tennessee Three.” Now the Republican supermajority — largely White and male — was set to vote Thursday to expel the lawmakers, overriding the will of thousands of voters in an unprecedented act of retaliation to silence its opponents. Their action risked further scarring a state with a legacy of brutal battles over race and power.
- CNN: Tennessee House GOP expels 2 Democrats in retaliation over gun control protest, on ‘sad day for democracy’: Two Democratic members of the Tennessee House of Representatives were expelled while a third member was spared in an ousting by Republican lawmakers that was decried by the trio as oppressive, vindictive and racially motivated. Protesters packed the state Capitol on Thursday to denounce the expulsions of Reps. Justin Jones and Rep. Justin Pearson and to advocate for gun reform measures a little over a week after a mass shooting devastated a Nashville school. Speaking to CNN’s Don Lemon on “CNN This Morning,” Jones decried the actions of House Republicans. “What happened yesterday was a very sad day for democracy,” Jones said. “The nation was able to see we don’t have democracy in Tennessee.” Jones confirmed if he is reappointed to the seat by the 40-member Nashville Metro Council, he would serve. “I have no regrets. I will continue to stand up for my constituents.”
WISCONSIN: State Republican leaders look for answers after Supreme Court loss
- PBS Wisconsin: Republicans can’t simply remove a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice: Democrats celebrated the April 4 election of Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Janet Protasiewicz to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, cementing a 4-3 liberal court majority. But another election result fanned speculation that Republicans could topple that new majority by impeaching Protasiewicz. Rep. Dan Knodl, R-Germantown, won the 8th Senate District special election, giving Republicans a two-thirds majority in the state Senate. That is the threshold for the Senate to remove office holders. An Assembly majority, which Republicans hold, can impeach. But a legislative effort to oust a justice would steer Wisconsin politics into nearly uncharted waters. Lawmakers have impeached just one judge in state history — in 1853, and the Senate didn’t convict — and legal experts call a modern-day removal under the current circumstances unlikely, citing finer details of the process.
- Politico: No Wisconsin wake-up call: Republicans go full steam ahead on abortion restrictions: The drubbing Republicans took in Wisconsin this week revealed how harmful the issue of abortion still is to the party — and will likely remain through 2024. But following a state Supreme Court race that largely turned into a wholesale rebuke of GOP efforts to restrict abortion rights, Republicans in states across the country are plowing ahead with new restrictions anyway. Hours after the vote in Wisconsin, Idaho’s Republican governor, Brad Little signed legislation prohibiting traveling with a minor out of state for an abortion without parental consent. That same day, a Democratic lawmaker in North Carolina announced she was switching parties, giving Republicans a veto-proof majority and raising the prospect of further abortion restrictions in the state. And then there’s Florida, where the legislature is soon expected to send a six-week abortion ban to the desk of Gov. Ron DeSantis.
- Wisconsin Public Radio: In a pivotal Wisconsin Supreme Court race, young voters turned out: An hour before the polls closed on Tuesday, Teddy Landis was standing outside a freshman dining hall on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, trying to encourage students who hadn’t voted yet to cast their ballots.”That was incredibly difficult,” Landis said. “Everyone coming out of the building had an ‘I Voted’ sticker.” Wisconsin’s election for an open state Supreme Court seat broke turnout records for a spring election. The liberal candidate, Janet Protasiewicz, received more than a million votes, besting her conservative opponent, former Justice Dan Kelly, by 11 percentage points, according to preliminary results. In the past, races for the Supreme Court might have gone unnoticed by college voters. Not this year. “Based on the number of numbers we’re seeing, we believe we were incredibly successful,” said Landis, an organizer for Project 72 WI, a group that was founded in order to turn out young voters in the Supreme Court race. “It’s unlike anything that’s ever been seen in a spring election in terms of turnout on college campuses.”
What Experts Are Saying
Steven Levitsky, Harvard political scientist: “‘[Donald Trump is] certainly not the first politician to be prosecuted — sometimes fairly, sometimes not — to play the political victim card’…What’s notable in Trump’s case, however, is that his own party is echoing the stolen election claims ahead of the next campaign. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last month said he was directing his party’s committee chairs to ‘investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions.’ ‘That a whole party is carrying this line is somewhat unusual,’ Levitsky said.” Associated Press
Joanna Lydgate, chief executive officer of States United Action: “Critics warn that Trump is, once again, sowing suspicions of fraud that could damage democracy. ‘We’ve seen this film before,’ Joanna Lydgate, chief executive officer of States United Action, which tracks politicians who embrace Trump’s election lies, said in a statement. ‘We know this is dangerous because we all saw what happened on January 6th.’” Associated Press
Debra Perlin, policy director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW): “With the indictment of former President Donald Trump, the U.S. justice system is putting teeth behind the idea that no one in a democracy is above the law…One of the judiciary’s early challenges will be maintaining Trump’s Sixth Amendment right to an impartial jury to dispense impartial justice. Federal and state courts frequently confront high-profile and politically sensitive cases against elected officials, and the U.S. judiciary’s procedures and legal standards were designed to meet this moment.” Just Security
Headlines
The MAGA Movement And The Ongoing Threat To Elections
Washington Monthly: Right-Wing Extremism Is Even More Common Than You Think
New Republic: Today’s Paranoid Right Has Surpassed the John Birch Society
Guardian: Key conservative group joins attacks on partnership that improves voter rolls
Politico: Election officials have ideas for stopping a 2024 crisis before it even starts
Trump Investigations
New York Times: Trump and His Lawyers: A Restless Search for Another Roy Cohn
January 6 And The 2020 Election
Washington Post: Texts between D.C. police and Proud Boys head shown at Jan. 6 trial
Politico: Appeals court ruling puts hundreds of Jan. 6 felony cases in limbo
Tampa Bay Times: Ex-soldier with Jan. 6 ties gets 7 years prison in Tampa case
New York Times: Trump Appeals Decision Forcing Pence to Testify to Jan. 6 Grand Jury
Washington Post: Jan. 6 rioters can be prosecuted for obstructing Congress, court rules
Opinion
New York Times: How to Make Trump Go Away
The Hill: If the Republican Party will not stand up to its nominees’ bad behavior, prosecutors must
Washington Post: The ‘Tennessee 3’ saga highlights the GOP retreat into Fortress MAGA
In the States
NBC: Hounded by baseless voter fraud allegations, an entire county’s election staff quits in Virginia
Washington Post: Printer glitches in Ariz. election not due to malfeasance, review finds
NBC 4 Hastings: Next steps for voter ID in Nebraska: No notary required, narrower focus on verification
WFIT Public Radio: Florida elections bill would further restrict voter registration groups
New York Times: Revised Plan for Justice System in Mississippi Capital Leaves Same Bitter Divide
Alabama Political Reporter: Black Voters, Organizations sue Jefferson County for Racial Gerrymandering
Vox: A North Carolina Democrat left the party — and shifted the balance of power
