A judicial policymaking body on Thursday rejected a request by Democratic lawmakers to refer the conservative US supreme court Justice Clarence Thomas to the Department of Justice to examine claims that he failed to disclose gifts and travel provided by a wealthy benefactor.
The secretary to the US judicial conference, the federal judiciary’s top policymaking body, pointed at amendments Thomas had made to his annual financial disclosure reports for the decision.
In a separate letter, the conference declined to refer liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the justice department based on claims by a conservative group that she failed to disclose the source of her husband’s consulting income. Jackson has since amended her disclosures, that letter noted.
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Democratic lawmakers Sheldon Whitehouse, a senator from Rhode Island, and Hank Johnson, a congressman from Georgia, had asked the conference to refer Thomas to the department after reporting from ProPublica in April 2023 revealed that Thomas had not reported being treated to luxury trips by wealthy Texas businessman and Republican donor Harlan Crow.
Their letter argued that a referral to the justice department was warranted because Thomas had willfully failed to comply with the financial disclosure requirements of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978.
Thomas had said he had been advised he did not have to report that type of “personal hospitality” and said he would do so going forward starting with his 2022 annual report, which was filed in August 2023.
Robert Conrad, a US district judge, who heads the judiciary’s administrative arm and acts as the judicial conference’s secretary, wrote that the judiciary had been busy since 2023 updating its financial disclosure requirements and making clear when the personal hospitality exemption does not apply.
He said Thomas had filed amended financial disclosure reports since the issues first emerged and that he has agreed to follow the relevant guidance issued to other federal judges, including the new policies.
“We have no reason to believe he has done anything less,” Conrad wrote.
In declining to make a referral to the justice department, Conrad cited “constitutional questions” about whether the judicial conference could do so that require further study.
He also said the lawmakers’ request was mooted when Whitehouse, with another senator, wrote directly to the attorney general, Merrick Garland, asking him to appoint a special counsel to investigate the same matters.
