Justice Thomas, Alito files 2022 financial disclosure forms with new visits and gifts: NPR

Justice Clarence Thomas, who has been the subject of scrutiny of vacations and other gifts from conservative billionaire Harlan Crowe, reported additional trips paid for by Crowe in newly released financial disclosure forms in 2022.

Here’s what’s new in the disclosure:

• Thomas flew to Dallas in February 2022 to be a keynote speaker at a conference sponsored by three conservative organizations, but flew back on Crowe’s private jet “due to an unexpected snowstorm.”
• The talks were rescheduled for May, and Thomas took a detour on Crowe’s private jet “because of the increased security risk that followed.” Dobbs Roy Leake,” which backfired. Roe v. Wade.
• In July, Thomas traveled to Crow’s Resort in the Adirondacks for a vacation.
• Thomas also said he “inadvertently omitted” information in previous disclosure reports, including a $100,000 life insurance policy for his wife and a bank account with less than $70,000 in 2018.
• Thomas also provided details of a real estate deal involving Crowe and Thomas and members of his family. Crowe paid $133,000 for three homes in Georgia, including one where Thomas’ mother lives. Justice “and his wife had made between $50,000 and $75,000 in investment improvements to his mother’s home over the years, and therefore, had an investment loss in the transaction.” It said Thomas was advised by committee staff to remove the properties from his disclosure forms because they “no longer generated any rental income.” But he “inadvertently failed to recognize that the ‘sales transaction’ for the final disposition of the three properties triggered a new reportable transaction in 2014, even though the sale resulted in a capital loss,” the disclosure said. .

Separately, Justice Samuel Alito also released his 2022 disclosure form on Thursday. In it, he said he had traveled to Rome to speak at a religious freedom summit in 2022. Notre Dame Law School’s Religious Freedom Initiative paid for the trip, including Alito’s transportation, lodging and meals. Alito noted that he was paid $9,000 to teach at Regent University School of Law and $20,250 to teach at Duke Law School.

This revelation came after the scrutiny of Supreme Court judges and their ethics filings. ProPublica reported this year that for perhaps two decades, Thomas and his wife, Ginny Thomas, went on lavish trips around the world that Crowe paid for and that Crowe paid for private school tuition for Thomas’ grandson. and bought properties owned by Thomas and his family. . Thomas never disclosed any of it, as he was required to do under the disclosure provisions of the federal Ethics in Government Act, which applies to all federal judges, including Supreme Court justices. ProPublica also reported that Alito failed to disclose that he enjoyed an all-expenses-paid, high-end fishing trip to Alaska, complete with private jet travel, from hedge fund titan Paul Singer. Courtesy, a major Republican donor, who is involved. In 10 appeals to the Supreme Court.

In a statement accompanying Thursday’s disclosure, Thomas’ attorney said there was “no intentional ethics violation” and called prior reporting errors “strictly inadvertent.” The statement also criticized what it described as “partisan liberal frenzy” and called it a “political blood sport”.