Legal experts urge DOJ criminal probe into Clarence Thomas amid calls for his resignation

In the wake of yet another report Clarence Thomas was gifted yet another undisclosed, expensive vacation by GOP megadonor Harlan Crow, this time a 2010 trip with his wife Ginni Thomas from Hawaii to New Zealand via the billionaire’s private jet, some legal experts are calling for the U.S. Supreme Court Justice to resign, as others say the U.S. Dept. of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service should open investigations. Some say a “criminal” investigation is warranted.

“The flight was not listed on Thomas’ financial disclosure reports and is the most recent example of the conservative justice accepting luxury travel from Crow becoming public. Earlier examples of that travel documented by ProPublica last year – including travel on Crow’s yacht, the Michaela Rose – prompted widespread calls for ethics reform at the court,” according to a CNN report, based on a detailed, eight-page letter to Crow’s attorney from Senate Democratic Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden.

In the damning letter Chairman Wyden writes, “it was revealed just a few weeks ago that Justice Thomas enjoyed complimentary use of private jets paid for by Mr. Crow on 17 different occasions since 2016, with 9 of those flights coming in the last three years.”

“Public reports show evidence that Justice Thomas was a passenger aboard the Michaela Rose in Greece, New Zealand and elsewhere. Additionally, a relative of Justice Thomas has stated that he personally witnessed Justice Thomas travel aboard the Michaela Rose in the Caribbean, Russia and the Baltics, with the trip to Russia also including helicopter ride(s).”

READ MORE: Trump ‘Too Old’ Majority Now Say as Health, Mental Fitness Increasingly Worry Voters

“The fact a Supreme Court Justice accepted free travel to Russia paid for by a billionaire and failed to disclose the trip as required by law is undoubtedly concerning and merits continued investigation. Other government officials have been charged for making false statements on financial disclosures for less serious violations than the evidence suggests Justice Thomas committed.”

Last month Chairman Wyden and U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the
Federal Courts, sent an extensively-detailed 14-page letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, requesting he “appoint a Special Counsel to investigate possible violations of federal ethics and tax laws by Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Clarence Thomas.”

That letter included a 35-line chart titled, “Likely Undisclosed Gifts and Income from Harlan Crow and Affiliated Companies.”

The first two lines, dated 2003, read: “Yacht trip to Russia and the Baltics,” and, “Helicopter ride to Yusupov Palace, St. Petersburg.”

Calling it the “site of Rasputin’s assassination by monarchists in 1916,” The New Republic reported in July, “Yusupov Palace is in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hometown of St. Petersburg. Putin has held and attended events at Yusupov Palace over the years, meeting with Chinese President Jiang Zemin in 2002 and attending the birthday party of Germany’s former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in 2014.”

TNR, which cited ProPublica‘s reporting, notes it is not known if Putin met with Justice Thomas in 2003.

Legal exerts are blasting Justice Thomas, and some are questioning why the DOJ has yet to act.

“There’s no reading of the federal ethics laws that exempts private jet travel from disclosure. Thomas’s decades-long pattern of failing to disclose these trips was a willful violation of law subject to criminal penalties. Garland needs to open a case,” writes Alex Aronson, former Chief Counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, now Executive Director of the non-profit organization Court Accountability.

“I’d argue that DOJ’s failure to prosecute obvious willful criminal violations by Supreme Court justices is worse than failing to prosecute crimes by presidents. At least with presidents voters have some measure of accountability at the ballot box,” Aronson continues, before concluding: “It’s readily apparent that the MAGA justices believe the sweeping and unconstitutional immunity protections they just gave to presidents apply to themselves as well. Are we willing to be ruled by kings and their oligarch backers? This is tyranny.”

READ MORE: ‘Quip’: Usha Vance Lies to Try to Clean Up Husband’s ‘Childless Cat Ladies’ Attack

Retired FBI Assistant Director Frank Figliuzzi, now an NBC News national security analyst, writes simply, “More undisclosed gifts. It’s time for DOJ and IRS.”

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, now a professor of law and MSNBC legal analyst, is calling for Justice Thomas’ resignation: “It’s not going to stop. At a minimum, he needs to step down.”

Attorney George Conway on Monday wrote, “At this point, it’s completely incomprehensible that @TheJusticeDept hasn’t opened a criminal investigation into Justice Thomas’s misconduct.”

“A DOJ investigation into Clarence Thomas’s secret trips sure sounds like a good idea to us,” remarked CREW, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Government last month. On Monday, responding to the latest Thomas revelations, CREW added, “This is getting ridiculous. (Ok, actually it’s been ridiculous for a year). Clarence Thomas needs to resign.”

READ MORE: Can Kamala Harris Win Florida? She’s Getting a Lot of Support – Even From Republicans