'Rank corruption': AOC calls for Clarence Thomas’ impeachment following bombshell report on megadonor gifts

06 April 2023

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York City has not been shy about calling for the impeachment of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. The progressive Queens/Bronx Democrat has argued that Thomas — in light of his wife Ginni Thomas' efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results — seriously violated judicial ethics by refusing to recuse himself from a case involving the January 6, 2021 insurrection.

AOC also believes that Thomas and other justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade with their 5-4 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization lied about their views on abortion during their Senate confirmation hearings — a deception she considers impeachable. Now, Ocasio-Cortez has another reason for calling for Justice Thomas' impeachment: a bombshell ProPublica report that was published on April 6 and alleges that "for over 20 years," Thomas "has been treated to luxury vacations by billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow." One of them was a trip to Indonesia.

In response to ProPublica's reporting, Slate's Mark Joseph Stern — an attorney and journalist known for his extensive legal reporting — tweeted, "It's clear that Thomas brazenly violated this law many times. We should call this what it is: corruption…. Just to be clear here, it was a flagrant violation of federal law for Thomas to accept this wildly expensive luxury vacation without reporting it as a gift — his conduct isn't just unseemly, it’s illegal.”

Ocasio-Cortez was no less critical of Justice Thomas in an April 6 Twitter post of her own.

"This is beyond party or partisanship," AOC wrote. "This degree of corruption is shocking - almost cartoonish. Thomas must be impeached. Barring some dramatic change, this is what the Roberts court will be known for: rank corruption, erosion of democracy, and the stripping of human rights."

ProPublica’s report and responses to it from Stern, AOC and others come at a time when the U.S. Supreme Court’s reputation has sunk to record lows, according to Gallup and other pollsters. Between the overturning of Roe, Ginni Thomas’ efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Kentucky) refusal to even consider President Barack Obama’s 2016 nominee Merrick Garland (now U.S. attorney general under President Joe Biden), critics of the Roberts Court have been arguing that the High Court needs to be subjected to a strict code of conduct.

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