'Not close to acceptable': Justice reporter urges DOJ to investigate Clarence Thomas' transactions

Amid the mounting scandal around Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's secret property deals and gifts from GOP megadonor Harlan Crow, The Nation legal reporter Elie Mystal raged against the corruption on MSNBC's "The Beat" — and demanded accountability.

"I want to put out a fact and let you respond," said anchor Ari Melber. "The fact is that Justice Thomas, who exercises enormous power over other people's lives, has shown more bad judgment in secretly pocketing millions of dollars, worse than having an outside job working for the federal government paid by our tax dollars, and is taking land payments from the same donor who has links, which is relevant, to saving or honoring Nazi memorabilia, including a Hitler-signed copy of 'Mein Kampf.' Is this acceptable?"

"It is not close to acceptable," said Mystal. "Wherever 'acceptable' is, Clarence Thomas is on Pluto. Look, you could argue, perhaps, I guess, maybe, that yacht trips and vacations were not required to be federally disclosed. But there is no argument that land deals, that when this man is buying your property, that you do not have to disclose that under the law. 5 U.S.C. § 13104 is the law that outlines public disclosure requirements for judges and justices. Those do apply to the Supreme Court. Clarence Thomas is in clear violation of those laws. And not just — look, it's great for us to talk about the actual code, but, like, this is also a commonsense thing. Ari, I assume that you as a journalist, if Harlan Crow bought your mama's house, you would probably tell your viewers that that had happened before you did any reporting on Harlan Crow, I assume, right?"

"I'll take up two things," said Melber. "One, we tell people far less than that. I had someone on last night who was a family friend — no exchange of money, goods, or services whatsoever — but I told the audience that that lawyer was a family friend and people can factor that in as they see fit, even though it's not technically a law. To your point, we try to do that second, I'm not sure Mr. Crow would buy anything from my family, but I guess I don't know."

"I'm not going to touch that one," laughed Mystal. "I will simply say that if, you know, Manscaped had, like, given me my shape-up, I would disclose that to people. We have a clear ethical violation and a clear moral violation. The question is if we're going to have any accountability now. Clarence Thomas can be held accountable by the Department of Justice — Merrick Garland, if you're listening, this could be something you can investigate — but unfortunately, and this makes people sad, I know, but unfortunately, the only way to remove a Supreme Court justice for an ethical violation like this or any other is through the constitutional process of impeachment."

"But I will say to your listeners that, don't let Clarence Thomas off the hook simply because Republicans like Jim Jordan and Kevin McCarthy won't hold him accountable. There was another Supreme Court justice, Abe Fortas, who was also accused of taking undisclosed millions, right? He was appointed by a Democrat, there was a Democratic Congress. It's not clear if that Congress would have impeached him, but Abe Fortas had the sensibility to resign ... that's an option open to Clarence Thomas, to have some dignity and resign."

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