Tensions escalate between Harlan Crow and US Senate over gifts to Clarence Thomas

Senate Judicial Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) has been forcefully calling for the U.S. Supreme Court to adopt a code of ethics. According to Durbin, reports from ProPublica on Justice Clarence Thomas' close relationship with billionaire GOP donor Harlan Crow and Justice Samuel Alito's alliance with Paul Singer — another billionaire Republican — make a compelling argument for the Court to adopt an ethics code in order to save its "reputation."

In an article published by the Guardian on June 23, reporter Stephanie Kirchgaessner emphasizes that the Thomas/Crow controversy is fueling tensions between Crow and Democrats in the U.S. Senate.

"A lawyer for Crow admitted, in a recent letter to Sen. Ron Wyden, the Democratic chairman of the (Senate) Finance Committee, that it was his understanding that expenses associated with luxury flights and yacht trips for Thomas were paid back to Crow's 'family entities' at rates 'prescribed by law,'" Kirchgaessner explains. "But the lawyer — Michael Bopp, a partner at Gibson Dunn who specializes in representing clients in congressional and government investigations — did not provide any information about who made the payments, and when."

Wyden, Kirchgaessner notes, is accusing Crow of "stonewalling" questions from the Senate about gifts he made to Thomas and members of his family. ProPublica has reported that Crow not only treated Thomas to luxury vacations, but also, paid the private school tuition for one of Thomas' relatives.

Steve Rosenthal of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center told The Guardian, "The key question, at least so far, is: Should Clarence Thomas have reported the luxury items he is being given by a billionaire?…. You might want to know, how much did Harlan Crow value these plane rides, yacht trips, tuition payments? We don't know a lot of information."