'Oblivious to embarrassment': Dem Senator hammers Clarence Thomas over billionaire-funded vacations

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released a scathing statement in the wake of new revelations that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has accepted dozens of luxury vacations paid for by right-wing billionaires.

Given that Pro Publica has now documented at least 38 different billionaire-funded vacations for Thomas, Durbin argued that there is simply no way to chalk up Thomas' failure to disclose any of them as an innocent mistake.

"The latest ProPublica revelation of unreported lavish gifts to Justice Clarence Thomas makes it clear: these are not merely ethical lapses," he said in a statement flagged by NBC News' Sahil Kapur. "This is a shameless lifestyle underwritten for years by a gaggle of fawning billionaires."

Durbin, who has been working on legislation imposing ethics standards on Supreme Court justices, also accused Thomas and fellow Justice Samuel Alito of trying to evade any kind of scrutiny over their out-of-court activities.

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"Justices Thomas and Alito have made it clear that they are oblivious to the embarrassment they have visited on the highest court in the land," he said. "Now, it is up to Chief Justice Roberts & the other Justices to act... If the Court will not act, then Congress must continue to."