Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas addresses report he accepted luxury travel from GOP donor for years

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas released his first public statement since a ProPublica report revealed that he had accepted luxury trips around the globe for more than two decades, including travel on a superyacht and private jet, from a prominent Republican donor without disclosing them.

The trips were funded by Harlan Crow, a Dallas businessman and influential donor to Republican candidates and causes related to the law and judiciary. Thomas said Friday that Crow was among his "dearest friends" for over 25 years.

"As friends do, we have joined [Crow and his wife] on a number of family trips during the more than quarter century we have known them," Thomas said in a statement. "Early in my tenure at the Court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable."

Thomas said he has "endeavored to follow that counsel" throughout his time on the high court. Federal law mandates that top officials from the three branches of government, including the Supreme Court, file annual forms detailing their finances, outside income and spouses' sources of income, with each branch determining its own reporting standards.

Judges are prohibited from accepting gifts from anyone with business before the court. Until recently, however, the judicial branch had not clearly defined an exemption for gifts considered "personal hospitality."

Revised rules adopted by a committee of the Judicial Conference, the courts' policymaking body, seek to provide a fuller accounting. Gifts such as an overnight stay at a personal vacation home owned by a friend remain exempt from reporting requirements. But the revised rules require disclosure when judges are treated to stays at commercial properties, such as hotels, ski resorts or other private retreats owned by a company, rather than an individual. The changes also clarify that judges must report travel by private jet.

In his statement, Thomas noted those changes to the guidelines, which took place March 14.

"And, it is, of course, my intent to follow this guidance in the future," he said.

ProPublica reported Thursday on an array of trips funded by Crow, saying that Thomas typically spends about a week every summer at Crow's private resort in the Adirondacks. It said the justice also has vacationed at Crow's ranch in East Texas and has joined him at the Bohemian Grove, an exclusive all-male retreat in California.

It cited a nine-day trip that Thomas and his wife, Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, took to Indonesia in 2019, shortly after the court released its final opinions of the term. That trip, which included flights on Crow's jet and island-hopping on a superyacht, would have cost the couple more than $500,000 if they had paid for it themselves, the publication said.

It is unclear exactly who attended the gatherings and thus had access to the justice.

The report prompted furious reactions from Democrats, some of whom called for Thomas, the court's senior justice, to resign. Republicans either defended Thomas's right to vacation with friends or were silent.

ProPublica said Thomas did not respond to detailed questions about its reporting, and he did not respond to questions from The Washington Post and other media outlets Thursday. Some members of Congress called on Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to launch an investigation, although Roberts's powers to police his life-tenured colleagues are limited. Roberts and a court spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.

In a statement, Crow acknowledged that he has extended "hospitality" to the Thomases "over the years" but said that the couple "never asked for any of this hospitality" and that he has not tried to influence the justice on matters before the court.

"We have never asked about a pending or lower court case, and Justice Thomas has never discussed one, and we have never sought to influence Justice Thomas on any legal or political issue," Crow said. "More generally, I am unaware of any of our friends ever lobbying or seeking to influence Justice Thomas on any case, and I would never invite anyone who I believe had any intention of doing that. These are gatherings of friends."

Thomas's trips funded by Crow do not appear on his most recent financial disclosures. Since 2004, Thomas has reported only two gifts: an award from his alma mater Yale Law School and a bust of Frederick Douglass given to him by Crow.