They accuse a conservative US Supreme Court justice of accepting bribes

Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Clarence Thomas justified last Friday that he was not required to declare luxury travel what have you been doing for years paid for by a Republican Party donor because they were “a form of hospitality from friends”. In a statement after his vacation scandal broke, the judge explained that for the past 25 years, prominent Republican donor and real estate magnate Harlan Crow one of his “dearest friends”, with whom he made “several family trips”. “When I entered the Supreme Court, I asked my colleagues and other members of the judges and I was informed that I do not have to report this kind of hospitality from personal friends who are not connected to the court,” he said.

Thomas assured that he “seeks to follow that advice” and respect the rules of transparency since he was appointed a Supreme Court justice in 1991 by Republican President George HW Bush (1989-1993). However, Thomas continued, the judiciary updated its internal regulations last month, so Its intention is to “comply with regulations for the future”.

The investigative journalism organization ProPublica revealed last Thursday that for more than two decades, Thomas, one of the high court’s most conservative justices, accepted all the travel offered by Crow. This is indicated by their investigations, based on interviews and internal documents Thomas traveled the world on Crow’s superyachtHa traveled with him on his private jet and went with him to an exclusive men-only resort in Californiayes, except travel to tycoon ranch in East Texas. Thomas, besides, has a habit of passing a week every summer at a private resort that Crow has in the Adirondack Mountains of the Northwest New York State.

The judge did not include those trips in the financial reports he must submit to the Supreme Court under an anti-corruption law enacted after the Watergate scandal in the 1970s.