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NY Post
New York Post
7 Apr 2023


NextImg:AOC wants to impeach Justice Clarence Thomas over luxury trips with rich GOP donor

“Squad” stalwart Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says she’s willing to file articles of impeachment against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for failing to report decades of luxury trips with a billionaire GOP donor — even amid an ethics probe of her own.

“I think this is an emergency. I think that this is a crisis,” the New York Democrat said. “I think we’ve had a crisis for some time on the Supreme Court.”

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Yet the 33-year-old socialist firebrand is currently facing a House ethics investigation herself.

“If we decide strategically that the actual author of those articles and who introduces them may not be me. That’s fine. I will support impeachment,” she told lefty outlet The Lever.

“But I just think that if no one’s going to introduce it, I would certainly be open to doing so.”

Thomas, 74, confirmed Friday he enjoyed the travel arrangements made by Republican megadonor Harlan Crow — including stays at Crow’s ritzy resort in the Adirondacks and trips on his superyacht and private jet — but asserted it wasn’t mandated to report them as gifts on annual financial disclosure forms.

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The trips could have cost the Justice and his wife, conservative activist Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, more than $500,000 if they paid for themselves, according to the nonprofit media outlet ProPublica, which first reported the arrangement.

The “Squad” rep, however, has a pending House ethics investigation of her own into gifts she took for the Met Gala.
Getty Images For The Met Museum/Vogue

“Harlan and Kathy Crow are among our dearest friends, and we have been friends for over twenty-five years. As friends do, we have joined them on a number of family trips during the more than quarter century we have known them,” Thomas said in a statement issued by the Supreme Court.

“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.”

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Thomas also said March changes in the rules for reporting gifts will prompt him “to follow this guidance in the future.”

Pictured is Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas
Thomas said legal experts told him “personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable.”
REUTERS
Pictured is Harlan Crow.
Republican megadonor Harlan Crow has let the Thomases stay at his ritzy resort in the Adirondacks.
Grant Miller via AP

After Watergate, the US required all government officials — including Supreme Court justices, federal judges, and members of Congress — to disclose their finances annually, beginning in 1978.

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As of March 14, justices must also disclose gifts and free stays at commercial properties, even when payment is provided by a third party.

In AOC’s case, according to a House Office of Congressional Ethics report, the lefty lawmaker likely received impermissible gifts when she attended the 2021 Met Gala at the invitation of multimillionaire fashion heiress Anna Wintour — a $30,000-a-ticket event on the Upper East Side.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is pictured fishing
Justices as of March must also disclose gifts and free stays at commercial properties, even when payment is provided by a third party.
Joe Hackett
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is pictured at the Met Gala.
AOC herself likely received impermissible gifts when she attended the 2021 Met Gala, according to a House investigation.
Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

Ocasio-Cortez wore a striking white dress with blood-red “Tax the Rich” lettering on the back — but only paid its designer after the House Ethics Office asked the congresswoman’s office about the garment.

She was also given “a … handbag, shoes, and jewelry” as well as “hair, makeup, transportation, and ready-room services” that she didn’t initially disclose.

The Bronx and Queens rep joined the elite gathering with her now-fiancé, Riley Roberts, who also received a bow tie and shoes for the glitzy affair.

“But for the OCE opening this review, it appears that Rep. Ocasio-Cortez may not have paid for several thousands of dollars’ worth of goods and services provided to her,” ethics investigators said in their report before recommending the House Ethics Committee subpoena Aurora James, the designer who crafted AOC’s couture gown.

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is pictured speaking at a podium
House ethics investigators recommended that committee members subpoena the maker of AOC’s gown.
Getty Images
A private plane is pictured
AOC said Thomas’ flights aboard Crow’s private jet amounted to “corruption.”
Steve Knight/Flickr

Had she accepted tickets directly from the gala’s event coordinators, instead of Conde Nast, the congresswoman also wouldn’t have raised ethics questions.

But AOC had no issue calling out Thomas for “corruption” Thursday.

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“This is beyond party or partisanship. This degree of corruption is shocking — almost cartoonish. Thomas must be impeached,” she tweeted.

a luxury yacht is pictured
“Thomas must be impeached,” AOC tweeted Thursday.
Alamy Stock Photo

“Barring some dramatic change, this is what the Roberts court will be known for: rank corruption, erosion of democracy, and the stripping of human rights.”

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Legal counsel for Ocasio-Cortez has denied her “unacceptable” delays in payment amounted to an ethics violation — and remains “confident” charges will be dismissed.

“To the contrary, the record clearly shows that the Congresswoman always understood that she had to pay for these expenses personally — and she even worked with the undersigned counsel prior to the event to ensure that she complied with all applicable ethics rules,” David Mitrani told House investigators in February.