Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) called on Texas Republican megadonor Harlan Crow to reveal information about gifts given to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Wyden penned a letter to Crow, asking the Dallas-based real estate developer whether the luxury travel he offered to Thomas over the years fully complied with federal tax laws.
“The secrecy surrounding your dealings with Justice Thomas is simply unacceptable,” Wyden wrote in the letter. “The American public deserves a full accounting of the full of extent of your largesse towards Justice Thomas, including whether these gifts complied with all relevant federal tax and ethics laws.”
Wyden, whose inquiry marks the latest in a series of Democrats raising ethics concerns about Thomas's relationship to the donor, asked for a response by May 8.
“We look forward to responding to Chairman Wyden’s letter in due course,” Crow’s office wrote in a statement.
In a statement earlier this month, Thomas said he was previously advised that he need not report the travel and gifts in question, which were first revealed in a report by ProPublica. The justice noted that the ethics guidance for judges was recently updated to fill a loophole that would bar officers of the court from omitting certain types of "personal hospitality" and that he would follow the updated guidance.
Thomas has not offered a response to a subsequent report about the sale of his mother's home, though sources previously indicated that he omitted the sale because he did not gain a profit and that he would amend his disclosure form appropriately.
Meanwhile, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) said Sunday that he is awaiting an response from Chief Justice John Roberts about whether he will testify before the Senate over ethics questions surrounding the high court.
"We’re waiting for the chief justice to answer my invitation. I think that’s the first step that ought to be taken with the Supreme Court itself, with its leader, the chief justice. Make it clear that they’re going to bring reform when it comes to the ethics to the court and spell out what they’re going to do," Durbin said on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday.
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When pressed on why he did not invite Thomas specifically to come testify, Durbin said he believed Thomas would ignore the request without specifying why the justice might do that.
"I think I know what would happen to that invitation. It would be ignored," Durbin said.