Benefactor to Justice Thomas refuses to answer Senate tax inquiry

Harlan Crow, a Texas billionaire and GOP donor, has refused a request by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden to detail the extent and tax treatment of luxury gifts he provided to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

In a letter to Wyden that was released Tuesday, Crow attorney Michael Bopp questioned whether the Finance Committee has jurisdiction to conduct “tax audits or judicial ethics inquiries.”

The inquiry, he wrote, “appears to be a component of a broader campaign against Justice Thomas and, now, Mr. Crow, rather than an investigation that furthers a valid legislative purpose.”

Wyden in a statement said he is “disappointed but unsurprised” by the refusal by Crow to comply with last month’s request for information. Wyden added that his panel clearly has authority to investigate matters like the billionaire’s compliance with possible gift tax payments related to travel and other gifts to Thomas and any business tax exemptions taken by entities he owns.

“The bottom line is that nobody can expect to get away with waving off Finance Committee oversight, no matter how wealthy or well-connected they may be,” Wyden said. He said he will be talking with other lawmakers on the committee about using “any tools at our disposal” to compel a response.

The development comes as Democrats who control the Senate are ramping up inquiries about the relationship between Crow and Thomas and his wife, conservative activist Ginni Thomas. ProPublica in April revealed Thomas never reported luxury trips and other gifts funded by Crow and didn’t disclose Crow’s purchase of properties owned by Thomas and two relatives.

The nonprofit news organization also reported last week that Crow paid tuition at two private schools for Thomas’s grandnephew in the late 2000s.

Thomas has denied doing anything wrong and said he sought ethics guidance early in his tenure and was told he didn’t have to report “personal hospitality from close personal friends” who didn’t have cases before the court. He has since said he will comply with recent changes to reporting requirements that would lower the bar on what qualifies as personal hospitality.

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday sent a letter to Crow asking him to detail any gifts or payments made to Thomas or to any of the other eight justices. The panel also held a hearing last month to examine high-court ethics, despite a decision by Chief Justice John Roberts not to testify.

Democrats on both the Finance and Judiciary committees have the power to issue subpoenas. Wyden’s panel also has the ability to obtain individual tax returns from the IRS as part of its investigations.

Republicans are pushing back on Democrats’ efforts, including their call for a high-court code of ethics similar to one that applies to all other federal judges. Yesterday, a group of 14 Senate Republicans sent a letter to Wyden, calling the inquiry about Crow’s gifts to Thomas part of politically motivated, “unprecedented” attacks on the Supreme Court.

“We reject this manufactured ‘ethics crisis’ at the Supreme Court as a ploy to further Democrats’ efforts to undermine public confidence and change the makeup of the Court,” wrote senators including Mike Lee of Utah and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. The senators also defended Thomas as “an honorable man, a principled jurist and one of our nation’s greatest justices.”