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U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, demanded additional information today about the luxurious travels of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
In a letter first reported by The New York Times, Wyden wrote to an attorney representing Harlan Crow, the wealthy Texan whom ProPublica identified last year as a major benefactor of Thomas, providing the justice with gifts and free travel on Crow’s company yacht and jet.
“I am deeply concerned that Mr. Crow may have been showering a public official with extravagant gifts, then writing off those gifts to lower his tax bill,” Wyden wrote. “This concern is only heightened by the committee’s recent discovery of additional undisclosed international travel on Mr. Crow’s private jet by Justice Thomas.”
Wyden’s committee is responsible for tax legislation, including measures that would crack down on abuses by high-income taxpayers. One of the contentions in his letter is that Crow may have improperly deducted the costs of operating his yacht and plane by claiming they were used for business purposes.
“As I consider legislative solutions to curb potentially abusive deductions,” Wyden wrote, “I am offering you one final opportunity to address the tax treatment of yacht and jet trips involving Justice Thomas.”
Thomas did not immediately respond to the Times’ request for comment.
Wyden’s letter comes the week after President Joe Biden proposed that Congress consider term limits for Supreme Court justices, who currently enjoy lifetime appointments, and also enact a meaningful code of ethics for the justices, who, as the top-ranking members of the judicial branch of government, are largely free from oversight. Republicans in Congress and the justices themselves do not support such changes.