Patriotic Millionaires Call on Department of Justice to Investigate Justice Clarence Thomas for Ethics Violations

Yesterday, ProPublica published a report that revealed, in early 2000, Justice Clarence Thomas privately threatened to resign if he did not receive a salary increase while simultaneously pushing to end the ban on Supreme Court justices giving paid speeches. Since then, Justice Thomas’ income has been supplemented by conservative billionaire benefactors with luxury gifts.

In response, Morris Pearl, the Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and a former managing director at BlackRock, Inc., released the following statement:

"Since April, ProPublica has published multiple bombshell reports detailing the intimate and ethically questionable relationships between Justice Clarence Thomas and several conservative billionaires. All of the reports have been deeply troubling, but the revelations in yesterday’s exposé are uniquely damning.

There is now substantial evidence that Thomas not only engaged in quid pro quo corruption, but initiated it by threatening to retire if Congress failed to raise his salary. He didn’t get a raise from Congress, but unfortunately, he did get it from a coterie of right-wing billionaires, the financial interests of whom Thomas went on to protect in various rulings on the Court. This in and of itself raises serious ethics questions, but the fact that Thomas did not bother to disclose many of these financial ties should sound alarm bells for anyone who cares about our justice system.

The Supreme Court must be an impartial body outside the influence of politics or money. Thomas’ behavior has destroyed any confidence in his ability to be impartial, and may even be criminal. The Department of Justice should now get involved alongside the Senate Judiciary Committee and immediately investigate this behavior."