Baksheesh

Clarence Thomas found pocketing bribes again.

Justice Clarence Thomas took a previously undisclosed flight on a private jet owned by GOP megadonor Harlan Crow in 2010, a top Senate Democrat said Monday – the latest in a series of revelations that come as the high court is under pressure to strengthen its ethics practices.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden said US Customs and Border Protection records reviewed by the committee showed Thomas and his wife, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, flew from Hawaii to New Zealand on Crow’s jet on November 19, 2010, and then returned on the jet a week later.

The flight was not listed on Thomas’ financial disclosure reports and is the most recent example of the conservative justice accepting luxury travel from Crow becoming public. Earlier examples of that travel documented by ProPublica last year – including travel on Crow’s yacht, the Michaela Rose – prompted widespread calls for ethics reform at the court.

This isn’t some naive newby not understanding about public officials not accepting backhanders, this is a Supreme Court Justice. If he doesn’t get that he shouldn’t be accepting sweeteners he shouldn’t be on the goddam bench.

White House spokesperson Andrew Bates on Monday said “today’s news strengthens the case” Biden made for reforms. “The most powerful court in the United States shouldn’t be subject to the lowest ethical standards, and conflicts of interest on the Supreme Court cannot go unchecked,” Bates said.

It seems pretty goddam basic.

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