Durbin: Reports about Clarence Thomas, GOP megadonor ‘getting worse by the day’

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Thursday that the reports about Justice Clarence Thomas’s ties with GOP megadonor Harlan Crow are worsening each day.

Durbin said his initial reaction to the new report by ProPublica that Crow paid for the boarding school tuition of Thomas’s great-nephew was a “combination of sadness and rage.”

“Sadness to think that this situation is getting worse by the day and justices’ failure to disclose is aggravating the situation,” Durbin said on an episode of SiriusXM’s “The Briefing with Steve Scully.”

ProPublica had previously reported on undisclosed luxury trips that Crow accompanied Thomas on, as well as the megadonor’s purchases of real estate from the justice and his family. When those reports were made public last month, Durbin said the Judiciary Committee said the Judiciary Committee “will act” on the alleged misconduct.

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More coverage of Supreme Court ethics from The Hill:

• Thomas biographer calls reporting on Crow ties ‘despicable’
• Crow covered boarding school tuition for Thomas relative justice raised ‘as a son’
• Roberts struggles to keep Supreme Court out of ethics fight
• Durbin slams Supreme Court’s response to ethics issues as ‘oblivious’
• Al Franken blasts Supreme Court: It’s ‘illegitimate’
• Alito says he has ‘pretty good idea’ of the identity of Dobbs decision leaker
• Pressure grows on Supreme Court to embrace ethics reforms

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The Senate Judiciary Committee held an ethics hearing this week this week, where Durbin blasted Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts for the court’s “oblivious” response to the “obvious” ethical conflicts.

Durbin also noted in the interview that he was “angry” in response to the report and pointed to Senate Republicans, who he says did not question the reported ties between Crow and Thomas.

“We had a hearing this week on the subject,” said the Illinois Democrat, adding that “not a single Republican senator even questioned any of these reimbursements which he’s received from Harlan Crow.”

“The fact that he did not disclose them is an indication to me that he really didn’t want the public to know the details,” Durbin continued. “This morning’s revelation just confirms that the relationship between Harlan Crow and Clarence Thomas is not in the best interest of the justice or the Court.”