Sen. Whitehouse & Lawrence Talk Justice Thomas's Latest Apparent Brazen Disregard of Disclosure Laws

well we begin this hour with breaking news about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas Senator Sheldon Whitehouse a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee is calling for an investigation of Justice Thomas tonight by attorney general Merrick Garland quote for potential violations of the ethics of Government Act under chapter 5 of the United States code section 13106 Senator Whitehouse will be our first guest tonight in this breaking news coverage of a first in American history in the 234-year history of the United States Supreme Court no member of the United States Supreme Court has ever appeared clearly to break the law until now Clarence Thomas absolutely violated the federal law cited by Senator Whitehouse in his demand for an investigation of Clarence Thomas by the Attorney General the law could not be more clear or more simple it requires Supreme Court Justices and other federal employees to report any real estate transaction quote which exceeds one thousand dollars in Real Property other than property used solely as a personal residence of the reporting individual the law makes it clear the Clarence Thomas and other federal employees do not have to disclose real estate transactions involving their personal homes the place where they actually live Clarence Thomas clearly and sharply violated this law by not reporting the sale of real estate nine years ago that he owned but did not live in that sale exceeded one thousand dollars to not report that sale is a definite and clear violation of federal law by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and it gets worse Clarence Thomas secretly sold the property to billionaire and Nazi memorabilia collector Harlan Crowe in 2014 for 133 363 dollars that real estate sale included the home of Clarence Thomas's mother who was still living in the home appears to be still living in that home to this day at age 94. a home owned now by right-wing Republican billionaire Harlan Crowe Clarence Thomas's mother has a roof over her head tonight thanks to a republican billionaire who is giving it to her Clarence Thomas was a co-owner of his mother's home with his mother when it was sold to Harlan Crowe Harlan Crowe immediately relieved Clarence Thomas of the cost of paying the property tax on the home and then immediately commissioned an architect to design and build very significant improvements to the home so that Harlan Crowe was not just paying for Clarence Thomas's mother to continue living where she was living but was adding substantial upgrades to Clarence Thomas's mother's home and her daily life and we should all be very happy for Clarence Thomas's mother that a surge of money into her home in Savannah Georgia that a Supreme Court Justice could not afford has significantly improved her living conditions and the only thing the only thing Clarence Thomas had to do to make the entirety of this transaction completely legal in every way for a Supreme Court Justice was to Simply tell us about it admit it report it on his financial disclosure form but Clarence Thomas appears to believe that his financial relationship to billionaire Harlan Crowe is publicly indefensible and that could be why he decided to hide the most important part of his financial relationship to Harlan Crowe because because it is the only part of his financial relationship to Harlan Crowe that Clarence Thomas must without any question absolutely report on his financial disclosure forms by law and Clarence Thomas violated that law the failure to report that transaction is a willful violation of law by a Supreme Court Justice and that has never happened before in the history of this country and the United States Supreme Court no other member of the Supreme Court in history has ever been shown to be in blatant and full violation of the law never once before today's reporting by propublica which revealed for the first time in history a supreme court justices clear violation of law there are other aspects of Clarence Thomas's Financial relationship to billionaire Harlan Crowe which may be violations of law because they have not been reported in Clarence Thomas's Financial disclosure forms either but those violations are not as perfectly clear-cut as this violation is it can now be said without qualification that a Supreme Court Justice has absolutely violated federal law and Clarence Thomas is the only Supreme Court Justice in history now known to have done that Virginia cantor a former Governor government ethics lawyer told propublica he needed to report his interest in the sale given the role Crow has played in subsidizing the lifestyle of Thomas and his wife you have to wonder if this was an effort to put cash in their pockets you do not have to wonder it did put cash in their pockets Harlan Crowe did put tens of thousands of dollars of cash directly into Clarence Thomas's pocket on October 15 2014 the day that Clarence Thomas in his own hand signed the paperwork for the sale and he did that he signed that paperwork under the roof of the United States Supreme Court and it seems he did not have to pay a notary to have his signature notarized that day because it was notarized by an official of the United States Supreme Court Perry Thompson who propublica notes did not respond to a request for comment Clarence Thomas signed that deed in the Supreme Court on the 23rd anniversary of the vote in the United States Senate to confirm him to the United States Supreme Court Clarence Thomas got to do something that most Americans never get to do never happens to most people something that's never happened to me and never will happen to most Americans Clarence Thomas inherited something most people never get to do that he inherited his co-ownership of his mother's house from his grandfather in 2007. Clarence Thomas lovingly titled his memoir my grandfather's son a house acquired honorably by Clarence Thomas's grandfather is now owned by a billionaire who approached Clarence Thomas only after Clarence Thomas became a Supreme Court Justice and the only reason the only reason a billionaire owns the house Clarence Thomas's mother lives in is because Clarence Thomas is a Supreme Court Justice Harlan Crowe did not want to know Clarence Thomas one minute before Clarence Thomas became a Supreme Court Justice and in fact they did not meet until a few years into Clarence Thomas's tenure on the Supreme Court what would you do for the man who bought your mother's house and immediately got an architect and a construction crew to improve your mother's house for your mother to live in more comfortably as she ages into her 90s and someone who didn't stop at that but actually bought more property around your mother's house to improve the neighborhood which Harlan Crow did and get rid of the noisy neighbors next door to her by tearing down that house after buying it the house full of noisy neighbors has disappeared because Harlan Crowe bought it and tore it down so Clarence Thomas's mother has an even better version of her own house to live in for the rest of her life what would you do for someone who did that for you and your mother and while he was at it saved you from ever having to pay property taxes again on that house and while he was at it put tens of thousands of dollars in your bank account but most importantly most importantly he took care of your mother what would you do for the guy who gives your mother a place to live the place where she wants to live if you're a Supreme Court Justice the answer should be you would do absolutely nothing for that guy you would never let his preferences enter your mind in any way in your workplace you would never let the good will you have for him affect the way you think about anything in the course of your job and we don't trust human beings to be able to do that that's why we have laws that's why we have ethics rules and that's why it appears tonight increasingly impossible for Clarence Thomas to be able to fulfill his oath as a Supreme Court Justice to quote these are the words of the Supreme Court justice so quote administer Justice without respect to persons and to do equal right to the poor and to the rich leading off our discussion tonight is Democratic senator Sheldon Whitehouse a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the chairman of the Senate budget committee uh Senator Whitehouse we we now it feels like we're in an emergency situation here uh with the Supreme Court and uh you are calling tonight for an investigation by the Attorney General of Clarence Thomas and based on this failure uh to disclose uh which is a it's it's impossible to see this as anything but an extremely clear violation of law yeah this all takes place under a federal statute the Ethics in Government Act and the personal Hospitality exemption that has been in the news the past few years a few weeks has been uh is a feature of the ethics and Government Act the requirement that Justice Thomas disclosed real estate transactions in which she's involved is a feature of the ethics and Government Act and the ability of the Attorney General to pursue a civil investigation and fines of anybody who violates that law is also a feature of the ethics and Government Act so I have asked uh judge Mouse Cup who's the head of the judicial conference to make the referral to the attorney general to open a file and do the basic factual investigation so that there's an official record of what truly took place and this will stand on top of a request that's already been made by the campaign legal Senator with regard to all the previous uh potential violations of the ethics and Government Act up to the disclosure of the real estate deal yeah the the real estate deal really does stand alone which is why that's what you're concentrating on tonight in in your request uh to the attorney general through the judicial conference uh we have discussed are pretty clear the jet travel is pretty clear because the exemption lists food lodging and entertainment says nothing about Transportation but it is sort of present by Omission whereas the law specifically says that real estate transactions must be disclosed yes anything over a thousand dollars that you do not live in now I read I just read that to maybe a couple million people out there are going to hear it the way I read that they are all going to understand it you do not have to be a Supreme Court Justice to understand that line that sentence of federal law uh it is inconceivable to me uh that there is any possible defense by Clarence Thomas on this and what I'm expecting is some kind of rushed amended filing on his part to suddenly uh do a new disclosure form for nine years ago to say uh oh yeah I meant to add this uh will will that cover the a situation like this the attorney general has the authority to investigate for willful violations of the disclosure requirement and for merely negligent violations of the disclosure requirement the Civil fine is less but the fact of the investigation is the same and what's important here is that this court simply refuses to subject itself to any factual inquiry or investigation and so to have the Attorney General come in and do a report that sets the facts out so that he can pursue a civil fine is very important setting aside the fine it's not a big number but the fact of an investigation is really important and potentially a Spur to Chief Justice Roberts to do what he should have done all along which is to provide a mechanism for investigating allegations about Supreme Court Justices what should uh the Chief Justice be doing tonight about this and this real estate transaction well he should be looking to the Circuit Courts of appeal uh the appellate courts immediately below the Supreme Court all of whom have Chief Judges all of whom oversee an Ethics apparatus that receives complaints investigates complaints compares the investigated facts to the rules of the Canon of ethics and then comes out with a report you should probably have a chat with the ones he has the most confidence in to say hey this could be quite easily translated to the Supreme Court couldn't it and yes it could very easily be modeled uh a model for a rule at the Supreme Court and as we know the Chief Justice can do investigations because he called for that rather botched one into the Alito uh Dobbs opinion League Senator uh we know Clarence Thomas was forced to issue a written statement in response to pro-publica's first round of investigative uh Revelations about him which were all about the travel the private jet travel the travel on Yachts uh all with the same uh billionaire uh and and Clarence Thomas's written statement was well you know I just asked uh people around the office and uh you know if this was okay he never ever ever indicated that he read a single line of law or of anything uh when in making his decision about not to disclose any of that where he could go and get actual advice from people who are expert and who do this you know as part of their responsibilities he appears not to have asked the responsible body within the Judiciary but this this one that we're talking about tonight is right there in federal law which I read to this audience he can't possibly pretend that there was any other way to deal with this other than a Supreme Court Justice actually looking at the simplest sentence of federal law any Supreme Court Justice is ever going to read I agree as clear as day Senator Sheldon Whitehouse thank you very much for joining us tonight on this important story really appreciate it good to be with you thank you

Channel: Senator Sheldon Whitehouse

Views: 582,414

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Id: hm345rRsu38

Length: 18min 2sec (1082 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 14 2023