News
Legal Experts Urge DOJ Criminal Probe Into Clarence Thomas Amid Calls for His Resignation
In the wake of yet another report Clarence Thomas was gifted yet another undisclosed, expensive vacation by GOP megadonor Harlan Crow, this time a 2010 trip with his wife Ginni Thomas from Hawaii to New Zealand via the billionaire’s private jet, some legal experts are calling for the U.S. Supreme Court Justice to resign, as others say the U.S. Dept. of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service should open investigations. Some say a “criminal” investigation is warranted.
“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,” according to a CNN report, based on a detailed, eight-page letter to Crow’s attorney from Senate Democratic Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden.
In the damning letter Chairman Wyden writes, “it was revealed just a few weeks ago that Justice Thomas enjoyed complimentary use of private jets paid for by Mr. Crow on 17 different occasions since 2016, with 9 of those flights coming in the last three years.”
“Public reports show evidence that Justice Thomas was a passenger aboard the Michaela Rose in Greece, New Zealand and elsewhere. Additionally, a relative of Justice Thomas has stated that he personally witnessed Justice Thomas travel aboard the Michaela Rose in the Caribbean, Russia and the Baltics, with the trip to Russia also including helicopter ride(s).”
READ MORE: Trump ‘Too Old’ Majority Now Say as Health, Mental Fitness Increasingly Worry Voters
“The fact a Supreme Court Justice accepted free travel to Russia paid for by a billionaire and failed to disclose the trip as required by law is undoubtedly concerning and merits continued investigation. Other government officials have been charged for making false statements on financial disclosures for less serious violations than the evidence suggests Justice Thomas committed.”
Last month Chairman Wyden and U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the
Federal Courts, sent an extensively-detailed 14-page letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, requesting he “appoint a Special Counsel to investigate possible violations of federal ethics and tax laws by Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Clarence Thomas.”
That letter included a 35-line chart titled, “Likely Undisclosed Gifts and Income from Harlan Crow and Affiliated Companies.”
The first two lines, dated 2003, read: “Yacht trip to Russia and the Baltics,” and, “Helicopter ride to Yusupov Palace, St. Petersburg.”
Calling it the “site of Rasputin’s assassination by monarchists in 1916,” The New Republic reported in July, “Yusupov Palace is in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hometown of St. Petersburg. Putin has held and attended events at Yusupov Palace over the years, meeting with Chinese President Jiang Zemin in 2002 and attending the birthday party of Germany’s former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in 2014.”
TNR, which cited ProPublica‘s reporting, notes it is not known if Putin met with Justice Thomas in 2003.
Legal exerts are blasting Justice Thomas, and some are questioning why the DOJ has yet to act.
“There’s no reading of the federal ethics laws that exempts private jet travel from disclosure. Thomas’s decades-long pattern of failing to disclose these trips was a willful violation of law subject to criminal penalties. Garland needs to open a case,” writes Alex Aronson, former Chief Counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, now Executive Director of the non-profit organization Court Accountability.
“I’d argue that DOJ’s failure to prosecute obvious willful criminal violations by Supreme Court justices is worse than failing to prosecute crimes by presidents. At least with presidents voters have some measure of accountability at the ballot box,” Aronson continues, before concluding: “It’s readily apparent that the MAGA justices believe the sweeping and unconstitutional immunity protections they just gave to presidents apply to themselves as well. Are we willing to be ruled by kings and their oligarch backers? This is tyranny.”
READ MORE: ‘Quip’: Usha Vance Lies to Try to Clean Up Husband’s ‘Childless Cat Ladies’ Attack
Retired FBI Assistant Director Frank Figliuzzi, now an NBC News national security analyst, writes simply, “More undisclosed gifts. It’s time for DOJ and IRS.”
Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, now a professor of law and MSNBC legal analyst, is calling for Justice Thomas’ resignation: “It’s not going to stop. At a minimum, he needs to step down.”
Attorney George Conway on Monday wrote, “At this point, it’s completely incomprehensible that @TheJusticeDept hasn’t opened a criminal investigation into Justice Thomas’s misconduct.”
“A DOJ investigation into Clarence Thomas’s secret trips sure sounds like a good idea to us,” remarked CREW, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Government last month. On Monday, responding to the latest Thomas revelations, CREW added, “This is getting ridiculous. (Ok, actually it’s been ridiculous for a year). Clarence Thomas needs to resign.”
READ MORE: Can Kamala Harris Win Florida? She’s Getting a Lot of Support – Even From Republicans
Enjoy this piece?
… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.
NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.
Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.
 |
Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
