WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A lawyer for Texas billionaire Harlan Crow has offered to meet with Senate Judiciary Committee staff to discuss the panel’s concerns over his ties to conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, a letter released on Tuesday showed.
Revelations about the links between Thomas, the court’s longest-tenured member, and Crow, including real estate purchases and luxury travel paid for by the Dallas businessman, have prompted calls from Democratic lawmakers for more rigorous ethics standards for the Supreme Court.
The Democratic-led committee held a hearing on the subject last month. Crow, a major Republican donor, last month rejected the panel’s request for a meeting.
In a six-page follow up dated Monday, Crow’s lawyer Michael Bopp reiterated that he does not think the committee has the power to request information from Crow or to impose ethics standards on the nation’s top judicial body, as it is considering pursuing.
Still, Bopp wrote, “we respect the Senate Judiciary Committee’s important role in formulating legislation concerning our federal courts system, and would welcome a discussion with your staff.”
Representatives for the panel said they received the letter, first reported by CNN, and would response shortly.
U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts last month said the court is considering steps to “adhere to the highest standards of conduct” and was committed to ensuring that its nine members adhered to them.
Unlike other federal judges, Supreme Court justices are not bound by the code of conduct adopted by the policymaking body for the broader U.S. judiciary that requires federal judges to avoid even the “appearance of impropriety.”
The news outlet ProPublica has detailed the ties between Thomas and Crow. Separately, the news outlet Politico has reported that conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch failed to disclose the buyer of a Colorado property in which he had a stake – the chief executive of a major law firm whose attorneys have been involved in numerous Supreme Court cases.
Some Republican committee members have sought to portray these revelations as part of an effort by liberals and Democrats to smear the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority.
(Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Will Dunham)
