Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from the U.S. House of Representatives, said on Sunday that she wants Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to be impeached and his aides to be investigated after a news story said a Republican donor paid for luxury trips he took over many years.
In an interview with CNN, she said, “It is up to the House to follow up on that investigation through impeachment.” She did say, though, that change wasn’t possible because Republicans control the House of Representatives and wouldn’t want to do anything against a conservative justice.
Ocasio-Cortez said that Thomas’s friendship with Republican donor and real estate mogul Harlan Crow showed a conflict of interest because it began after Thomas was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1991.
ProPublica said Thursday that Thomas took expensive trips from Crow for decades, even though federal law says that most gifts have to be recorded.
Thomas defended the trips in a statement he released on Friday. He said he had been told he didn’t have to report “personal hospitality” like that, and he has always tried to follow disclosure rules.
He said that he would now follow the new rules put in place by the Judicial Conference, which is in charge of making sure that all federal judges disclose their finances.
Crow told ProPublica that he had “never tried to get Justice Thomas to change his mind about anything legal or political.”
Kanishka Singh in Washington wrote the story, and Daniel Wallis edited it.
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