WASHINGTON — Justice Clarence Thomas recounted a 2019 trip to Bali with billionaire friend Harlan Crow in his annual financial disclosure report released Friday — a previously reported example of the judge’s cozy relationship with the real estate billionaire.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson received concert tickets worth $3,700 from pop superstar Beyoncé, according to her report.
She and other judges have also announced big advances for the books they’re working on — with Jackson’s by far the biggest: $894,000 for her next book, compared with $340,000 for Justice Brett Kavanaugh and $250 thousand for Judge Neil Gorsuch. The fact that Kavanaugh – whose confirmation hearing was dominated by allegations of sexual misconduct dating back decades (which he has denied) – was writing a book was first reported by Axios on Thursday.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor also announced more than $86,000 in book royalties, plus a more modest payment of $1,879 for doing voiceover work for her appearance in the animated children’s program “Alma’s Way”.
Annual reports list things like outside earnings, assets, gifts, and stock holdings. Justices can request an extension, which Justice Samuel Alito did, meaning his report was not available.
Thomas’s disclosure about his trip to Bali in 2019, as well as another trip to California in the same year to the private club Bohemian Grove, both with Crow, correspond to trips that Pro Publica reported in last year in a series of Pulitzer Prize-winning stories about previously unreported luxury travel that raised questions about the Supreme Court’s commitment to ethics rules.
Thomas’ report said the two trips were “inadvertently omitted” from his 2019 report. There has been no mention in Thomas’ report of any Crow-related trips since the Pro Publica stories were published.
The Supreme Court adopted a new code of conduct last year amid scrutiny over judges’ ethics, although it was heavily criticized for having no enforcement mechanism.
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