Democrats’ ‘Ethics’ Smears Against Thomas And Alito Are So Embarrassing They Buried Their Own Report
By: Mark Paoletta
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The Democrat-run Senate Judiciary Committee's two-year partisan assault on conservative Supreme Court justices, especially Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, on baseless "ethics" allegations ended with a pathetic 93-page Democrat staff report replete with dishonest and false information. It was so bad it was issued the day after Congress left town for the year and right before the Christmas recess.
This entire investigation was never about "ethics" but about trying to undermine the Supreme Court because it is no longer acting like a left-wing super legislature handing down opinions implementing the Democrats' political agenda.
The Democrats falsely accused Justices Thomas and Alito of violating ethics laws by not disclosing vacations with friends and not recusing from cases because of their spouses' activities. They are wrong on both counts.
Justices Thomas and Alito complied with the laws, regulations, advice, and Judicial Conference rulings regarding reporting trips with friends. They were not required to report these trips under the personal hospitality exemption outlined in the law, no matter what the leaders of this witch hunt, Democrat Sens. Dick Durbin and Sheldon Whitehouse, claim or wish.
When the Judicial Conference, which was established by law to administer the ethics laws for the federal judiciary, changed its rules in March 2023 and excluded from the personal hospitality exemption trips on private planes and boats, Justice Thomas promptly reported such trips.
In fact, in a humiliating rebuke to Whitehouse's personal obsession with smearing Thomas, the Judicial Conference sent a letter to Whitehouse dated Jan. 2, 2025, rejecting his outrageous demand that the conference refer Thomas to the Department of Justice for investigation. With this action, the conference agreed that Thomas had done nothing wrong and had complied with the rules. It also found that where there were inadvertent omissions, Justice Thomas filed amended forms, as every justice and judge has done through the years. In other words, the Judicial Conference completely rejected Whitehouse's frivolous attempt to smear our greatest justice.
Ridiculous Recusal Claims
The staff report also falsely claims Justices Thomas and Alito violated the federal recusal law by not recusing from Jan. 6, 2021-related cases because of their wives' activities. But the law only requires recusal if one's spouse is a party to or lawyer in the case, has a financial interest, or there is a reasonable basis where the judge's impartiality might reasonably be questioned. None of those factors are present here.
Ginni Thomas had concerns about fraud and irregularities in the 2020 elections. She expressed those concerns to a friend who was serving as White House chief of staff, and she also sent a prewritten form email to state legislators about election integrity concerns. Martha-Ann Alito flew iconic American flags at the Alitos' home and summer home, including the historic Appeal to Heaven flag, which was created during the Revolutionary War period and has been flown by federal, state, and local governments through the years. But because some protesters carried this flag during the Jan. 6 demonstration, leftist critics claimed, without evidence, that Mrs. Alito was signaling support for the J6 defendants.
A spouse's opinion or activity is not a basis for a justice to recuse, and it's sexist to argue otherwise. In fact, that's what the Democrats and legal ethics experts argued when the shoe was on the other foot.
In a seminal case in 2011, left-wing federal appellate Judge Stephen Reinhardt refused to recuse from a case concerning a challenge to California's state ban on same-sex marriages, even though his wife's ACLU chapter (where she was the executive director) had joined two amicus briefs in the court below arguing that the ban was unconstitutional, and she had publicly denounced the ban.
Left-wing legal ethics expert Stephen Gillers filed a brief defending Reinhardt, stating that "a spouse's views and actions, however passionately held and discharged, are not imputed to her spouse, and Judge Reinhardt is not presumed to be the reservoir and carrier of his wife's beliefs. … No authority requires a judge to recuse based alone on the opinions of his or her spouse; only an 'outmoded conception of the relationship between spouses' would hold otherwise." In stark contrast to Mrs. Thomas and Alito, who did not comment on any specific case in the court system, Judge Reinhardt's wife's group had joined two briefs in the case now before him.
Neither Thomas nor Alito had any reason to recuse from any of these cases based on their spouses' activities. Moreover, it's astonishing that the Senate Democrats would criticize justices on recusal issues when Congress is not subject to any recusal laws. They are the only branch in our system not subject to such laws, and Durbin and Whitehouse have repeatedly taken official action to help their spouses' clients.
An Embarrassing Report
More generally, this Democrat staff report is an embarrassment. I served for 10 years as a chief counsel for oversight and investigations for a major congressional committee, managed nearly 200 investigative hearings, and issued several staff reports. Much of the information the staff received in response to letters sent to private citizens had already been reported in the press. The staff report here is based on very little investigative work itself and relies on shoddy work by discredited leftist-funded groups. It is a disgrace to the professionalism of congressional staff and the institution itself.
For example, the staff report cites leftist-funded Fix the Court's (FTC) absurd claim that Justice Thomas accepted $4.75 million in gifts when that figure has been completely discredited. FTC's list has scores of trips Justice Thomas never even went on, preposterously values a trip to Indonesia as a $500,000 gift, calculating that Thomas chartered a private yacht for his own personal use, and absurdly values visiting friends at their summer home as a $280,950 gift. This source is a complete dumpster fire of false claims.
This exposes Whitehouse and Durbin as pure hypocrites who don't care about ethics. President Joe Biden and his family have taken more than 15 vacations at billionaires' mansions, and he never once reported them on his form. These billionaires are not friends, they are donors, and they vacate their homes while the Bidens are there.
In fact, Joe Biden decided to issue his sweeping and unprecedented pardon to his son, Hunter, while staying at a billionaire's $34 million mansion on Nantucket Island. Joe Biden also vacationed over Christmas at a mansion in St. Croix Virgin Islands for the eighth time since 2014, and he has never reported these trips on his forms. Whitehouse and Durbin are fine with Biden grifting on billionaire donor homes but are outraged that Justice Thomas visits his friends at their homes and does not disclose it.
The Democrats had no problem with Justice Stephen Breyer taking more than 230 trips paid for by third parties — 63 of these trips outside the United States and 17 of them funded by the Democrat Pritzker family. Never mind that Ruth Bader Ginsburg took more than 157 trips paid for by third parties, 28 of them international. RBG also received a $1 million gift from the Berggruen Institute, which she then secretly distributed to her favored charities.
Fix the Court is its own scandal center. Its CEO Gabe Roth reportedly violated federal law by failing to disclose that he was lobbying Congress on certain issues and was recently exposed for being paid a salary equivalent of 96 percent of FTC's revenues, while running a deficit of nearly $46,000. Some experts believe this may violate federal law. FTC was also busted for failing to list several trips that liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor failed to disclose. FTC is a sloppy, partisan, noncredible source, but the Democrat staff report relies on its work for its findings.
The staff report cites ProPublica's dishonest reporting on the justices' trips, despite ProPublica refusing to include for months in its reporting that similar claims about Thomas' travel had already been raised in 2011 in a complaint filed by 20 Democrat members of Congress and that the Judicial Conference ruled in 2012 that Thomas had not failed to disclose any necessary information. When ProPublica was forced to write about this ruling, which blew up their entire false narrative that Thomas and Alito had violated the law, these left-wing activists sought to impugn the Democrat and Republican judges on the conference with smears from anonymous sources. This is their standard tactic.
The staff report even lists a fictitious yacht trip around the Bahamas that Thomas never took with a friend, which was first falsely reported by ProPublica. The lawyer for the yacht owner confirmed in writing to the Senate that this trip never happened. But the lazy Democrat staff regurgitated ProPublica's false story, which was based on unnamed anonymous sources, and apparently did no work itself to look into this matter.
The Democrat staff report even shockingly cites Robert Schenk for his alleged claims about trying to manipulate justices through the Supreme Court Historical Society. But Schenk is a fabulist and liar whose credibility was destroyed in 2022 at a House hearing on Supreme Court ethics where he was exposed by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, for totally fabricating a story about a Supreme Court case and also for repeatedly lying under oath in a federal trial.
This is merely representative of the level of dishonesty in this report and a classic tactic of the left. Tell a lie, and when it is proven incorrect, keep spreading it, and rely on your media allies to insulate you from accountability.
Finally, the staff report attacks the Judicial Conference, which is made up of 27 federal judges, including the chief justice and the chief judges of all the federal circuit, for its 2012 ruling that Justice Thomas complied with the disclosure rules and its modification of a recently adopted rule that had required judges to list as a gift staying overnight at the home of a friend or a family member (including a sibling or parent) if that home was held in an LLC simply for tax planning, estate, or security reasons. It was a stupid rule adopted in response to bullying by Whitehouse, and the conference wisely changed it.
Utter Defeat
The Democrat staff report lies when it says the court has "allowed a culture of misconduct to metastasize into a full-blown crisis that has driven public opinion of the Court to historic lows." On the day this report was released, the court's approval rating of 48 percent is the highest it has been since March 2022, and its disapproval rating of 52 percent is the lowest it has been since March 2022. In stark contrast, Congress's approval rating is at a stunningly dismal 17 percent, with a 71 percent disapproval rating.
The Democrats' entire assault on the court, and especially on Justices Thomas and Alito, has ended in utter defeat. The Democrats did not enact any "ethics" legislation and, in fact, could not even get a vote in the full Senate on their so-called Supreme Court ethics reform bill. They failed to pack the court and to force any binding code of ethics on it.
The Democrats' despicable smearing of the Supreme Court and these honorable justices earned them the wrath of the American people, and they are now in the minority in the House and Senate and President Trump is back in the White House.
I look forward to many more originalist opinions by this Supreme Court and especially two of the greatest justices of all time: Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
The author represented Ginni Thomas in the J6 Select Committee investigation and was on some of the trips with Justice Thomas mentioned in this article.
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And the Democrats will cry about it for years to come.
Even Jan Crawford, a long time progressive court activist/journalist, is embarrassed by these attempts to destroy the legitimacy of the courts.
she explains exactly what the democrats are doing
Sheldon Whitehouse took time out of his busy schedule keeping blacks out of his beach club to attack Clarence Thomas. Possible pattern here...
One thing Trump will be getting done for sure, in the near future (this year or next) will convincing Alito and Thomas that it is time to retire and putting two much younger conservative Justices in their places that will insure five conservatives will be on SCOTUS for decades to come.
One thing I have noticed is that leftists have gone quiet about Sotomayer retiring.
Wonder why s/
How do you let those two go?
They are the best Jurists on the Court.
Vic
I am sure they ae flattered by your praise and support - but they two of the oldest on the SCOTUS and two younger conservative Justices to replace them will maintain the conservative majority for decades to come.
That sentiment may be true when it comes to leftwing activists replacing their judges, but when it comes to Conservative Justices it has been a case of: "When you leave the old road for the new road, you know what you are leaving, but you don't know what you are going to find."
Now come the progressive attacks on Alito for not controlling his wife.....
And your point is what? Somebody flew an upside down flag? Nothing illegal about it.
Black Lives Matter rally and the US Flag
Black Lives Matter May Go Much Further Than Police Brutality
At a pro Palestinian rally
Massachusetts pro-Palestinian protestors desecrate US flag, call America ‘Legit Gangsters’ | Fox News
Do you really not consider that a Supreme Court Justice should be held to a higher standard of behavior than a movement whose purpose is protest?
Do you really not believe a woman should be able to express herself?
Ginni, too.
Actually I do think SCOTUS justices and all member of the federal government should also be held to a higher standard of conduct
And I will shed not a tear when Trump replaces Alito and Thomas with much younger conservatives to insure a conservative majority for decades to come.
Oh, don't worry. The transformation of the US into an all-in plutocratic, patriarchal, fascist dictatorship will be irreversible before the end of Trump's Presidency.
Rest easy. You're going to get your dream.
Why do you want a conservative majority for decades to come? I thought you were a moderate non partisan ?
Bob
You should not presume to know dick about my dreams because you do not.
I have never supported Trump [✘] - thought on the best outcome for this past election was a Harris win for the White House and the Republicans controlling both chambers of the Congress so that compromise would be required for ny changes or programs.
But that was not to be.
Your hyperbolic rhetoric and similar spewing streams from others on the left is as much to blame for the shit show we call government now [✘] they flourish in a pool of hate and you on the left continue to keep that pool of hate full.
A very smart man said - "Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that”, MLK Jr. I think that compromise and cooperation can be part of process
Good grief !
Why do you want a conservative majority for decades to come? I thought you were a moderate non partisan ?
Because post 2028 I think we are going to see Democrat presidents and democrat congresses for a decade or so into the future and the conservative supreme court will provide a much needed balance to overstepping
Robert
You are what you do. If you actively cheer for fascism, then you can't be surprised if someone imagines that you are of that ilk. If you repeat [✘] - "the shit show we call government" - then you can't be surprised if someone imagines that you are of that ilk.
If you erroneously accuse others of "hate", then you can't be surprised if someone imagines that you are of that ilk.
I should not have spoken of your "dreams". I should have spoken of your objectives. Those are observable. You (and the other [✘] members here) have clearly, objectively, given that your support to fascism.
Assume your actions.
You (and the other [ ✘ ] members here) have clearly, objectively, given that your support to fascism.
Bob
I am confident that you are an intelligent person, but your comment above is the most ill-informed and baseless set of misguided assumptions anyone has ever posted on NT.
You obviously have either never read my comments or do not understand the points I have been making for years.
I do not, have not and never will be a supporter of Donald Trump or his positions on how the U.S. should be governed.
The "shit show we call government" is not an indictment of the Biden administration on its own, but rather an indictment of the federal government over the past several decades.
When someone talks of people of being of a certain "ilk", it shows them rather than the people they describe to be "less than".
I do not repeat [✘] bullshit, but neither do I repeat the far left, ultra liberal bullshit that so many here on NT present.
I see faults on both sides of the aisle (many many faults) but also some ideas that could be molded through compromise to create solutions to real problems.
Neither side should be ignored or left out but neither should one side dominate and denigrate the other.
The single most misguided part of your commentary is indiscriminate and misguided flinging around of the terms fascist and fascism.
I served my country for decades around the world fighting against evil regimes and people trying to dominate others through "government".
You are much too smart a man for this crap
There is enough cranial rectal displacement disorder abounding, please do not contribute to the growth off the disease.
Do you not understand what fascism is or are you just using a term because it sounds cool to you?
According to Oxford, Fascism is an ideology that is defined by'
If you really look at these definitions, you will see far more similarities to those on the left than the right, to wit...
"derogatory extremely authoritarian, intolerant, or oppressive ideas or behavior", and " very intolerant or domineering views or practices in a particular area"
The left has been displaying intolerance to any idea that does not go along with their ideals. Social media sites ban conservative ideas because left wing "fact checkers" tell them to. Don't even got me started with the left's intolerance of the push back of men in women's sports, transgender mental faculties of those that think they are the gender they are, or the ridicule of those that have a belief in a god, but seems like only Christians get this attitude.
Also, most college and universities or bastions of far left wing ideology, when conservative viewpoints are suppressed in the classroom and other areas of campuses. When a conservative speaker is scheduled to be on a campus, it is inevitable for the university staff to either deny a security permit or even allow the speaker to appear, but essentially give free reign to left wing speakers....the farther left, the better.
It is obvious you should rethink your idea of who it is that has embraced the ideals of fascism....and it ain't the right.
Let's take just one phase: "the shit show we call government". Why "shit show"? If America is the greatest nation in the history of the world, as some claim, "the government" has been central in that development. OBVIOUSLY. So why call it a "shit show"?
The US government, over the last century or two, has actively and successfully participated in the rise of the United States. This is objective fact. The government is a human construct, and therefore imperfect, but its overall success is absolutely, limpidly undeniable... unless the denial is dogmatic rather than factual.
So "shit show" is dogma, not fact.
Why?
If someone wants to destroy something, criticism is a good start. Repeat and repeat and repeat, until people just assume it's true. The purpose of the instigators of the "shit show" lie is the destruction of the American government.
Why?
The American government, steeped in the rule of law, is a bulwark against dictatorship. Those who desire a dictatorship must first eliminate that bulwark.
So: unendingly repeat "shit show".
Today, someone who says the government is a "shit show" is either intent on replacing democracy with dictatorship, or a dumb, unknowing, stupid puppet.
Why do you say "shit show", Robert?
"LOCK HER UP!!!"
Bob, explain why his wife did that, if you can.
Nah
Many Democrats don't seem recognize women as independent beings outside their husband, as the attacks directed at Alito for the actions of his wife talking point demonstrates.
And many don't like for people to know that the Alitos have leftwing neighbors who like to taunt them.
So the GOP is pro-choice now?
Only in regards to vaccines.
and guns.
Hey! Freedom!