(Washington) The head of the United States Supreme Court was asked to testify before Congress on Thursday after widespread controversy around one of his peers, Justice Clarence Thomas.
Cruises on a mega-yacht, private jet flights… the more conservative judge of the Court has been at the heart of a controversy since revelations about the largesse he accepted from businessman Harlan Crow, without declare them.
“The revelations concerning judges who do not respect the expected ethical rules have continued to multiply”, alerted the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Dick Durbin in a missive to Judge John Roberts, head of the Court.
He invited the latter to testify before the Senate on May 2.
Clarence Thomas defended himself from any abuse, ensuring that he was not aware of the rules governing declarations around this type of stay.
It is not the first time that Mr Thomas’ name has been linked to controversy: his wife Ginni, a lobbyist and conservative activist, was involved in Donald Trump’s crusade to prove – wrongly – that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from him.
Once revealed the text messages and emails she sent for this purpose, the left had castigated an apparent conflict of interest and called on her husband to recuse himself from any electoral file.
Nominated by Republican President George HW Bush in 1991, he was confirmed despite accusations of sexual harassment made by a former aide, Anita Hill. He has always denied them, claiming to be the victim of a “high-tech lynching”.
Since the recent revelations of this largesse, some elected Democrats have called for his “immediate resignation”.