Former Vice President Mike Pence, who is running for president in 2024, defended Supreme Court justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito after allegations of ethical impropriety, saying, “What we’re seeing here is politics” at play.
Pence told Fox News Sunday with Shannon Bream he has “immense respect” for the Republican-appointed justices and that he takes “them at their word that they acted in a proper and upright way” after a series of ProPublica reports highlighting undisclosed trips the justices took with billionaires in years past.
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“I just can’t help but believe that what we’re seeing here is politics. ProPublica, left-wing organizations, I think, will never forgive our administration appointing three pro-life justices to the Supreme Court of the United States,” Pence said after he was asked if the high court should adopt an enforceable code of ethics.
Pence accused such allegations against the justices as one-sided attempts to “bully” selective members of the Supreme Court despite other Democratic-appointed members having “some of the same issues come up” which have “never been raised.”
“So I think we’re just looking at politics, and I have great confidence in the justices that are serving us today,” Pence added.
Last week, Alito became the latest justice investigated by the outlet ProPublica, which revealed he didn’t disclose a 2008 fishing trip to Alaska financed by hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer despite the man later having a concerted interest in a number of cases before the justices. The same outlet revealed in April that Thomas didn’t disclose an array of trips furnished by a wealthy Republican donor.
The issue surrounded a case in which the justices ruled 7-1 in favor of Singer, which resulted in a $2.5 billion payout to the billionaire.
Alito denied any wrongdoing in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal hours before the report by ProPublica was released, saying it was intended to “mislead” readers. He said no reasonable person would think he needed to recuse from the case because he was not aware of Singer’s connection to the entities involved in the case.
Thomas, who also denied wrongdoing after ProPublica’s reports on his personal trips, was recently defended by federal appeals court Judge Amul Thapar, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, who released a new book last week about Thomas titled The People’s Justice.
“Judges are just like every other human being. We have a diverse group of friends, and those friends don’t influence the way we do our job,” Thapar told CNN.
Virginia Canter, chief ethics counsel at the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, bashed the “completely disingenuous” title of Thapar’s book.
“Given the hundreds of thousands of dollars in private jet travel, luxurious vacations, and other extravagant gifts he has accepted from his wealthy benefactor, Thomas represents anything but a justice for the people,” Canter said.
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Current rules require justices to disclose all gifts that exceed $415, but the standards around gifts such as travel or lodging remain unclear. The Judicial Conference recently updated guidelines to require justices and other federal judges to report gifts in more detail, including things such as rides on private jets or free stays at a hotel.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), the chairman of the Federal Courts and Oversight Subcommittee, said Wednesday they will write up Supreme Court ethics legislation after July 4 if the chief justice does not take action on the matter.
