Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas’s team ripped his critics for promoting politically motivated “calumny” designed to drive him from the bench because of his conservative views on Thursday.
In the strongest defense of Thomas since the judge himself in 1991 decried Senate Democrats for trying to block his appointment to the court as a “high-tech lynching,” his legal team slammed critics for engaging in “blood sport” with false ethical charges.
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“This is calumny. Willful violations require intentional disregard or indifference. The attacks on Justice Thomas are nothing less than ridiculous and dangerous, and they set a terrible precedent for political blood sport through federal ethics filings,” lawyer Elliot Berke said.
In a letter accompanying Thomas’s 2022 financial disclosure, Berke added that the criticism by left-wing groups bolstered by friendly media is “based on malicious and sloppy reporting and attacks from partisans who disagree with his jurisprudence and want to drive him and others off the court.”
Since conservatives took control of the court with former President Donald Trump’s three picks, liberal critics have been poking at Republican judges. It escalated after the court threw out the 1973 Roe v. Wade precedent.
The focus of the critics has been Thomas, considered the conservative soul of the court. Critics have claimed that he willfully filed false and skimpy financial disclosures.
Berke, hired by Thomas to review his disclosures, said the judge followed rules set by the Judicial Conference, which oversees court ethics. In his review, he also looked at the accusations made against Thomas’s wife, Virginia, and found no violations.
“After reviewing Justice Thomas’s records, I am confident there has been no willful ethics transgression, and any prior reporting errors were strictly inadvertent,” Berke wrote.
Over 100 former clerks of Justice Thomas sign open letter defending his integrity, independence https://t.co/i35M72B8a4 #FoxNews
— Mark Paoletta (@MarkPaoletta) August 29, 2023
His comments echoed other Thomas defenders, notably lawyer, author, and Thomas friend Mark Paoletta, who frequently counters charges made by the judge’s attackers. And earlier this week, some 100 former Thomas clerks issued a letter that dismissed ethics charges against him.
Berke’s memo looked heavily on the claims that Thomas was the beneficiary of wealthy friends, especially real estate developer Harlan Crow, who has been buying up sites linked to Thomas and his boyhood in an effort to preserve history and start a museum dedicated to the judge.
In the documents, Berke revealed that the purchases of some real estate held by Thomas ended up being huge financial losses, not windfalls.
“It is important to note that none of these projects provide any financial benefit to Justice Thomas; Mr. Crow supported these projects to honor the justice’s life, the nuns who taught him, and the community in which he grew up,” Berke wrote.
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He also joined with others who have noted that as disclosure rules have changed for justices, Thomas has complied. He said critics, including House and Senate Democrats, have unfairly used updated rules to judge past Thomas disclosures.
“While public figures may be the targets of weaponized ethics allegations, all Americans are its victims. Trust in our national institutions is eroding fast enough — with poisonous consequences for our country — without partisans, sworn to uphold the Constitution, abusing it and their own privilege to score cheap political points for a few slow news cycles. And yes of course, our public officials are not above the law, but they are also entitled to rely on the rules put in place to govern their conduct. So, the ethics wars need to stop: They are not only unfair to our government officials, but also undermine public confidence in our republic,” Berke wrote.
