Justice Thomas’ Omissions Rise To The Level Of Criminal Deception
Whether or Not He Resigns, the Jurist Should Be Charged With Federal Crimes To Include Depriving The Public Of Honest Services
Julie A. Werner-Simon is a former federal prosecutor, and adjunct law professor at University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law & Drexel University’s Kline School of Law,. She also serves as a legal analyst at Drexel’s LeBow School of Business
Not a day goes by, of late, without a new revelation from Pro Publica about Justice Clarence Thomas’ receipt of gifts from a particular Republican mega-donor. But what appears to be lost in the public discourse is that there is a difference between (i) the federal codes-of-conduct (such as no gifts from a single source in excess of $20 or $50 in a single year to Department of Justice employees) and (ii) what we old-timers at DOJ called “the Watergate forms.” The latter are those annual, post-Watergate, financial disclosure forms that supervisory, high-level and/or Senate confirmed federal employees from the three branches (congressional, executive and judiciary) must complete ever year.
The Supremes do not yet have a code of conduct like the lower federal courts, so nothing prevents the top jurists and their families from…
