A report released last week accusing Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas of improperly receiving lavish gifts from a wealthy friend is nothing more than a political hit job, one expert claimed.

‘This is just grasping at straws by the left that is desperate to tear down Justice Thomas because he now has a working originalist majority on the court,’ said Roger Severino, vice president of domestic policy and The Joseph C. and Elizabeth A. Anderlik Fellow at The Heritage Foundation.

‘This is politics. Plain and simple.’

Severino’s comments to Fox News Digital came in response to a ProPublica report on Thursday accusing Thomas of improperly receiving lavish vacations from Republican mega donor Harlan Crow.

The ProPublica report accuses Thomas of taking trips across the world on Crow’s yacht and private jet without disclosing them and Crow acknowledged extending ‘hospitality’ to Thomas but insisted he never asked for it and that the two families have been friends for decades.

The ProPublica report claimed that trips taken by Thomas ‘have no known precedent in the modern history of the U.S. Supreme Court,’ which Severino, a Harvard Law graduate, flatly rejected.

‘There is no ‘there’ there because the justices have received gifts of hospitality from friends forever,’ Severino said. ‘And many of the justices have taken far more trips than Justice Thomas on somebody else’s dime, including Justice Breyer, who we know has taken at least 233 trips when he was on the bench.’

Severino explained that justices are permitted to accept invites to properties of friends for dinner or vacations without paying for it or disclosing it.

‘There’s nothing to see here because there’s been no allegation whatsoever that accepting travel to a friend’s property somehow influenced Justice Thomas’s decision-making,’ Severino said. ‘That’s absurd. If you know anything about Justice Thomas, it’s that he’s not influenced by outside pressures one whit. He’s guided by the law and the Constitution. Period.’

Severino accused liberals of giving a ‘pass’ to perceived bias on the left, pointing out that the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg officiated a same-sex wedding before the Obergefell decision that federally recognized gay marriage.

‘Did that perhaps indicate bias where she should have recused herself?’ Severino asked. ‘The media was fairly silent about that and that sort of thing is much closer to the heart of impropriety in judging.’

Justices are not required to disclose invitations and travel that are considered ‘personal hospitality’ and the Supreme Court is not subject to an ethics code.

The Washington Post reported that the Judicial Conference, the policymaking body of the court, decided last month that judges must report travel by private jet, which Severino says is further proof Thomas was abiding by the rules.

‘It actually further reinforces the fact that he’d been acting within the rules and according to the practice that has been understood for decades,’ said Severino, who served from 2017-21 as director for the U.S. Department Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights where he oversaw compliance with ethical rules including those regarding gifts.

‘Hospitality includes when somebody picks you up to take you to their house or to their property. That’s what hospitality is. It just happened to be a friend that has made it in the world that’s been quite successful, doesn’t change the fact that he’s a friend.’

Constitutional law professor and Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley told Fox News Digital that until recently, ‘even lower court judges were not required to report such trips under a personal hospitality exception.’

‘Justice Thomas would not have been required to report the trips under the prior rule,’ Turley said. ‘Once again, the Democrats and the media appear to be engaging in the same hair-triggered responses to any story related to Thomas. This includes the clearly absurd call for an impeachment by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.’

In terms of the ProPublica implication that Thomas’s relationship with Crow somehow affected his rulings from the bench, Severino said, ‘Nobody with a straight face can say Justice Thomas has been influenced by anybody except by the Constitution and his best reading of it.’

Many liberals on social media referred to the ProPublica report as a ‘bombshell’ and some called for a resignation.

At the same time, conservatives on Twitter echoed Severino’s conclusion that there is no ‘there there’ with the report.

‘Laughably stupid,’ author Dinesh D’Souza wrote. ‘He vacations with a rich friend, who also pays for dinner! Is this the best they’ve got? Clarence Thomas’ real offense is being black and conservative.’

‘I read the latest high tech lynching of Clarence Thomas for going on vacation with his rich friend,’ conservative communications director Greg Price tweeted. ‘I also read the disclosure laws for judges linked in the story that says they don’t have to report gifts from personal friends. ProPublica mysteriously left that out of their story.’

The ProPublica article cited multiple experts who blasted Thomas’ actions, including a retired judge appointed by former President Bill Clinton who called the justice’s actions ‘incomprehensible.’

Other experts, including legal ethics expert Stephen Gillers at NYU School of Law, adopted a tone more similar to Severino’s.

‘Justice Thomas could plausibly claim, and I think has claimed (as have others) that so long as an invitation itself came from a ‘person,’ not a corporation or business entity, it was ‘personal hospitality’ and he did not need to report it,’ Gillers told the Washington Post.

On Friday, Thomas released a lengthy statement saying just that.

‘Harlan and Kathy Crow are among our dearest friends, and we have been friends for over twenty-five years,’ Thomas said in a statement. ‘As friends do, we have joined them on a number of family trips during the more than quarter century we have known them.

‘Early in my tenure at the Court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable. I have endeavored to follow that counsel throughout my tenure, and have always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines.’

Thomas acknowledged that the guidelines were changed last month and it is his ‘intent to follow this guidance in the future.’

Turley told Fox News Digital that Thomas was ‘right to release a public statement.’

‘Justices have long been guests of private hosts,’ Turley said. ‘They are allowed to have friends and accept their hospitality. There is no evidence that Crow had business before the court. Nevertheless, expensive gifts or benefits should be disclosed, in my view, in the interests of court integrity.’

‘I have also long argued for a code of ethics that applies to the court. The question is where to draw the line so that judges are not constantly forced to treat every friend like a lobbyist or influence seeker.’

Senate Chaplain the Rev. Barry Black called for action after a mass school shooting at Nashville’s Covenant School left six dead, including three students, in Tennessee on March 27.

‘I have been hearing, ‘You have my thoughts and prayers,’ and that is valid for any person, again, who has been told ‘pray without ceasing.’ But I also know that there comes a time when action is required,’ Black said on CBS’ ‘Face the Nation’ on Sunday.

Black’s comments come after a wave of calls by Democrats to reintroduce gun safety legislation following the Covenant School shooting in which 28-year-old shooter Audrey Hale killed three adults and three 9-year-old children before being shot dead by police.

Black said he always strives to be ‘in a spirit of prayer,’ continuing on to say that the ‘tipping point’ for him was that the shooting took place in a church school.

‘It just was the tipping point for me to see 9-year-olds dying in a place that should have been a city of refuge, in a place that was preparing them not just for time but for eternity,’ Black said.

Black, who has served as Senate chaplain since 2003, did not address whether he received criticism from senators after saying that ‘thoughts and prayers are not enough’ shortly after the shooting took place. Black did say that members of the 118th Congress who attend his Bible study agreed to ‘fast and pray’ on mass shootings, among other topics, and ‘how to do better with this problem.’

‘These are challenging times in which people are hurting, and they are hoping that somehow government can help alleviate their pain,’ Black said on people’s perception of government.

‘I should not have to walk, as the chaplain of the Senate or as a citizen, into a Walmart wondering as I’m looking around whether or not an AR-15 is going to start spraying bullets. You know, what do I do? The Our Father or the Hail Mary?’ Black said.

Efforts to reintroduce gun-control legislation have gained momentum since the shooting, with the White House calling upon Congress to ‘do something.’ Republicans have instead said there is a mental health crisis facing the nation that no gun laws could fix.

‘How many more lives must be lost before Congress is moved to act?’ Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said at a news conference days after the shooting. ‘How many families must be torn apart?’

Republicans have previously opposed expanded funding for gun-violence research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, arguing that such efforts would lead to ‘propaganda’ for gun confiscation.

Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.

A Democratic U.S. senator on Sunday blamed former President Donald Trump for leaving the Biden administration with ‘very bad options’ that led to the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal in 2021.

Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, made the remarks during an appearance on ‘FOX News Sunday.’

‘Make no mistake about it,’ the senator said, ‘the Biden administration had very bad options. The decision to withdraw from Afghanistan was made by the Trump administration.’

Cardin’s comments follow the White House’s public release of a 12-page summary of the results of the U.S. policies around the ending of the nation’s longest war, taking little responsibility for its own actions and asserting that Biden was ‘severely constrained’ by Trump’s decisions.

Cardin continued to lay blame along those same lines, saying that with troop numbers reduced to 2,500 by the time Biden started his term, the president ‘had little options left.’

‘President Biden basically had one of two choices: was he going to get out of Afghanistan or put more troops into Afghanistan with no end in sight?’

Cardin added that these ‘were not good options’ and Biden made what he thought was the best decision based on the intelligence available at the time.

‘Did it present real challenges for Americans and others getting out of Afghanistan? You bet it did,’ Cardin added.

The senator cited some mistakes with the withdrawal, including the intelligence on the strength of the Afghan government and the encroaching Taliban forces.

‘Admittedly, the intelligence information about the strength of the Afghan government to stand up against the Taliban was not accurate,’ the senator said. ‘The Taliban took over much quicker than anyone had anticipated.’

Cardin laid out three points in what he described as ‘the major mistake’ of the deadly withdrawal.

‘I think the major mistake was made in negotiating directly with the Taliban, not involving the Afghan government, unilaterally withdrawing our troops to a level that did not give us the ability to be able to protect U.S. interests moving forward,’ he said.

Republicans in Congress have sharply criticized the Afghanistan withdrawal, focusing on the deaths of 13 service members in a suicide bombing at Kabul’s airport, which also killed more than 100 Afghans.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

An attorney for former President Donald Trump called out what he said was a ‘cheap shot’ from NBC‘s Chuck Todd while discussing Trump’s handling of classified documents.

During a Sunday appearance on ‘Meet the Press,’ Todd pressed Trump attorney James Trusty over Trump’s handling of classified documents after leaving the White House, asking if the former president was attempting to get a settlement similar to that awarded to the estate of former President Richard Nixon for records over two decades ago.

‘Does Donald Trump think he should get paid… because Nixon got paid $18 million,’ Todd asked.

‘That’s a cheap shot,’ Trusty responded.

At issue were statements Trump recently made comparing his case to that of Nixon, citing the Presidential Records Act and arguing that the Nixon estate was paid $18 million for records related to him while Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home was raided by federal authorities amid talks for Trump to turn over documents in his possession.

‘This is the Presidential Records Act. I have the right to take stuff. Do you know that they ended up paying Richard Nixon, I think, $18 million for what he had? They did the Presidential Records Act. I have the right to take stuff. I have the right to look at stuff. But they have the right to talk, and we have the right to talk. This would have all been worked out. All of a sudden, they raided Mar-a-Lago, viciously raided Mar-a-Lago,’ Trump said during an appearance on Fox News last week.

But Todd accused Trump’s legal team of ‘misrepresenting the law’ during his discussion with Trusty, arguing that the Presidential Records Act was passed after Nixon left office.

‘Nixon has a case because a law wasn’t in place,’ Todd said.

The Presidential Records Act, which was passed in 1978, changed how presidential records are handled, making records such as documents legally public and not the private property of former presidents. 

But Trusty argued that recent former presidents have had similar cases to that of Trump, though their handling of presidential materials was not nearly as closely scrutinized.

‘Let’s go more modern day, because you’re right about the timing of the Presidential Records Act,’ Trusty responded. ‘Bill Clinton had multiple recordings he kept in a sock drawer, of his presidency, while in the Oval Office…. he basically said ‘hey that stays in my sock drawer, it’s personal’ and NARA (National Archives and Records Administration) didn’t blink.’

Trusty also pointed to the case of former President Barack Obama, arguing that Obama kept ‘millions of documents,’ thousands of which were classified, in a furniture store in Illinois, something that NARA evidently did not take issue with.

‘This has rotten underpinning in terms of bureaucrats being politicized followed up by an all too eager DOJ to criminalize something that is not a crime,’ Trusty said.

FIRST ON FOX: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is lashing out at a ‘Soros-backed’ prosecutor after a Lone Star State jury found Daniel Perry, a U.S. Army sergeant, guilty in the shooting death of an armed protester in Austin during anti-police demonstrations in the summer of 2020.

‘Self-defense is a God-given right, not a crime. Unfortunately, the Soros-backed DA in Travis County cares more about the radical agenda of dangerous Antifa and BLM mobs than justice,’ Paxton said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

‘This week has shown us how rogue prosecutors have weaponized the judicial system,’ he added. ‘They must be stopped!’

Paxton’s comments blaming Travis County DA José Garza come after a Texas jury deliberated for two days and ultimately ruled against Perry in the fatal shooting.

Following the ruling from the jury, Garza, according to a Fox affiliate in Central Texas, released the following statement: ‘I’m grateful to our dedicated career prosecutors and victims’ counselors who tried this case. They worked hard to make a complete and accurate presentation of the facts to the jury. Our hearts continue to break for the Foster family. We hope this verdict brings closure and peace to the victim’s family.’

In a statement to Fox News Digital on Saturday, Garza responded to Paxton’s remarks and insisted he should instead be focused on his ‘own legal troubles.’

‘The Texas Attorney General is currently under felony indictment and under a federal criminal investigation,’ Garza said. ‘He should focus on his own legal troubles instead of attempting to interfere with the work of a Travis County jury.’

The shooting involving Sgt. Perry occurred during Black Lives Matter demonstrations that erupted across the Texas state capital and the rest of the United States nearly three years ago. 

Perry, who was stationed at Fort Hood at the time, was driving for Uber to make extra money in downtown Austin on the night of July 25, 2020, when he encountered a large crowd of protesters. They were illegally blocking city streets that night, according to police, as protesters in Austin and elsewhere had done during the weeks of rioting.

Among the protesters was 28-year-old Garrett Foster, who was carrying an AK-47. Perry’s defense team says that the demonstrators encircled and starting pounding on his vehicle and that Foster raised the firearm at Perry, prompting him to open fire with a handgun he legally carried for self-defense.

‘When Garrett Foster pointed his AK-47 at Daniel Perry, Daniel had two tenths of a second to defend himself. He chose to live,’ Doug O’Connell, an attorney for Perry, perviously told Fox in a statement. 

‘It may be legal in Texas to carry an assault rifle in downtown Austin. It doesn’t make it a good idea. If you point a firearm at someone, you’re responsible for everything that happens next.’

Perry drove to a safe location away from the scene and called 911 to report what had happened. Officers spoke to Perry that night and released him, but a grand jury returned an indictment for murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon one year later in July 2021.

Perry is now facing life in prison as he awaits sentencing.

Fox News’ Paul Best and Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this article.

President Biden invited the ‘Tennessee Three’ to the White House on Friday.

The administration said in a statement that he had praised the three state lawmakers for ‘seeking to ban assault weapons and standing up for our democratic values.’

A social media post showed the president video-chatting with Democrats Justin Pearson, 28, Justin Jones, 27, and 60-year-old Gloria Johnson.

‘Earlier today, I spoke to Reps. Jones, Pearson, and Johnson to thank them for their leadership and courage in the face of a blatant disregard of our nation’s democratic values. Our country needs to take action on gun violence — and to do that we need more voices like theirs speaking out,’ Biden said in a caption.

Jones and Pearson were ousted by the Republican-controlled state House for their role in a protest calling for gun control after a March 27 school shooting in Nashville took the lives of children and employees.

Johnson, who joined in the demonstration, avoided expulsion by a single vote.

The White House has lambasted Tennessee Republicans for their actions, calling them ‘shocking, undemocratic and without precedent.’ 

‘Rather than debating the merits of the issue, these Republican lawmakers have chosen to punish, silence, and expel duly-elected representatives of the people of Tennessee,’ it said in an April 6 statement, saying that kids are continuing to pay the price for Republicans officials’ obstinance.

Also on Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris flew to Nashville, calling for stricter firearm laws, including background checks, red flag laws and restrictions on assault rifles.

‘Let’s not fall for the false choice — either you’re in favor of the Second Amendment or you want reasonable gun safety laws,’ Harris told a crowd at the city’s historically Black Fisk University. ‘We can and should do both.’

The vice president also met privately with Jones, Pearson and Johnson, and other elected officials and young people advocating for tougher gun control laws.

‘This nation was built on peaceful protest. No elected official should lose their job simply for raising their voice – especially when they’re doing it on behalf of our children,’ former President Barack Obama tweeted. ‘What happened in Tennessee is the latest example of a broader erosion of civility and democratic norms. Silencing those who disagree with us is a sign of weakness, not strength, and it won’t lead to progress.’

Notably, the oustings have also drawn accusations of racism. Jones and Pearson are young Black men, and Johnson is White and was allowed to continue to serve in the chamber. Republican leadership has denied that race was a factor in the matter.

GOP members said that their actions were necessary to avoid setting a precedent that lawmakers’ disruptions of House proceedings through protest would be tolerated. Republicans control the Tennessee House of Representatives. 

Republican state Rep. Gino Bulso accused the three Democrats of ‘effectively [conducting] a mutiny.’

The expulsions led to strong reaction, with hundreds of people converging on the House.

While most state legislatures retain the power to expel members, it is generally a rarely used punishment for lawmakers who have been accused of serious misconduct. 

Attempts to get Jones and Pearson reinstated are underway.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Alexander Soros, son of liberal billionaire George Soros, has made frequent visits to the White House since President Biden took office in 2021, meeting with top officials on behalf of his 92-year-old father.

Soros — who has worked to carry his father’s torch as he has assisted with fundraising efforts for the Democratic Party — traveled to the White House at least 14 times since October 2021 and had meetings with multiple officials in 2022, according to White House visitor logs reviewed by Fox News Digital.

The logs detailing visits by Soros to the White House were first reported by the New York Post on Saturday and revealed that the billionaire’s son made a trip to the White House on December 1, 2022, the day he met with then-Chief of Staff Ron Klain’s assistant, Nina Srivastava, who also served on Biden’s presidential campaign.

That December visit to the White House, according to the Post, took place on the same day a state dinner attended by Alexander Soros was held by the first family to honor French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte.

One day later, on December 2 of last year, records showed that Soros had meetings with Mariana Adame, advisor to the counselor to the president, and Deputy National Security Advisor Jonathan Finer.

Records showed previous trips to the White House by Soros, who serves as chair of the Open Society Foundations, founded by his father in the 1990s, included earlier 2022 meetings with Adame on Oct. 14, Srivastava on Sept. 14, and Finer on three different occasions (Dec. 15, Oct. 6 and Sept. 15).

The updated visitors log also revealed that Soros had meetings at the White House with Kimberly Lang, then a National Security Advisor executive assistant, on October 6, as well as former Klain advisor Madeline Strasser on Oct. 29, 2021, and April 22, 2022.

Heritage Foundation Oversight Project director Mike Howell told Fox News Digital that the visits by Alexander Soros to the White House are concerning, as the Soros family ‘has done incalculable damage to our country.’ He continued, ‘The death and destruction of their policies are evident at our borders and in our crime-infested cities. The left is addicted to their money, and they don’t even bother hiding it anymore.’

Alexander Soros’ social media accounts document numerous meetings with high-profile leaders from around the world, featuring photos of the liberal billionaire’s son with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Cindy McCain, who served as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture from Nov. 2021 to April 2023 and is the widow of the late former Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

Other photos shared to his Instagram account showed Alexander Soros standing alongside former President Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Macron.

The Soros family recently came under fire for its involvement in pushing to prominence Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose investigations into Trump led to an indictment of the former president last week.

Fox News Digital previously reported that in May 2021, George Soros pushed $1 million to the Color of Change PAC, which turned around and spent big, backing Bragg’s candidacy.

Soros’ son Jonathan Soros, and Jonathan’s wife, Jennifer Allan Soros, also donated directly to Bragg’s campaign, according to New York campaign finance records reviewed by Fox News Digital.

On April 26, 2021, Jonathan Soros sent a $10,000 check to the now-district attorney’s coffers, state filings show. Three days later, on April 29, Jennifer Allan Soros added a $10,000 contribution to the campaign. While other individuals provided more direct cash to his committee, the couple were among its biggest donors. 

The contributions were also uncommon for the pair, as they generally do not get financially involved with district attorney races, though they have donated to other New York political campaigns and issue groups. Jonathan Soros did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment on the Bragg donations.

George Soros, on the other hand, has targeted numerous prosecutor races with millions of dollars in recent years.

Soros’ district attorney operation usually involves his longtime treasurer, Whitney Tymas, establishing ‘pop-up’ political action committees in states where he targets the races. Once set up, the financier injects money into the PACs, which tend to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars backing his preferred candidates. The PACs typically dissolve after the elections.

In Bragg’s case, that did not happen. Instead, Soros donated $1 million in May 2021 to the Color of Change PAC, which in the following weeks spent cash backing Bragg’s candidacy. The timing of the money makes it likely that it aided the efforts.

Fox News’ Joe Schoffstall and Jessica Chasmar contributed to this article.

The U.S. Navy has launched a submarine capable of carrying a large payload of missiles into the Middle East in an apparent warning directed toward Iran.

The nuclear-powered submarine is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet, which has a patrol that includes the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.

‘It is capable of carrying up to 154 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles and is deployed to U.S. 5th Fleet to help ensure regional maritime security and stability,’ said Cmdr. Timothy Hawkins.

US-Iranian relations have further soured in recent years following former President Donald Trump’s successful order to kill Iran’s top military commander, Qasem Soleimani — as well as his decision to end a deal that curbed sanctions on Iran in exchange for a reduction in nuclear weapons development.

The heightened aggression from Iran extends also to U.S. allies — namely the United Kingdom and Israel — who along with the US have reported unusual amounts of aggression and even attacks from Iranian forces.

Iran has denied the reports.

In February, Iran renewed threats to target Trump and top members of his former Cabinet, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, for the 2020 killing of Soleimani.

‘God willing, we are looking to kill Trump [and] Pompeo … and military commanders who issued the order should be killed,’ Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps aerospace force, told Iranian state television.

Last month, American naval forces teamed up with UK counterparts to seize ‘anti-tank guided missiles’ and missile components from a boat that originated from Iran.

The joint operation – in which the U.S. provided ‘airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support for an interdiction in the Gulf of Oman conducted by the United Kingdom Royal Navy’ – occurred on Feb. 23.

Iran has expanded its missile program in recent years, ramping up what it claims are defensive arms as a show of defiance to the West in the wake of the collapsed nuclear arms treaty.

While Western officials are concerned over Iran’s growing arms programs, it has also urged caution when it comes to the viability of Iran’s capabilities, including in November when the Pentagon said it was skeptical of Hajizadeh’s claims that Iran had added hypersonic ballistic missile to its stockpiles.

Fox News’ Caitlin McFall and Greg Norman contributed to this report.

House and Senate Democrats are demanding that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts launch an inquiry into Associate Justice Clarence Thomas and the luxury vacations he received as gifts from a GOP mega donor over more than 20 years.

Sixteen lawmakers led by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., sent a letter to Roberts on Friday requesting an investigation into ‘allegations of unethical, and potentially unlawful, conduct.’ A ProPublica report published this week found that Thomas’ close friendship with real estate developer Harlan Crow allowed him to accompany the Texas billionaire on luxury vacations on his private jet and yacht, as well as free stays on Crow’s vast vacation property, among other benefits.

Democrats have alleged that Thomas breached ethics rules by failing to disclose these trips as gifts, some of which were valued at more than $500,000, according to ProPublica. The letter chastises the court for having ‘barely acknowledged’ the allegations before.

‘We believe that it is your duty as Chief Justice ‘to safeguard public faith in the judiciary,’ and that fulfilling that duty requires swift, thorough, independent and transparent investigation into these allegations,’ the letter states. 

Thomas issued a rare written statement responding to ProPublica’s report Friday, insisting that he has always followed Supreme Court guidance on gift disclosures.

‘Harlan and Kathy Crow are among our dearest friends, and we have been friends for over twenty-five years,’ Thomas said. ‘As friends do, we have joined them on a number of family trips during the more than quarter century we have known them. Early in my tenure at the Court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable.’ 

‘I have endeavored to follow that counsel throughout my tenure, and have always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines,’  he said. ‘These guidelines are now being changed, as the committee of the Judicial Conference responsible for financial disclosure for the entire federal judiciary just this past month announced new guidance. And, it is, of course, my intent to follow this guidance in the future.’

In a statement to ProPublica, Crow denied ever trying to influence Thomas or put him in positions where other influential people could do the same.

‘The hospitality we have extended to the Thomas’s (sic) over the years is no different from the hospitality we have extended to our many other dear friends,’ part of the statement reads. ‘We have never asked about a pending or lower court case, and Justice Thomas has never discussed one, and we have never sought to influence Justice Thomas on any legal or political issue. More generally, I am unaware of any of our friends ever lobbying or seeking to influence Justice Thomas on any case, and I would never invite anyone who I believe had any intention of doing that.’

Last month, the Judicial Conference of the United States, which creates and oversees policies for federal courts, revised its ethics and financial disclosure guidelines to require the justices to disclose things like traveling by private jet and staying in resorts.

The Democrats’ letter notes that financial disclosure laws require top government officials to report gifts annually. It states there are ‘limited exceptions’ for personal friendships, but argues, ‘these exceptions are not meant to allow government officials to hide from the public extravagant gifts by wealthy political interests. 

The undersigned lawmakers said the Supreme Court should investigate who accompanied Thomas on the undisclosed trips and whether they have any connections to cases pending before the court. ‘We have reason to believe that Mr. Crow himself is connected to multiple groups that have filed amicus briefs with the Court,’ the Democrats wrote. ‘Yet the public has no way of knowing who else with interests related to Justice Thomas’ official duties joined these trips.’

The Democrats said that if the court fails to act, they will push Congress to impose ‘a proper code of ethics’ on the Supreme Court to ‘restore accountability’ to the body. 

READ THE LETTER BELOW. APP USERS, CLICK HERE:

Fox News’ Brianna Herlihy, Shannon Bream, Elizabeth Elkind and Bill Mears contributed to this report.

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is facing another lawsuit over nursing home deaths in the state during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the plaintiff alleging that Cuomo’s pride and ‘unmitigated greed’ had led to needless deaths. 

The lawsuit alleges that Cuomo and other top officials had exhibited ‘deliberate indifference’ toward nursing home residents and caused 15,000 avoidable COVID-19 deaths,’ the New York Post reports.

The lawsuit was filed by Sean Newman in a Brooklyn federal district court. Newman is married to Janice Dean, who works for Fox News Channel as a senior meteorologist. Newman’s parents died in early 2020 at nursing homes in the state amid the COVID-19 outbreak. 

Cuomo was at the center of an ongoing scandal over the state’s handling of nursing homes at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The controversy focused on a state order that required nursing homes to receive patients who had been treated for COVID-19.

The policy was later rescinded, but that emerged again in 2021 when Attorney General Letitia James announced that the death toll had been undercounted by as much as 50%. Cuomo would later resign over unrelated sexual misconduct allegations.

The new lawsuit alleges: ‘It was not only Governor Cuomo’s pride that was leading to thousands of needless deaths, but his unmitigated greed as well.’ 

Specifically, Newman alleges that the former governor ‘tailored his policies and actions to generate material’ for a $5 million book deal, according to the Post. That book ‘American Crisis’ would highlight ‘leadership lessons’ from the pandemic and appeared as many in the media were making comparisons between Cuomo’s leadership during the pandemic and then-President Donald Trump’s.

It is the second such lawsuit that the former governor is facing over the state’s nursing home policy.

Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi called the lawsuit ‘meritless.’

‘It’s unfortunate that people’s pain continues to be politicized and weaponized in order to distort the truth, which is that the DOJ, the AG, the Manhattan DA and the Assembly all critically examined this and found no there there,’ he said. ‘This suit is meritless, and we expect any fair hearing in a court of law will also bear this out.’  

He added that the allegations regarding the book are ‘false, wrong and the product of the furthest depths of right-wing paranoia.’