As the controversy over alleged corruption continues to follow Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife Ginni, MSNBC host Joy Reid talked about the issue with guests including former chief White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter.
During their discussion of the latest damning revelations on “The Reid Out,” Painter slammed Thomas and his wife’s actions and described the high court as “an out of control frat house.”
“We’ve come a long way since the more bipartisan attitudes, the late ’60s and early ’70s,” Painter said, “And everyone’s just gonna dig their heels in and focus on ‘does he agree with me on abortion or not?’”
Painter added, “And I gotta say, when it comes to ethics, this Supreme Court is like an outta control fraternity. It’s an ‘Animal House’ of ethics.”
The panel discussed how, when Justice Antonin Scalia died, he was staying in a West Texas hunting lodge owned by a businessman whose company recently had a case before the high court. Reid asked the panel if this was “simple corruption” that Justice Clarence learned from Scalia.
“This has been going on in this court for quite some time,” Painter said. “At least we have the Ethics and Government Act, which requires disclosure of these gifts, and it’s the law.”
Painter continued, “And if we didn’t, one of the liberal justices do this. I can guarantee you that Jim Jordan would’ve had them impeached in the house this morning, and they’d be walking the articles of impeachment over to the Senate right now as we speak.”
The Washington Post reported on Thursday that “conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo arranged for the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to be paid tens of thousands of dollars for consulting work just over a decade ago, specifying that her name be left off billing paperwork.”
It’s only the latest in a growing number of stories detailing apparent, blatant corruption on the court. It comes on the heels of a ProPublica report which showed a GOP megadonor paid school tuition for a close relative of Thomas.
“The same standard should apply to everybody,” Painter said. “This is unacceptable.”
Watch the clip at the top of the page.