美国国家公共电台 NPR--ProPublica investigates luxury vacations gifted to Supreme Court Justice Thomas

ProPublica investigates luxury vacations gifted to Supreme¹ Court Justice Thomas

Transcript²

A ProPublica investigation³ out Thursday reveals that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has failed to disclose luxury vacations and free travel provided by conservative billionaire Harlan Crow.

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

A ProPublica investigation finds billionaire GOP donor⁴ Harlan Crow has been treating U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to luxury vacations for more than two decades. Trips on Crow's private plane and yacht could be considered gifts and raise ethics⁵ questions about Thomas' political influences. I'm joined now by ProPublica reporter Justin Elliott, who worked on this investigation. The story has just been published.

Justin, your investigation raises a lot of questions about potential conflicts of interest. What did you find?

JUSTIN ELLIOTT: Yeah. Well, to give you one example, this billionaire businessman, Harlan Crow, flew Clarence Thomas to Indonesia a few years ago on his private jet. They were met there by his very large yacht, and they went on vacation together for about nine days. You know, this is a vacation - not a normal vacation. This could cost hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars. And the striking thing about it is that Justice Thomas didn't report any of these gifts on his annual financial disclosure, where judges are supposed to report this sort of thing, which, you know, ethics lawyers told us that that could be a violation⁶ of the federal law.

MART?NEZ: And your story comes with pictures of these vacations. Any evidence of other justices doing anything like this?

ELLIOTT: You know, that's something we're still looking into. But the striking thing about Justice Thomas is that he's been doing this for many years. I mean, we've found multiple examples of him using this billionaire's private jet without reporting it. And, you know, the billionaire we're talking about here, Harlan Crow, he's not just, you know, a businessman. He also is deeply involved in politics. He is on the boards of think tanks that do Supreme Court advocacy. And he's been involved in sort of right-wing legal politics for many years.

MART?NEZ: Yeah, very, very influential⁷ in conservative circles. You spoke⁸ to a number of experts on the issue of disclosure. What did they conclude after reviewing the information you presented?

ELLIOTT: They concluded that, in particular, the private jet flights that Justice Thomas took, as well as the cruises on Mr. Crow's yacht, should have been disclosed. Supreme Court justices, like many other government officials, are required to report gifts every year on a public filing. And the idea of that is that members of the public, and also in the case of the court, people who have cases at the court can assess potential conflicts of interest and see who might be influencing justices. You know, we asked Justice Thomas why he didn't report these trips, and he didn't respond to our questions.

MART?NEZ: What about Harlan Crow? Has he responded at all?

ELLIOTT: Yeah, Harlan Crow did respond, and he said that, you know, he extends hospitality to a lot of his friends, not just Justice Thomas and that this is no different. He also said that he's never sought to influence Justice Thomas, you know. But there's a lot we still don't know about this relationship, in part because these trips have been kept basically secret for many, many years.

MART?NEZ: So to be clear, the issue here is that Justice Thomas has not told the world about this. It doesn't show up in any kind of official way. Because it's one thing to say, hey, friends can take another friend on a trip with him, but I guess, in this case, in Justice Thomas' case, he has to let people know.

ELLIOTT: That's definitely one issue. You know, we spoke to several other judges who told us that, you know - one told us that it was incomprehensible to accept gifts like this. You know, she said that when she was making a restaurant reservation, she'd never even use her title judge because she didn't want to be seen as, you know, leveraging⁹ her public office for private benefits. So part of it is the disclosure. Part of it is, you know, the appearance of using your private office for personal benefit.

MART?NEZ: Justin Elliott is a reporter with ProPublica. Justin, thanks.

ELLIOTT: Thanks.

1 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

4 donor   

n.捐献者；赠送人；(组织、器官等的)供体

参考例句：

• In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下，接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
• The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。

5 ethics   

n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准

参考例句：

• The ethics of his profession don't permit him to do that.他的职业道德不允许他那样做。
• Personal ethics and professional ethics sometimes conflict.个人道德和职业道德有时会相互抵触。

6 violation   

n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯

参考例句：

• He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说，那是违反规则的。
• He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。

7 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

8 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

9 leveraging   

促使…改变( leverage的现在分词 )； [美国英语]杠杆式投机，（使）举债经营，（使）利用贷款进行投机

参考例句：

• De-leveraging is a painful process: it has barely begun. 去杠杆化是个痛苦的过程：它才刚刚开始。
• Archimedes said, saying: Give me a fulcrum, I can leveraging the Earth. 阿基米德说过一句话：给我一个支点，我可以撬动地球。