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Tags: clarence thomas | supreme court | trump immunity

Dem Durbin: Thomas Must Recuse Himself from Any Trump Case

By    |   Tuesday, 12 December 2023 07:07 PM EST

A Democrat lawmaker is calling on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from a potential case involving former President Donald Trump.

The case, which is in the appeals process but could be taken up by the high court, surrounds Trump's claims that he is immune from prosecution over alleged crimes committed as president.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the Senate Majority Whip and chair of the Judiciary Committee, told The Hill on Tuesday about the work of Thomas' wife, Ginni Thomas, after the 2020 election.

Durbin argued that Ginni Thomas' alleged support for Trump's efforts to overturn the election results created "unanswered questions about the relationship of the justice and his family with the Trump administration."

It is a reference to text messages obtained by The Washington Post last year appearing to show that Ginni Thomas repeatedly pushed then-chief of staff Mark Meadows to get Trump to challenge the election results.

A second report by the Post later in 2022 also showed Ginni Thomas telling state legislators in Arizona and Wisconsin to vote for an alternate slate of electors after the election.

For those reasons, Thomas should recuse himself from any potential case, Durbin said.

He also stressed that Senate Democrats do not trust Chief Justice John Roberts' history of enforcing ethical standards, which were recently adjusted after a string of controversies.

"When they came back with their supposed code of conduct, it didn't address recusal like we did in the bill that we passed," Durbin said of the new code adopted in November.

Clarence Thomas was at the center of ethical controversies leading following a ProPublica report that he accepted lavish gifts from a conservative mega donor.

Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch were similarly accused of ethical improprieties in mainstream media reports at the time.

The high court's potential decision to take up Trump's immunity claims came after U.S. District Court Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of Washington, D.C., dismissed them in a Dec. 1 ruling.

In response, Trump's legal team filed an appeal, which was met by prosecutors with a request to the Supreme Court that it weigh in on the case.

Trump's attorneys must now respond by Dec. 20.

If taken up, the appeal will determine the outcome of Trump's federal election trial, which is set to begin in March, and statewide election trial in Georgia, which will likely start in the late summer.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Luca Cacciatore

Luca Cacciatore, a Newsmax general assignment writer, is based in Arlington, Virginia, reporting on news and politics. 

© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.


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A Democrat lawmaker is calling on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from a potential case involving former President Donald Trump.
clarence thomas, supreme court, trump immunity
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2023-07-12
Tuesday, 12 December 2023 07:07 PM
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