HuffPo: “Complaints about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas have been referred to a federal panel that oversees the nation’s financial disclosure laws, a top judicial official said Tuesday. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) last week called on the body overseeing the federal judiciary to refer Thomas for investigation amid a series of bombshell revelations that he failed to report gifts from a billionaire friend for two decades. ProPublica published a series of stories this month that detailed years of luxury vacations Thomas and his wife took with benefactor Harlan Crow, including travel aboard Crow’s yacht and private jet. The publication later reported Crow had purchased Thomas’ ancestral home and other land in 2014, where the justice’s mother continues to live rent-free. Thomas did not report the transaction on his financial disclosure forms as is required by law. “There is reasonable cause to believe that Justice Thomas willfully failed to file information required,” the two Democrats wrote with nearly two dozen other colleagues last week. U.S. District Judge Rosylnn Mauskopf told Whitehouse and Johnson she had referred the matter to the Judicial Conference at their request. The body, which sets the rules for the federal judiciary, in March updated its disclosure rules to include requirements that judges report gifts of lodging and hospitality.

I have forwarded your letter to the Judicial Conference Committee on Financial Disclosure, which is responsible for implementing the disclosure provisions of the Ethics in Government Act and addressing allegations of errors or omissions in the filing of financial disclosure reports,” Mauskopf wrote to the lawmakers. It’s unclear how the committee will move forward with the allegations. The Washington Post was the first to report the development.”