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Clarence Thomas formally discloses trips with GOP donor as Supreme Court justices file new financial reports
Washington — Justice Clarence Thomas has formally disclosed two trips he took with Republican megadonor Harlan Crow in 2019, according to his financial disclosure report for 2023 that was publicly released Friday.
The report, which was filed by Thomas on May 15, included an amendment to his disclosure form for 2019 to list two trips he took with Crow in July of that year. The first, to Bali, lists Thomas as a guest of Harlan and Kathy Crow. The justice reported receiving food and lodging at a hotel.
The second trip, to Monte Rio, California, across three days in July 2019, again lists Thomas as a guest of Crow’s. He said he received food and lodging at a private club.
The information was “inadvertently omitted at the time of filing,” according to Thomas’ latest annual disclosure form. It notes that the justice “sought and received guidance from his accountant and ethics counsel” when preparing his report for 2023.
The financial disclosure reports for eight of the nine sitting justices were released to the public Friday. Justice Samuel Alito requested and received a 90-day extension to file his disclosure, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
Supreme Court justices’ financial disclosures
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The disclosures show that Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson received four concert tickets from singer Beyoncé, valued at $3,711. She also received artwork for her chambers valued at $10,000 and $2,500. Thomas’ report states that he received two photo albums worth $2,000.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh did not receive any gifts last year, according to their reports.
The reports are submitted annually to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts and reflect a justice’s outside positions, income, reimbursements, gifts and investments for the prior calendar year. The financial disclosures have generated renewed interest in the wake of reporting by the news outlet ProPublica last year detailing the trips Thomas accepted from Crow, including to Bali, and real estate dealings between the two, which had not been listed in the justice’s earlier reports.
Thomas had said last year he did not believe he had to disclose the travel and pledged to comply with guidelines about personal hospitality issued last year by the Judicial Conference, the policymaking body for the federal courts. The justice’s report for 2022 listed flights Thomas took aboard Crow’s private plane, as well as lodging at his property in the Adirondacks. Thomas also provided details about a 2014 real estate transaction with Crow that ProPublica revealed.
His report for 2023 did not include any reimbursements for lodging, transportation, food or entertainment.
The revelations about Thomas’ relationship with Crow, a Texas real estate developer, sparked a political firestorm over the ethics practices at the Supreme Court and prompted calls for the nation’s highest court to adopt a binding code of conduct.
The Senate Judiciary Committee launched an investigation into the issue and advanced legislation that would require the Supreme Court to adopt an enforceable ethics code. Committee Democrats also authorized subpoenas to Crow and Leonard Leo, a conservative judicial activist. The subpoena to Leo was issued in April, and he refused to comply. A spokesman for Crow said he did not receive one.
The Supreme Court adopted a formal code of conduct in November, though it did not include a mechanism for enforcement.
The court’s unilateral action has done little to stem the scrutiny of the justices. Controversy erupted last month over two flags that were displayed outside of Alito’s homes in Virginia and New Jersey. The first, an upside down American flag, was seen outside Alito’s Virginia residence in early January 2021. The second, an “Appeal to Heaven” flag, was displayed outside his New Jersey vacation home in the summer of 2023.
Alito rejected calls from congressional Democrats from two cases involving former President Donald Trump and said he was not involved in the displays. He said the flags were flown by his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, and neither of them knew their meanings. Both types were carried by rioters who breached the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, and have become associated with the “Stop the Steal” movement.
Bela Karolyi, the charismatic if polarizing gymnastics coach who turned young women into champions and the United States into an international power, has died. He was 82.
A spokesperson for USA Gymnastics confirmed to CBS News by email that Karolyi died Friday. No cause of death was given.
Karolyi and wife Martha trained multiple Olympic gold medalists and world champions in the U.S. and Romania, including Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton.
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“A big impact and influence on my life,” Comaneci, who was just 14 when Karolyi coached her to gold for Romania at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, posted on Instagram.
The Karolyis defected to the United States in 1981 and over the next 30-plus years became a guiding force in American gymnastics, though not without controversy. Bela helped guide Retton — all of 16 — to the Olympic all-around title at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles and memorably helped an injured Kerri Strug off the floor at the 1996 Games in Atlanta after Strug’s vault secured the team gold for the Americans.
Karolyi briefly became the national team coordinator for USA Gymnastics women’s elite program in 1999 and incorporated a semi-centralized system that eventually turned the Americans into the sport’s gold standard. It did not come without a cost. He was pushed out after the 2000 Olympics after several athletes spoke out about his tactics.
It would not be the last time Karolyi was accused of grandstanding and pushing his athletes too far physically and mentally.
During the height of the Larry Nassar scandal in the late 2010s — when the disgraced former USA Gymnastics team doctor was effectively given a life sentence after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting gymnasts and other athletes with his hands under the guise of medical treatment — over a dozen former gymnasts came forward saying the Karolyis were part of a system that created an oppressive culture that allowed Nassar’s behavior to run unchecked for years.
Still, some of Karolyi’s most famous students were always among his staunchest defenders. When Strug got married, she and Karolyi took a photo recreating their famous scene from the 1996 Olympics, when he carried her onto the medals podium after she vaulted on a badly sprained ankle.
Despite losing his boxing match to Jake Paul, Mike Tyson in a social media post Saturday said he had “no regrets” to getting “in ring one last time.”
The boxing legend was defeated by social media star Jake Paul in a highly anticipated fight on Friday night with an age difference of over three decades between the two contenders.
Netflix said Saturday that 60 million households worldwide tuned in to watch the match. The two fighters went eight full rounds, with each round two minutes long. Paul defeated Tyson by unanimous decision and the 27-year-old upset boxer and 58-year-old former heavyweight champion hugged afterward.
Paul was expected to earn about $40 million from the fight, and Tyson was expected to take around $20 million for the fight, according to DraftKings and other online reports.
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Tyson said on his social media that “this is one of those situations when you lost but still won. I’m grateful for last night.”
The fight almost didn’t happen after Tyson experienced an ulcer flare-up while on a plane in March. He addressed his illness Saturday, writing that he “almost died in June.” He said he had eight blood transfusions and “lost half my blood and 25lbs in hospital and had to fight to get healthy to fight so I won.”
Tyson retired from boxing in 2005 after a 20-year career. He last fought in a 2020 exhibition match against former four-division world champ Roy Jones Jr.
“To have my children see me stand toe to toe and finish 8 rounds with a talented fighter half my age in front of a packed Dallas Cowboy stadium is an experience that no man has the right to ask for. Thank you,” he said.
Alex Sundby and
contributed to this report.
In their final meeting, China’s leader Xi Jinping told U.S. President Biden that his nation was “ready to work with a new administration,” as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take over.
The two leaders gathered Saturday on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Mr. Biden was expected to urge Xi to dissuade North Korea from further deepening its support for Russia’s war on Ukraine. It marked their first in-person meeting since they met in Northern California last November.
Without mentioning Trump’s name, Xi appeared to signal his concern that the incoming president’s protectionist rhetoric on the campaign trail could send the U.S.-China relationship into another valley.
“China is ready to work with a new U.S. administration to maintain communication, expand cooperation and manage differences so as to strive for a steady transition of the China-U.S. relationship for the benefit of the two peoples,” Xi said through an interpreter.
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Mr. Biden, meanwhile, spoke in broader brushstrokes about where the relationship has gone and reflected not just on the past four years, but on their long relationship.
“Over the past four years, China-U.S. relations have experienced ups and downs, but with the two of us at the helm, we have also engaged in fruitful dialogues and cooperation, and generally achieved stability,” he said.
Mr. Biden and Xi, with top aides surrounding them, gathered around a long rectangle of tables in an expansive conference room at Lima’s Defines Hotel and Conference Center.
There’s much uncertainty about what lies ahead in the U.S.-China relationship under Trump, who campaigned promising to levy 60% tariffs on Chinese imports.
Bobby Djavaheri, president of Los Angeles-based Yedi Houseware Appliances — which manufactures its products in China — told CBS News in an interview this week that such tariffs “would decimate our business, but not only our business. It would decimate all small businesses that rely on importing.”
Trump has also proposed revoking China’s Most Favored Nation trade status, phasing out all imports of essential goods from China and banning China from buying U.S. farmland.
Already, many American companies, including Nike and eyewear retailer Warby Parker, have been diversifying their sourcing away from China. Shoe brand Steve Madden says it plans to cut imports from China by as much as 45% next year.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden administration officials will advise the Trump team that managing the intense competition with Beijing will likely be the most significant foreign policy challenge they will face.
It’s a big moment for Mr. Biden as he wraps up more than 50 years in politics. He saw his relationship with Xi as among the most consequential on the international stage and put much effort into cultivating that relationship.
Mr. Biden and Xi first got to know each other on travels across the U.S. and China when both were vice presidents, interactions that both have said left a lasting impression.
“For over a decade, you and I have spent many hours together, both here and in China and in between. And I think we’ve spent a long time dealing with these issues,” Mr. Biden said Saturday.
But the last four years have presented a steady stream of difficult moments.
The FBI this week offered new details of a federal investigation into Chinese government efforts to hack into U.S. telecommunications networks. The initial findings have revealed a “broad and significant” cyberespionage campaign aimed at stealing information from Americans who work in government and politics.
U.S. intelligence officials also have assessed China has surged sales to Russia of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology that Moscow is using to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry for use in its war against Ukraine.
And tensions flared last year after Mr. Biden ordered the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon that traversed the United States.
