Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamie Raskin seeking answers from Chief Justice John Roberts over Supreme Court ethics

Democratic Reps. Jamie Raskin and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called into question whether US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has taken any action to address the storm cloud of scandals surrounding the Supreme Court, in a new letter obtained first by CNN.

Democratic Reps. Jamie Raskin and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called into question whether Chief Justice John Roberts has taken any action to address the storm cloud of scandals surrounding the Supreme Court, in a new letter obtained first by CNN. The Democratic duo asked Roberts to answer five written questions about what steps he has taken in his role as chief justice and presiding officer of the Judicial Conference to investigate the mounting ethics scandals involving Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. The pair also pressed Roberts to outline the standards for recusal decisions, and whether those have been followed, given the apparent conflicts of interest Thomas and Alito have to the two cases involving former President Donald Trump currently in front of the Supreme Court. The letter is the latest example of the tension between the high court, where conservatives hold a 6-3 majority, and Democrats on Capitol Hill, who have been pushing for more than a year for tighter ethics rules. A series of ethics scandals involving Thomas and, more recently, Alito have left public approval of the court at historic lows. The letter from Raskin and Ocasio-Cortez, who both serve on the GOP-led House Oversight Committee, comes on the heels of Roberts declining a May request from Democratic senators to meet on this issue. “Since you have refused to meet with Congress, we question what steps you are actually taking as either the Chief Justice or the presiding officer of the Judicial Conference to investigate these glaring episodes of political bias and lack of disclosure,” the pair wrote to Roberts. In their letter, Raskin and Ocasio-Cortez criticize Roberts for not being out front on the issue of Thomas’s failure to disclose lavish trips on his financial disclosure forms. Thomas is under intense scrutiny for gifts he received from Harlan Crow, a GOP megadonor who treated Thomas and his wife to extravagant vacations, private plane trips, paid for the tuition of a Thomas family member and entered into an unusual real estate transaction related to the home of Thomas’ mother.