Justice Clarence Thomas took an undisclosed trip in 2010 with a Republican mega-donor, according to a Democratic senator

WASHINGTON – Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has not publicly disclosed additional trips on Republican megadonor Harlan Crow’s private jet, a top Democratic senator who backs an election-year effort to tighten the high court’s ethics rules said Monday.

Thomas and his wife, Virginia, took a round-trip flight between Hawaii and New Zealand in November 2010, according to international flight records maintained by Customs and Border Protection, wrote Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

The letter to Crow’s attorney is part of an investigation that Wyden, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, opened after multiple reports that Thomas had received undisclosed luxury trips from Crow for years.

Wyden’s letter demands additional information about the private jet and superyacht trips. “I am deeply concerned that Mr. Crow may have been showering a public official with extravagant gifts and then deducting those gifts to reduce his tax bill,” he wrote. The letter was first reported by The New York Times.

A spokesman for Crow said he has always followed tax law and that Wyden’s investigations “have no legal basis.” “It is troubling that Senator Wyden is abusing the powers of his committee as part of a politically motivated campaign against the Supreme Court,” spokesman Michael Zona said in a statement.

The Senate Judiciary Committee previously uncovered at least three additional trips in its own investigation, including to Indonesia and California.

Democrats, including President Joe Biden, are separately pushing for changes to the Supreme Court and seeking to capture the attention of voters in an election year after ethics revelations about some justices, including the travels of Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito.

In recent days, Justice Elena Kagan has expressed support for an ethics code that would apply to her and her colleagues. Justice Neil Gorsuch, in an interview with The Associated Press last week, declined to comment on the ethics proposals and term limits for the high court.

Judges fill out financial disclosure forms each year detailing any outside sources of income or donations. The form Thomas filled out in 2010 does not list any flights aboard Crow’s plane, Wyden wrote.

Thomas did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent to the court.

The 76-year-old judge has argued that he is not required to disclose the numerous trips because they amount to personal hospitality by a close friend with no pending matters before the court.

The November 2010 trip came a month after Thomas flew to Trinidad and Tobago’s capital on a private plane owned by his friends, Anthony and Beatrice Welters, The Times previously reported. Anthony Welters was serving as the U.S. ambassador to the Caribbean country after being appointed by President Barack Obama.

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Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Mark Sherman contributed to this report.