Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has introduced articles of impeachment against conservative US Supreme Court justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, her office announced in a statement on Wednesday.
This move comes after US Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Ron Wyden called for the US Attorney General to appoint a special counsel to investigate potential criminal violations of federal ethics and tax laws by Thomas.
These are the latest protests in Washington circles concerning the two justices, who face accusations of financial corruption over gifts and favors, as well as a lack of political neutrality in their work.
In her statement, Ocasio-Cortez, the high-profile progressive representative from New York, said: "The unchecked corruption crisis on the Supreme Court has now spiraled into a constitutional crisis threatening American democracy writ large.
"Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito’s pattern of refusal to recuse from consequential matters before the court, in which they have widely documented financial and personal entanglements, constitutes a grave threat to American rule of law, the integrity of our democracy, and one of the clearest cases for which the tool of impeachment was designed."
