• Democratic Senators asked Merrick Garland for a special counsel investigation into Clarence Thomas.
• They seek to probe Thomas's ethics and the "serious possibility" of tax fraud from undeclared gifts.
• Thomas's financial ties to billionaire Harlan Crow and other elites have drawn increasing scrutiny.

Two Democratic senators have called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to open a special counsel investigation into Clarence Thomas.

in a letter released Tuesday, Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Ron Wyden of Oregon requested a probe into potential federal ethics violations and the "serious possibility" of tax fraud by the Supreme Court Justice.

Thomas has faced increasing scrutiny over his personal and financial ties to billionaires like right-wing megadonor Harlan Crow, who has treated the justice to lavish international trips, gifts, and tuition for Thomas's grand-nephew, Mark Martin, to attend expensive boarding schools.

In August of last year, Thomas updated his 2022 financial disclosures to include previously undeclared gifts and vacations from Crow.

"We do not make this request lightly," the senators wrote: "The evidence assembled thus far plainly suggests that Justice Thomas has committed numerous willful violations of federal ethics and false-statement laws and raises significant questions about whether he and his wealthy benefactors have complied with their federal tax obligations. Presented with opportunities to resolve questions about his conduct, Justice Thomas has maintained a suspicious silence."

A spokesperson for Whitehouse directed Business Insider to a press release about the letter, which indicated Whitehouse has for more than a year called for the Judicial Conference to investigate Justice Thomas's "omissions of billionaire-funded gifts and income from his legally required annual financial disclosure reports."

A representative for Wyden, the chairman of the Senate's Committee on Finance, told Business Insider that the committee released a staff memo in October detailing that Thomas had never reported he'd received forgiveness on a $267,230 loan on his ethics forms, which prompted questions about his tax compliance.

Following months of the committee's repeated requests for an explanation from Thomas and his attorney that went unanswered, the spokesperson said requesting a formal investigation was the necessary next step.

A spokesperson for the Justice Department declined to comment on the letter when reached by Business Insider.

Representatives for the Supreme Court did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Thomas has previously denied any wrongdoing, arguing gifts from Crow and others fall under a "personal hospitality exemption," meaning they don't require disclosure.

• The US Navy ousted the commander of USS Hershel Williams after the ship ran aground in Africa.
• Capt. Lenard Mitchell was relieved two months after the grounding due to a "loss of confidence."
• Mitchell is the ninth commanding officer to be fired that the Navy has publicly acknowledged.

The Navy has relieved the commanding officer of the expeditionary mobile base ship USS Hershel "Woody" Williams two months after the vessel briefly ran aground outside the African country of Gabon, a Navy statement announced Monday.

Capt. Lenard Mitchell, the commander of the Williams' "Gold" crew, was relieved by Vice Adm. Thomas Ishee, the commander of the US 6th Fleet, "due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command."

The Navy's statement added that "the relief occurred as a result of an investigation into the soft grounding" of the Williams near the port of Libreville, Gabon, on May 9 and, "while the investigation is still open, sufficient findings of fact emerged during the investigation to warrant the relief of the commanding officer."

Typically, the Navy is quick to remove a ship's commander after a grounding — usually moving within days or, at most, a week or two.

When the cruiser USS Port Royal ran aground on a shoal off the coast of Honolulu in 2009, the Navy waited around four days — until the ship was free — to relieve its commander.

When the USS Howard suffered a soft grounding near the Indonesian island of Bali on August 10, 2023, the Navy relieved its skipper, Cmdr. Kenji Igawa, just nine days later.

In 2014, the Navy took about two weeks to fire the commander of a frigate — the USS Taylor — that ran aground in the Black Sea.

When Military.com asked Navy officials in the weeks after the Williams' grounding why Mitchell had not been relieved, no one was able to offer an explanation.

The Navy's statement also did not explain why this relief took almost two months.

The Navy said that Mitchell will be temporarily assigned to Commander, Naval Surface Forces Atlantic, while Capt. Michael Concannon will assume the duties of interim commanding officer aboard the Williams.

The Williams is currently deployed to the waters off Africa and "there is no impact to the command's mission or schedule due to the relief," the statement noted.

Mitchell is now the ninth commander to be fired for a "loss of the trust and confidence" that the Navy has publicly acknowledged. A total of 13 commanders have now been relieved this year, though not all for losses of confidence. Navy officials have said that commanders can also be relieved for medical reasons or ask to be relieved themselves.

Navy officials have previously said the sea service relieved 15 commanding officers in 2023 over a loss of confidence.

There are currently around 1,600 commanding officers in the active-duty Navy across all communities.

Since the start of 2024, the Navy has fired three of its commanders over drunken driving incidents. Two were submarine skippers, and one was a SEAL commodore.

In January, the Navy fired Capt. Geoffry Patterson — the commander of the USS Georgia's blue crew — after he was arrested early on January 9 for driving under the influence and improper lane change.

Similarly, Capt. Richard Zaszewski, formerly commodore of Navy Special Warfare Group Eight, was arrested January 19 for driving with a blood alcohol content between 0.15% and 0.2% — though that incident wasn't made public until March.

Finally, Capt. Kurt Balagna, who was the commander of the USS Ohio sub's gold crew, was also arrested in March by Washington state police for driving with a blood alcohol content of around 0.24%.

Two of the nine fired Navy commanders were chaplains assigned to the Coast Guard: Capt. Daniel Mode, the Coast Guard's top chaplain who had served in that position since 2022, and Cmdr. Cristiano DeSousa, the Seventh District chaplain in Miami.

• Donald Trump is entering the home stretch of his vice presidential selection process.
• The Republican National Convention kicks off in Milwaukee next week.
• Trump has a lot of factors to weigh in his decision. 

Former President Donald Trump is expected to name is running mate in less than a week, ending his vice presidential selection process.

According to multiple reports, Trump has likely narrowed his focus to the shortlist of North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, and Sen. JD Vance of Ohio. In the end, only Trump knows what will happen.

It's quite possible the former president could turn to someone else on the much larger list of names he once viewed as potential vice presidents.

Trump told Fox News on Monday that President Joe Biden's disastrous debate has factored in slightly into his decision, given the small possibility that Biden could drop out.

Even if he wins in November, Trump will reenter office as a lame duck. It means his apprentice will have the inside track to replace him in 2028 — a fundamentally different reality than the one he faced in 2016.

So, with that in mind, here's Business Insider's final vice presidential power ranking.

Here's where things stand:

1. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio (Previously 2)

Vance has been one of the biggest risers since our initial rankings almost two months ago. It's not hard to see why.

The 39-year-old has pivoted far beyond his "Never Trumper" past. He's now as close to Trump's base as any elected official. He's also reportedly close to Donald Trump Jr. Vance was also the first of Trump's possible vice presidential picks to go to Manhattan to show his support during the former president's historic criminal trial.

Vance hasn't been afraid to push Trump's worldview in a chamber that, unlike the House, is more likely to defy the former president. It's been an extraordinary rise since the Ohioian was sworn in just last year.

His selection would underline the expectation Trump would ensure his second administration is filled with loyalists. But Vance would likely do little to help Trump expand his appeal.

As a former venture capitalist, Vance has ties to the more conservative Silicon Valley leaders who could help buck up Trump's fundraising. Like many on this list, Vance has questioned the results of the 2020 election. He's gone even further recently by suggesting that former Vice President Mike Pence has overplayed the extent to which his life was under threat during the Capitol riot.

2. Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota (Previously 4)

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum spent his brief 2024 run paying supporters to donate to his campaign. His campaign's biggest moment was arguably when he injured his leg before a primary debate.

Despite that inauspicious moment and a forgettable primary effort, he's receiving serious consideration. Burgum's newness to the national scene remains his biggest obstacle.

Burgum has gained some key allies while under Trump's reported consideration. The Wall Street Journal Editorial board, often considered the voice of the GOP's establishment, is behind him. So, too, is Kevin O'Leary, the Shark Tank veteran. Other Wall Street types are also intrigued by his possibility.

Then again, Trump tried a Midwestern governor straight out of central casting who was not supposed to outshine him. Unlike Pence, Burgum blazed a path in business before getting into politics. The North Dakotan sold his software company to Microsoft for over $1 billion in 2001. As CNBC pointed out, Burgum could write a massive check to Trump's campaign.

3. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida (Previously 3)

Florida, man. If Rubio represented any other state, he would be atop our list. That's because the biggest hurdle for Rubio isn't likely anything in his past. Instead, he faces very real concerns about residing in the same state as Trump.

As Politifact explained, the Constitution has been interpreted not to allow electors from the same state to vote for a president and vice president who also reside in that state. That means a Trump-Rubio ticket could lose out on Florida's 30 electoral votes, even if they won the state. According to the Bulwark, Rubio would be willing to move, but he might have to make up his mind soon.

Rubio would be the most obvious choice for a Trump pick poised to help the GOP hold the White House in 2028. After all, the Floridian was once proclaimed the future of the Republican Party.

He is not a MAGA-whisper like Vance, but the Floridian found ways other ways work with his former 2016 primary rival while in office. Rubio has also shown he'll shift his views, most notably he was one of the main architects of the bipartisan, sweeping 2013 immigration legislation that would have offered undocumented immigrants a pathway to citizenship.

Like many 2016 foes, Rubio is also on record hammering Trump — including his cringey mocking of the future president's hand size (Rubio later apologized for that).

4. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina (Previously 1):

Scott has been on Trump's shortlist from the beginning. He also led the other two editions of our power rankings.

He doesn't have the constitutional questions that Rubio would face. He has been on the national stage longer than Burgum. He could also expand Trump's appeal with a historic candidacy.

Scott behaved like he wanted the job, but it doesn't seem like he made the final cut. In early June, Scott's allied political action committee would spend $14 million targeting voters of color. He has shown fundraising prowess that could be greatly appreciated down the stretch of the general election. It helps that Scott has a relationship with Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who, according to CNBC, is pushing him to get picked.

The 58-year-old would also be a historic choice. He's already the first Black Republican elected from the South since Reconstruction. Some Trump aides have urged the former president to balance out his 2024 ticket by picking a person of color.

That all being said, we've talked up Scott before. And he dropped out before the Iowa caucuses.

5. Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York (Previously 5)

Stefanik has clearly staked her ground as a Trump ally. She was the first member of House leadership to have endorsed Trump for his 2024 run. She endeared herself to his political base for her defense of the president during his first impeachment trial. Stefanik garnered national attention recently for grilling college presidents over their handling of antisemitism. She was once more liberal than Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, but her rise in the GOP has coincided with a reinvention as a Trump-aligned Republican.

The New Yorker hails from a state that is never going to back Trump. But scores of studies show that the home-state boosts for vice presidents isn't all it's cracked up to be. Perhaps it's not surprising then that none of the top-tier names on Trump's list hail from a current swing state. Still, Stefanik's selection would be historic. She would be only the fourth woman to share a major party's ticket. Republicans, especially Trump, have struggled with suburban women, but it's not clear that tapping a woman would automatically cure that problem.

Biden may also delight in the selection of a House GOP leader. The president has repeatedly called attention to the drama that has gripped the lower chamber. Voters are likely to care more about the economy than Speaker Mike Johnson's job status, but the level of in-fighting in the GOP is so bad that multiple sitting lawmakers have quit their jobs early.

The rest of the pack

6. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas (Previously 7): Cotton's career is bookended by fights with The New York Times — mostly recently over his 2020 op-ed calling for Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act to quell riots in the wake of George Floyd's killing. The GOP senator was a loyal Trump ally, including defending the then-president's push to buy Greenland.

Unlike others on this list, Cotton notably did not vote against certifying the 2020 election. He was also harshly critical of one of Trump's biggest bipartisan achievements, the First Step Act, arguing that criminal justice reform failed to do enough to protect public safety.

7. Former HUD Secretary Ben Carson (Previously 6): Trump still has close feelings for his former Cabinet official. Carson also hails from the key state of Michigan. He's also still an avowed supporter of a national abortion ban, a topic Trump has tried everything in his power to avoid. Former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney thinks Carson will be picked because unlike other vice presidential hopefuls, he doesn't covet the top job.

8. Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida (Previously 8): Like Rubio, Donalds gets docked for the potential home state conundrum. Donalds has risen rapidly in the eyes of many of his House GOP colleagues. He has close relationships with the House conservatives that forced former Speaker Kevin McCarthy's historic ouster and have frustrated Speaker Mike Johnson, but he hasn't participated in either effort to challenge the men directly.

9. Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia (Previously 10): Youngkin skipped out on a late 2024 run to focus on state legislative elections. The Republican was supposed to show how the GOP can talk about abortion in competitive areas. It didn't work out. Still, he has the personal wealth and connections to seriously help a Trump campaign. Plus, per CNBC, Rupert Murdoch likes him.

10. A wild card like Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas: Sanders would offer diversity to a ticket, something some Trump advisors said they wanted when this process started. She also cut a national profile for herself as White House press secretary.

11. Anyone else: Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy are off our list, but either of them are less risky than someone who killed a dog.

12. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (Still last): Noem could have been a contender. But when your top Google results are about dog killing, it's safe to say your chances are pretty much over. The prediction markets seem to think so, too.

• Affirm, a buy-now, pay-later fintech company, went public on the Nasdaq in January 2021.
• Max Levchin, Affirm's CEO and a PayPal alum, shares advice for founders considering going public.
• This article is part of "Road to IPO," a series exploring the public-offering process from prelaunch to postlaunch.

Max Levchin, the founder and CEO of Affirm, always knew he would take his buy-now, pay-later fintech public. What he didn't know was the pandemic, one of the most economically uncertain times in history, would set Affirm's initial public offering into motion.

"We definitely experienced a real moment where we're not yet profitable. We would need to raise money if we wanted to survive through what could be a drought in equity capital markets," Levchin said, referring to the first several months of the pandemic.

As a buffer, Affirm raised private capital in mid-2020, a process Levchin said was "a huge pain" with "a ton of uncertainty."

It might seem like curious timing to take your company public during a pandemic, but that's exactly what Max Levchin did.

As a buy-now, pay-later company, Affirm's business model was built on the promise of repayment as it enabled consumers to finance their online purchases. The pandemic became a boon for Affirm as Americans received stimulus checks and e-commerce boomed. Levchin, wanting to ride that wave, needed more capital to grow the company. The sustained unpredictability in the private markets triggered talks of going public, but Levchin wanted to make sure that doing so was a step in the journey and not an end point.

He had his doubts. "Can we head from the IPO into, 'Go faster and harder and invest even more aggressively into interesting ideas,' or would we just suddenly stall and become a slow-moving, publicly traded sort of paralyzed giant?" Levchin said. Affirm shares were listed on January 13, 2021.

As the pipeline of IPOs starts to build up again, including the anticipated debut of Affirm's buy-now, pay-later rival Klarna, Business Insider spoke with Levchin about Affirm's IPO. He reflected on the decision-making process leading up to the offering, how he'd handled the peaks and valleys of Affirm's share price, and a couple of pieces of advice for founders contemplating going public.

From late nights on Zoom to Nasdaq debut

As a cofounder of the payment juggernaut PayPal, Levchin experienced firsthand the benefits of taking a fintech public.

The process was still "significantly more work than I thought it would be," Levchin said. It wasn't uncommon for Levchin to be on Zoom with his CFO and chief legal officer at 10 p.m. with half-finished glasses of wine, jokingly asking why they did this to themselves, he said.

In the second half of 2020, long days and late nights were spent auditing and cleaning Affirm's books, getting numbers and documents in order. Affirm's small IPO task force also needed to assemble critical documents, including the company's S-1 and a founders' letter. Meanwhile, its chief legal and finance officers needed to vet a long list of bankers who jockeyed to represent Affirm during the frothy, low-interest-rate market at the time.

Affirm landed on three banks as the lead underwriters for the offering. Beyond having long-standing relationships with the companies pre-IPO, Levchin wanted partners who could "speak to our business at least as well as we could," he said.

The hard work seemed to pay off. When Affirm debuted on the Nasdaq, its share price surged as much as 110% above its opening price of $49. Affirm shares climbed to as high as $164.23 in late 2021 but suffered the same stock rout that battered tech companies throughout 2022 and 2023.

A major adjustment to being a public company, Levchin said, is not falling into a "quarterly lifestyle" where milestones, product road maps, and key metrics are divided into four-month sprints.

"You have to have this duality of mind, where being public is about the quarter, but it can't be just about the quarter," Levchin said, referring to the ups and downs of running a public company. If a quarter results in a number you're not proud of, "you can't just hammer yourself over the head with it," Levchin added.

"It's going to get worse if this quarter isn't pretty, but you know you're doing the right thing, and you can see in numbers that it's going to be OK. Don't stress it, and it'll work itself out," he said.

Words of advice

For founders considering going public, Levchin offered some advice.

It's not uncommon to see startups hiring executives such as a president or CFO in anticipation of going public. But that could actually be a sign that you're not ready, Levchin said.

Chemistry is critical to ensuring the IPO team is on the same page regarding what's right and wrong for the business. That's not something that can be "formed and seasoned over the course of an IPO prep," Levchin said.

Levchin also warned against letting the process "consume the company." He kept the team working on Affirm's plans very small because he wanted the day-to-day engine to continue humming along during the intense period.

Since Affirm's CFO and chief legal officer largely spearheaded the IPO process, Levchin said he was left to focus on the company's short- and long-term plans for the capital.

"If you don't deliberately plan for that, you may run the risk of just freezing in place," he said.