Senate Democrats To Vote To Subpoena Harlan Crow, Leonard Leo as Part of Investigation Into Conservative Justices

The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote to subpoena three individuals with ties to Justice Clarence Thomas in an effort to depose the conservative jurist over what Democrats call the corruption of the court’s longest-serving justice. Republicans have lambasted the potential subpoenas as an attempt to delegitimize the court. “I do not make this decision lightly,” the chairman of the committee, Senator Durbin, said on the floor of the chamber on Tuesday night. “It has become clear that the Supreme Court is in desperate need of a binding code of ethics as we learn of lavish gifts and luxury travel that certain Supreme Court justices have accepted from a gaggle of fawning billionaires.”Mr. Durbin’s committee will vote Thursday to authorize subpoenas for billionaire Harlan Crow, the Federalist Society co-chairman, Leonard Leo, and businessman Robin Arkley. A series of reports from a left-wing website, ProPublica, disclosed gifts, trips, and tuition payments that Justice Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito received from these individuals. Messrs. Crow and Leo have so far refused to cooperate with the Judiciary Committee’s inquiry into their relationships with the justices. Mr. Arkley, on the other hand, has been cooperating with staff members, leading Mr. Durbin to announce on Wednesday that he would not face a subpoena.“Only now, under the threat of subpoena, Mr. Arkley has stepped forward,” Mr. Durbin said. “We look forward to continuing our conversation with him this week.”The top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, Senator Graham, tells the Sun that the subpoenas should not be issued. “I think they’re a bad mistake, and I’m going to talk about it Thursday,” Mr. Graham says. A prominent member of the committee, Senator Cruz, says the subpoenas are just part of Democrats’ attempts to “smear” Justice Thomas and delegitimize the Supreme Court. “It’s an absolute abuse of power,” the Texas senator tells the Sun. “They are engaged in a blatant smear campaign of Justice Thomas in an ongoing effort to undermine the legitimacy of the Supreme Court. It is partisan, it is cynical, and it is deeply destructive. … Their motivation is entirely political.”Mr. Durbin first announced the subpoena vote last week. “We now know that for decades, some justices have been joining billionaires with business before the Court on their private planes and yachts or receiving gifts such as private school tuition for a family member,” he wrote. “By accepting these lavish, undisclosed gifts, the justices have enabled their wealthy benefactors and other individuals with business before the Court to gain private access to the justices while preventing public scrutiny of this conduct.”Mr. Crow had attempted to comply with the committee, in part, earlier this year with the stipulation that the information he provided would be the only details and would not accept future requests for documents or testimony. Mr. Durbin and his colleagues rejected his terms. “His proposal to provide the Committee with responses to only a small subset of its requests, and only for the past five years, is wholly inadequate,” the congressman said. “Tying this insufficient response to an agreement that the Committee would pursue no further inquiries regarding Crow’s relationship with Justice Thomas would inappropriately and prospectively undermine the Committee’s constitutional oversight authority.”

Senate Democrats To Vote To Subpoena Harlan Crow, Leonard Leo as Part of Investigation Into Conservative Justices

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