Senate Democrats said they plan to subpoena Republican megadonor Harlan Crow and conservative activist Leonard Leo for more information about their roles in organizing and paying for luxury travel for Supreme Court justices.
Quick Read
- Senate Democrats plan to subpoena Republican donor Harlan Crow and conservative activist Leonard Leo regarding their roles in funding luxury travel for Supreme Court justices.
- This move is part of the push for the Supreme Court to adopt a stricter ethics code. Three out of the nine justices have publicly supported this idea.
- The Senate Judiciary Committee, led by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., may authorize the subpoenas as early as next week, targeting Crow, Leo, and another donor, Robin Arkley II.
- Crow has been linked to Justice Clarence Thomas, funding his vacations, buying a home in Georgia, and contributing to a relative’s private school fees.
- Leo, associated with the Federalist Society and former President Donald Trump’s push to make the judiciary more conservative, and Arkley funded a private jet trip to Alaska for Justice Samuel Alito in 2008.
- Both Arkley and Leo have previously declined to assist in the investigation into the justices’ undisclosed private travels.
- Crow’s office labeled the subpoena as politically driven, emphasizing that they had offered information to the committee.
- Leo accused the move of being a form of “liberal McCarthyism” aimed at undermining the Supreme Court.
- A bill introduced in July by the Judiciary panel seeks to impose stricter ethics rules on the court, including guidelines about recusals, gifts, and potential conflicts of interest. However, its passage in the Senate is doubtful due to united Republican opposition.
- The Senate Finance Committee separately investigated a $267,000 loan provided to Justice Thomas by Anthony Welters to buy a luxury motorcoach. The loan seems to have been largely forgiven after Thomas made only interest payments for nine years.
The Associated Press has the story:
Sen. Dem to subpoena Harlan Crow, Leonard Leo over SCOUT justices’ travel
Newslooks- WASHINGTON (AP)
Senate Democrats said they plan to subpoena Republican megadonor Harlan Crow and conservative activist Leonard Leo for more information about their roles in organizing and paying for luxury travel for Supreme Court justices.
The announcement by Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee comes as the court is being pressed to adopt an ethics code, a move that has been publicly endorsed by three of the nine justices.
The committee could act as soon as next week to authorize Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the panel’s chairman, to issue subpoenas to Crow, Leo and another wealthy donor, Robin Arkley II.
Crow has been identified as a benefactor of Justice Clarence Thomas for more than two decades, paying for nearly annual vacations, purchasing from Thomas and others the Georgia home in which the justice’s mother still lives and helping pay for the private schooling for a relative.
Leo, a Federalist Society executive who worked with former President Donald Trump to move the court and the rest of the federal judiciary to the right, and Arkley helped arrange and pay for a private jet trip to Alaska for Justice Samuel Alito in 2008.
Arkley and Leo have refused to cooperate with the committee’s investigation of the justices’ largely undisclosed private travel, the committee said.
Crow “offered to produce certain limited information that fell well short of what the Committee needs and to which it is entitled,” Durbin and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said in a joint statement.
In a statement after Durbin’s announcement, Crow’s office called the subpoena politically motivated and said Crow had offered information to the committee.
“It’s clear this is nothing more than a stunt aimed at undermining a sitting Supreme Court Justice for ideological and political purposes,” the statement said.
Leo voiced a similar objection. “I will not bow to the vile and disgusting liberal McCarthyism that seeks to destroy the Supreme Court simply because it follows the Constitution rather than their political agenda,” Leo said in a statement.
In July, the Judiciary panel approved legislation that would force the justices to abide by stronger ethics standards. The bill would set ethics rules for the court and a process to enforce them, including new standards for transparency around recusals, gifts and potential conflicts of interest.
The bill has little chance of passage in the closely divided Senate. Republicans have united against it, saying it could “destroy” the court.
Apart from the Judiciary Committee, Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee issued the results of their separate probe of the $267,000 loan that enabled Thomas to buy a luxury, 40-foot motorcoach in 1999. The committee found that the loan, made by longtime friend Anthony Welters, appears to have been largely if not totally forgiven after Thomas made payments of interest, only, over nine years.
