- The Democratic-led Judiciary Committee will vote to subpoena Harlan Crow, Leonard Leo and Robert Arkey
- Both have ties to Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito
- “What he’s targeting here are private citizens with no legislative purpose. I think it’s completely inappropriate,” McConnell said at a news conference
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell denounced Democratic efforts to subpoena prominent billionaires to the Supreme Court and a judicial activist as “completely inappropriate.”
Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin announced his Democratic-led committee’s plans to vote to subpoena prominent billionaires with close ties to the Supreme Court, the Senate Judiciary Committee announced this week, citing their close ties with Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
“What he’s targeting here are private citizens with no legislative purpose. I think it’s completely inappropriate,” McConnell said at a news conference.
Real estate magnate Harlan Crow, mortgage company owner Robert Arkley and Federalist Society Leonard Leo will all be targeted by Democratic subpoenas.
A surprising ProPublica report from April detailed how Crow treated Thomas to luxury vacations during their 20-year friendship. In June, the outlet reported that Alito was Arkley’s guest at his luxury fishing cabin in Alaska for free in 2008.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called Democratic efforts to subpoena prominent billionaires linked to the Supreme Court and a judicial activist “totally inappropriate”
Conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (left) disclosed that Republican billionaire Harlan Crow (right) paid for a trio of his private flights in financial disclosure forms released Thursday
Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin announced his Democratic-led committee’s plans to vote to subpoena prominent billionaires with close ties to the Supreme Court, the Senate Judiciary Committee announced this week, citing their close ties with Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito
Leo, an influential conservative justice activist, arranged for Thomas’ wife Ginni to be paid tens of thousands of dollars in 2012 with instructions to keep her name off the paperwork, the Washington Post reported in May.
Leo asked Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway to charge the nonprofit Judicial Education Project and use the money to pay Virginia “Ginni” Thomas. The same year, the nonprofit organization the Judicial Education Project filed a brief in a major voting rights case.
Leo vacationed with Thomas at Crow’s Camp Topridge resort in the Adirondacks, and helped organize Alito’s fishing vacation in Alaska.
A painting at the private lakeside resort shows Crow, Leo and Thomas smoking cigars together in a relaxing outdoor setting.
Leo, a key figure in a network of groups supporting the appointments of conservative judges, including the Federalist Society
Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse displays a painting of Clarence Thomas (second from right) and Harlan Crow (right) gathered at Crow’s Adirondacks resort, Camp Topridge. The painting can be seen in the building in New York
A photo of the boathouse at Camp Topridge, the private Adirondacks resort owned by billionaire Harlan Crow. Camp Topridge is by invitation only and has some unusual features, including a replica of Hagrid from Harry Potter’s hut
Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin said Tuesday that the subpoenas are “the next step in the committee’s ongoing investigation into the ethics of the Supreme Court.”
It comes only after Mr. Crow refused to comply with the committee’s requests and Mr. Leo and Arkley stonewalled the committee,” he said.
Durbin argued in a joint statement with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-I., that Democrats are issuing subpoenas in furtherance of their Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal and Transparency Act, a bill that would require Supreme Court justices to adopt a code of conduct moving forward in July out of committee.
“It is imperative that we understand the full extent of how people with interests before the Court can use secret gifts to gain private access to the judges.”