Dems Vow to Continue Probe into Wealthy Donors’ Ties to Thomas, Alito after GOP Stalls Subpoenas

Democrats will “absolutely” try again to subpoena private citizens with ties to U.S. Supreme Court justices, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, (D.,Ill.) said on Thursday after the committee delayed a vote to issue subpoenas.

The Democratic-chaired committee submitted subpoenas for Republican donor Harlan Crow and lawyer Leonard Leo, in relation to an ethics investigation into Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. Both Thomas and Alito are under fire for allegedly failing to report hospitality and travel gifts in their annual financial disclosures.

Republicans retaliated against Democrats’ subpoena requests with many amendments and additional subpoenas targeting liberal justices and President Joe Biden’s administration. The committee will “absolutely” re-issue Crow and Leo’s subpoenas, even though the GOP’s response overwhelmed the committee and delayed its Thursday vote, Durbin said.

“We will continue our efforts to authorize subpoenas in the near future,” Durbin said in a statement. “The highest court in the land cannot have the lowest ethical standards.”

Thomas’s 2022 financial disclosure-form refuted allegations that the Justice failed to report gifts from wealthy friends, including trips he took with Crow. Thomas’s attorney, Elliot S. Berke, said in August that Thomas “has never accepted a gift from anyone with business before the Court,” adding that “he has included all other reportable gifts on his disclosure forms.”

Before March 2023, “transportation that substitutes for commercial transportation” was considered exempt from reporting.  Thomas “included all reportable private travel” from 2022, Berke said, and reported various trips, transportation, meals and lodging under “reimbursements,” “according to advice from the staff of the Judicial Conference Financial Disclosure Committee, which advised against including it under ‘gifts.'”

While Thomas committed no willful ethics transgressions, Berke said, the Justice did inadvertently fail to report a 2014 real estate transaction “that resulted in a capital loss” and mistakenly referred to his wife’s real-estate holding as Ginger LTD, Partnership, when the name had been changed to Ginger Holdings LLC.

Although Democrats claim that the committee is “not engaged in a vendetta against conservatives,” Republican members said that the ethics investigation is a plot to damage the Supreme Court’s authority. The Court’s 6-3 conservative majority has recently issued landmark rulings on abortion, gun rights, and student debt.

Crow and Leo’s testimonies are necessary for Congress to adopt a code of conduct for Supreme Court justices, Durbin added.

“Leonard Leo and Harlan Crow are central players in the ethics challenge facing the court,” Durbin said. “Their baseless refusal to respond to the committee’s valid inquiries (prevents) us from understanding the full scope of this issue.”

Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) said he was concerned about the “underlying issue of subpoenaing private citizens,” adding that all Republicans “oppose what [the committee is] doing.”

“You made this decision here — to go after private individuals, go after the Court, — in a way that we believe is trying to delegitimize not just Clarence Thomas, but the court in general,” he said. “You’ve opened up Pandora’s Box, and you’ll get a look into it. It’s not very pretty. We could spent all of our time talking about what we would like to subpoena versus what you would like subpoena. You’re going to understand pretty soon today, there’s a pin-up demand on our side for information.”

Senator Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.) said Republicans would issue subpoenas for Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s book publisher, over reports that the justice’s aides pressured colleges to buy her book. Sotomayor has profited almost $4 million from the books since her Court appointment in 2019. Blackburn also said Republicans would subpoena Jeffrey Epstein’s estate to view the sex-trafficker’s flight logs, and seek subpoenas of various Biden administration officials.

Pushing back on Republican claims that the ethics investigation is a partisan witch-hunt, Durbin noted that Democrats decided to forgo a subpoena of Robin Arkley II, a Republican mega-donor who went on a fishing trip with Alito 15 years ago. Arkley cooperated with the committee, Durbin said, but Leo has “refused to cooperate in any way” and Crow’s offer to cooperate was “limited and insufficient.”

Graham said he is “hopeful that maybe we will not get engaged in the subpoena wars.” Democrats have an 11-10 majority on the judiciary committee, which is all they need to approve subpoenas. However, the Senate must vote to enforce subpoenas if Crow and Leo do not respond.