Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee stepped up their ethics investigation of Supreme Court practices on Thursday, issuing subpoenas for two prominent GOP figures accused of presenting luxury gifts and other benefits to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
All 11 Democrats on the committee voted to authorize the subpoenas issued to Republican megadonor Harlan Crow and conservative legal activist Leonard Leo. The measure was backed by Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin, although the Associated Press (AP) reported that Republican members of the committee walked out in protest before a vote was held on the matter.
The subpoenas come as pressure continues to mount against Thomas, who is at the heart of the Senate Judiciary Committee's investigation after reports surfaced that he had accepted vacations and other luxury gifts from GOP donors for decades without disclosing the items to the court. Durbin said during Thursday's hearing before voting on the subpoenas that both Crow and Leo have been uncooperative with the committee's requests for information regarding their relationships with justices, reported AP.
"Both Leonard Leo and Harlan Crow are central players in this crisis," Durbin said. "Their attempts to thwart legitimate oversight efforts of Congress should concern all of us."
Crow's relationship with Thomas was first brought to light following a report from ProPublica in the spring, which accused Thomas and his wife, Ginni Thomas, of attending dozens of undisclosed luxury vacations with Crow for over 20 years. Thomas also reportedly accepted flights on private jets and tuition payments for his grandnephew in private school from the GOP megadonor, among other valuable gifts.
Leo, a legal activist and chairman of the board of directors for the Federalist Society, has also faced scrutiny after a report by The Washington Post found that he had ordered a nonprofit he manages to pay tens of thousands of dollars to Ginni Thomas for "consulting work" while also specifying that her name be left off billing records. According to the Post's report, Leo instructed the nonprofit group—the Judicial Education project—to "give" Ginni Thomas a total of $80,000 between June 2011 and June 2012.
Justice Thomas has previously defended himself against the allegations, and his attorney wrote in an August statement: "After reviewing Justice Thomas's records, I am confident there has been no willful ethics transgression, and any prior reporting errors were strictly inadvertent."
Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee have also criticized their Democratic counterparts' efforts to investigate Thomas, including the top GOP member on the committee, Senator Lindsey Graham, who AP said called the subpoenas for Crow and Leo "garbage" and "a complete joke" during Thursday's hearing. Republicans also argued that the subpoenas are invalid because GOP members were not present during the time of the vote.
"They think we're gonna roll over and come back sometime later and try all over again and face the same limitations," Durbin said of the GOP's objection to the subpoenas. "There reaches a point where there has to be a vote. They walked out on it. That's their decision."
Crow's office said in a statement Thursday that despite the subpoena being "unenforceable," he "remains willing to engage with the Committee in good faith, just as he has consistently done throughout this process."
"Committee Democrats have made intrusive demands of a private citizen that far exceed any reasonable standard and to this date have not explained why this request is necessary to craft legislation, particularly now that the Committee has completed its work on ethics legislation," the statement said, according to NBC News.
After Newsweek reached out to Leo for comment, his press team shared the following statement: "Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats have been destroying the Supreme Court; now they are destroying the Senate. I will not cooperate with this unlawful campaign of political retribution."
Newsweek also emailed Crow's real estate company, Crow Holdings, Thursday afternoon for comment.
Update 11/30/2023, 4:59 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Leo's press team.
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