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Senate Judiciary Committee authorizes subpoenas for Harlan Crow and Leonard Leo in Supreme Court ethics probe
Washington — Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to issue subpoenas to GOP megadonor Harlan Crow and conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo on Thursday, marking a new front in the panel’s investigation into the ethics practices at the Supreme Court.
The subpoenas were approved following a contentious meeting in which Republicans accused their Democratic colleagues of attempting to undermine the Supreme Court by targeting private citizens. The committee’s GOP members walked out of the room while the vote took place, with only Sen. Lindsey Graham, the panel’s top Republican, remaining. All 11 Democrats voted to authorize the subpoenas.
Lawmakers are seeking documents from Crow and Leo about gifts, trips and lodging provided to any member of the high court. Their involvement in luxury trips provided to Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito were revealed in reports this year.
“Their attempts to thwart the legitimate oversight efforts of Congress should concern all of us,” Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Dick Durbin said before the vote on the subpoenas. “As I’ve said before, I do not seek this authorization lightly and I do not ask for it often. But to protect Congress authority and advance the committee’s efforts to implement an enforceable code of conduct for the Supreme Court, it is necessary to seek authorization to pursue compulsory process with respect to Mr. Leo and Mr. Crow.”
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The Illinois Democrat called Crow and Leo “central players” in the ethics challenges at the Supreme Court.
Graham accused Democrats of attacking the integrity of the court, which now has a 6-3 conservative majority, following decisions on abortion, gun rights and affirmative action. He said the investigation involving Leo and Crow is “politically motivated” and could lead senators to pursue subpoenas for private citizens they dislike.
“This is about an ongoing effort to destroy this court. To destroy Clarence Thomas’ reputation. To pack the court. To get your way. To make sure the Supreme Court that exists today can’t function,” Graham said of Democrats’ efforts.
Democrats on the panel had also planned to seek approval of a subpoena to a third Republican donor, Robin Arkley II, but Durbin dropped the demand earlier this month after Arkley turned over information to the committee.
Ethics at the Supreme Court
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The Judiciary Committee began its investigation into the ethics policies at the Supreme Court this spring in response to a series of reports from the investigative news outlet ProPublica detailing trips Thomas took aboard Crow’s private plane and yacht, and luxury vacations the justice accepted from Crow, a billionaire real estate developer, over their 25-year friendship.
Thomas did not disclose the travel on his annual financial disclosure forms, but said in response to the revelations that he did not believe he had to do so under exemptions for personal hospitality.
Alito, meanwhile, traveled to Alaska for a luxury fishing trip in 2008 aboard a private jet provided by GOP donor Paul Singer, and accepted lodging from Arkley, the owner of a California mortgage company. Alito also did not disclose the trip, but refuted that it should have been reported, also citing exceptions for personal hospitality.
Following the reports of Thomas and Alito’s trips, the Judiciary Committee requested information from Crow, Leo and Arkley. Leo has repeatedly declined the committee’s request, and his lawyer told the panel in a letter Oct. 19 that its inquiry lacked a valid legislative purpose. Leo, who has played a crucial role in the confirmations of several Supreme Court justices, also accused the committee’s Democratic majority of engaging in political retaliation.
Crow offered to provide the Judiciary Committee with limited information, though it did not satisfy Senate Democrats.
Republicans have defended Thomas and Alito and accused Democrats of unfairly focusing on them while ignoring revelations from the Associated Press that Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s court staff pushed public institutions to purchase her books, and that the justice declined to recuse herself from copyright cases before the court that involved her book publisher. Justice Neil Gorsuch also did not step aside in a case involving the publisher of his 2019 book.
Thomas’ ties to Crow in particular created mounting pressure on the Supreme Court to adopt a binding code of ethics, and the Judiciary Committee advanced along party lines this summer legislation that would require the Supreme Court to adopt an enforceable set of ethics rules. The court announced earlier this month it had adopted for the first time a formal code of conduct, though it does not include an enforcement mechanism.
Implementation of the ethics policies came after several of the justices expressed support for a formal set of ethics policies. Chief Justice John Roberts acknowledged in May that the court can do more to “adhere to the highest standards” of ethical conduct, and said the justices “are continuing to look at the things we can do to give practical effect to that commitment.”
Justices Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett, too, expressed support for adopting a code, particularly as favorable opinions of the Supreme Court fell to historic lows.
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Sen. Thom Tillis says “the scope” of Helene damage in North Carolina “is more like Katrina”
As recovery missions and repairs continue in North Carolina more than a week after Hurricane Helene carved a path of devastation through the western part of the state, the state’s Republican Sen. Thom Tillis called for more resources to bolster the relief effort and likened the damage to Hurricane Katrina’s mark on Louisiana in 2005.
“This is unlike anything that we’ve seen in this state,” Tillis told CBS News’ Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sunday morning. “We need increased attention. We need to continue to increase the surge of federal resources.”
Hurricane Helene ripped through the Southeast U.S. after making landfall in Florida on Sept. 26 as a powerful Category 4 storm. Helene brought heavy rain and catastrophic flooding to communities across multiple states, including Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, with North Carolina bearing the brunt of the destruction. Officials previously said hundreds of roads in western North Carolina were washed out and inaccessible after the storm, hampering rescue operations, and several highways were blocked by mudslides.
Tillis said Sunday that most roads in the region likely remained closed due to flooding and debris. Water, electricity and other essential services still have not been fully restored.
“The scope of this storm is more like Katrina,” he said. “It may look like a flood to the outside observer, but again, this is a landmass roughly the size of the state of Massachusetts, with damage distributed throughout. We have to get maximum resources on the ground immediately to finish rescue operations.”
Hurricane Katrina left more than 1,000 people dead after it slammed into Louisiana’s Gulf Coast in August 2005, flooding neighborhoods and destroying infrastructure in and around New Orleans as well as in parts of the surrounding region. It was the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. in the last 50 years, and the costliest storm on record.
The death toll from Hurricane Helene is at least 229, CBS News has confirmed, with at least 116 of those deaths reported in North Carolina alone. Officials have said they expect the death toll to continue to rise as recovery efforts were ongoing, and a spokesperson for the police department in Asheville told CBS News Friday their officers were “actively working 75 cases of missing persons.”
On Saturday, the U.S. Department of Transportation released $100 million in emergency funds for North Carolina to rebuild the roads and bridges damaged by the hurricane.
“We are providing this initial round of funding so there’s no delay getting roads repaired and reopened, and re-establishing critical routes,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. “The Biden-Harris administration will be with North Carolina every step of the way, and today’s emergency funding to help get transportation networks back up and running safely will be followed by additional federal resources.”
President Biden previously announced that the federal government would cover “100%” of costs for debris removal and emergency protective measures in North Carolina for six months.
With North Carolina leaders working with a number of relief agencies to deal with the aftermath of the storm, Tillis urged federal officials to ramp up the resources being funneled into the state’s hardest-hit areas. The senator also addressed a surge in conspiracy theories and misinformation about the Biden Administration’s disaster response, which have been fueled by Republican political figures like former President Donald Trump.
Trump falsely claimed that Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent in the November presidential election, were diverting funds from Federal Emergency Management Agency that would support the relief effort in North Carolina toward initiatives for immigrants. He also said baselessly that the administration and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, were withholding funds because many communities that were hit hardest are predominantly Republican. Elon Musk has shared false claims about FEMA, too.
“Many of these observations are not even from people on the ground,” Tillis said of those claims. “I believe that we have to stay focused on rescue operations, recovery operations, clearing operations, and we don’t need any of these distractions on the ground. It’s at the expense of the hard-working first responders and people that are just trying to recover their lives.”
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