In this November 16, 2016 photo, Leonard Leo, Executive Vice President of the Federalist Society, addresses the media at Trump Tower in New York.
Carolyn Caster | AP
The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote Thursday on whether to approve subpoenas for two influential conservative political figures: judicial activist Leonard Leo and Harlan Crow, a Republican megadonor whose close friendship with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has come under intense criticism.
The panel’s Democratic majority says the subpoenas are necessary in response to Leo and Crow’s “defensive, dismissive refusals” to fully cooperate with the Supreme Court’s ethics investigation.
The Senate investigation stems from a surprise ProPublica report in April that found that Thomas, the Supreme Court’s chief justice, had accepted luxury trips and other gifts from Crow for years without disclosing them in his financial disclosures.
Thomas has said he was told he did not have to disclose these items. He and Crow have defended their relationship, insisting it has not affected Thomas’s cases in court.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., promptly called for an “enforceable code of conduct” for the Supreme Court, whose nine members face little outside scrutiny.
“The Senate and the American people deserve to know the full extent of how billionaires and activists with interests before the Court use their immense wealth to buy private access to the justices,” Durbin said Wednesday.
The committee sought testimony from Chief Justice John Roberts, who declined the invitation. In July, in a party-line vote, the panel approved legislation to impose binding ethics rules on judges.
The panel contacted Crow demanding information, but said it received an “inadequate” response.
Democrats later sought information from Leo and two Republican billionaires, Paul Singer and Robin Arkley, after they were identified in a separate ProPublica report alleging that Judge Samuel Alito had failed to make public a luxury fishing trip in Alaska.
Leo and Arkley refused to comply, while Singer gave a limited response, the committee said.
Last month, Durbin announced they would vote to subpoena Crow, Leo and Arkley, accusing the men of “outright defiance of legitimate surveillance requests.”
On Wednesday, Durbin announced at the last minute that Arkley would no longer be subpoenaed, saying in a statement that he had “provided the committee with information he had withheld.”
This is news development. Check back later for updates.