The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday abruptly adjourned a hearing that was due to issue subpoenas regarding the Supreme Court ethics investigation into Associate Justice Clarence Thomas after Republicans offered several counter-subpoenas.
Thomas has been under scrutiny from the public and Senate Democrats following several investigative reports by ProPublica, which document his close relations with real-estate billionaire Harlan Crow and suggest that he may have been improperly influenced by them. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin had scheduled a vote on Thursday to subpoena Crow and Federalist Society co-chairman Leonard Leo — a prominent conservative who advised the Trump administration on judicial nominations — to discuss Thomas, but abruptly adjourned the hearing to do so after Republicans signaled they would force votes on several controversial counter-subpoenas. (RELATED: ‘This Is A Fight You Wanted’: Lindsey Graham, GOP Sens Threaten Counter-Subpoenas Over Clarence Thomas Ethics Probe)
“When you offer the subpoena, there’ll be a bunch of amendments…we all oppose what you’re doing,” said Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the committee’s ranking member. “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 accused the Democrats, adding a warning that “you’ve opened up Pandora’s box and you’ll get a look into it. It’s not very pretty.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee begins a hearing regarding subpoenas into Harlan Crow and Leonard Leo. Arjun Singh for The Daily Caller News Foundation via Twitter.
“Sen. Cornyn had planned to offer an amendment to subpoena George Soros and Alex Soros for information related to their efforts to influence the composition of the U.S. Supreme Court and matters before the Court,” an aide to Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas told The Daily Caller News Foundation. The subpoena amendment, a copy of which was viewed by the DCNF, would subpoena both Soroses, who have run the left-wing non-profit Open Society Foundations, over funds they spent to “influence the composition of the Supreme Court” or influence cases before it.
“There’s a pent-up demand on our side for information…What’s going on with [Associate Justice Sonia] Sotomayor selling her books? I want to know how 240,000 people from four countries achieved parole when the law says it should be done on an individual basis,” Graham stated, indicating that Republicans wanted to issue subpoenas on these subjects, in response to the subpoenas of Leo and Crow. “I promise you, everything that was working with the committee is now in jeopardy.”
Following Graham’s remarks, Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee spoke, listing several individuals she would seek to subpoena, beginning with Sotomayor over the allegations that her taxpayer-paid staff compelled entities to buy books she authored, the sales from which she’d gain royalties.
“This summer, what we learned was that over the years, her staff has pressured public institutions to buy her books, and these books and her book deals have earned her $4 million,” Blackburn said of Sotomayor, noting that she allegedly refused to recuse herself from two copyright infringement cases before the court regarding her book’s publisher. “So I have filed an amendment issuing a subpoena to Justice Sotomayor’s staff who’s helped to sell the books, as well as to her book publisher so we can fully understand the backstory of the deal.”
Blackburn also announced an amendment that would issue “a subpoena into Jeffrey Epstein’s estate to provide the flight logs for his private plane. Given numerous allegations of human trafficking and sexual abuse surrounding Mr. Epstein, I think it’s very important that we identify everybody that was on that plane, and how many trips they took off that plane and the destinations.”
She also said that she had filed subpoenas against Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra over the loss of 85,000 migrant children from his department’s custody, the Department of Justice (DOJ) for documentation over the cancellation of the “China Initiative” to target and prosecute Chinese spies in the United States and for documents regarding “political donations and participation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s staff.”
At last, Blackburn announced that she would seek to subpoena the DOJ and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over allegations that conservative speech was censored online due to their actions. “DOJ, on behalf of the FTC, filed a privacy and security practices suit against Twitter…we need to get to the bottom of President Biden’s efforts to silence Elon Musk. That’s why I’ve filed a subpoena to compel the DOJ and the FTC to provide all documents related to the investigation of Elon Musk.
Thursday’s adjournment without subpoenas is the second time such an adjournment occurred. On Nov. 2, the committee had similarly convened to vote on the subpoenas but declined to do so at the request of Graham for Republicans to consider their responses. The committee, prior to the adjournment on Thursday, voted on advancing two of Biden’s judicial nominees to the floor of the Senate for confirmation.
Thomas has vigorously denied allegations that he was improperly influenced by his relationship with Crow or that he violated ethics rules. Conservative groups and former Supreme Court clerks in Thomas’ chambers, likewise, have sought to defend him in the public domain.
“Due to scheduling issues, we were unable to complete the markup today,” wrote Durbin in a statement to the DCNF. “We will continue our efforts to authorize subpoenas in the near future. The highest court in the land cannot have the lowest ethical standards.”
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