Senate Judiciary Committee to vote on subpoenas of Harlan Crow and Leonard Leo this week

The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on whether to take up subpoenas for GOP megadonor Harlan Crow and Federalist Society Co-Chairman Leonard Leo on Thursday morning following a monthslong focus on the Supreme Court‘s ethics code.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) told reporters, “That’s the plan,” on Tuesday when asked if the committee’s subpoena timeline was on track. This comes after Durbin said on Monday that there was “no evidence” that either Crow or Leo were cooperating with the committee’s records requests into financial and social connections to Supreme Court justices.

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Earlier in November, Durbin ended a meeting before senators could vote on the two subpoenas. Republicans filed dozens of amendments proposing to subpoena many Biden administration associates to draw out the debate. Some of those GOP proposals could be up for a vote on Thursday, as well.

“We’re going to take a look at each one and decide whether it’s germane and proceed from there,” Durbin told reporters, according to Politico.

The committee is looking to gain access to documents from Crow and Leo to aid its investigation into allegations of unethical financial gifts and potential conflicts of interest posed by personal ties to billionaire donors and activists.

ProPublica’s reporting on the justices began earlier this year in April with the revelation that Justice Clarence Thomas didn’t disclose multiple trips financed by Crow. Current rules require justices to disclose all gifts that exceed $415, but the standards around gifts such as travel or lodging remain unclear. The report also uncovered transactions to Thomas and his family, including tuition for Thomas’s grandnephew. In May, Crow declined the requests to provide a full account of the gifts given to Thomas.

Leo declined to turn over any details on travel, payments, or gifts involving Supreme Court justices in July, calling the request from Senate Judiciary Democrats “political retaliation.” The request from Durbin and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) came after a ProPublica report that Justice Samuel Alito “accepted and failed to disclose a luxury Alaskan” fishing trip in 2008 with Leo and billionaires Paul Singer and Robin Arkley II.

Senate Judiciary Republicans are arguing that Senate Democrats must go after liberal advocates in the same way they are going after Crow and Leo if the committee votes to subpoena the pair. Senate Judiciary GOP members have proposed more than 150 additional subpoenas to broaden the investigation they say is one-sided against conservative justices on the Supreme Court.

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One of the amendments brought up by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) demanded subpoenas for Democratic-appointed Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s staff and book publisher.

The Supreme Court adopted a code of ethics on Nov. 13, the first time in the high court’s history. It is unclear whether the court’s recently adopted code has stalled Senate Democrats’ progress in their investigation.