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Conservative activist Leonard Leo has been subpoenaed by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee associated to an investigation into Supreme Court docket ethics in what he calls a “politically motivated” transfer that he won’t abide by.
“In the present day, I obtained an illegal and politically motivated subpoena from U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin,” Leo stated in a press release on Thursday.
“I’m not capitulating to his lawless assist of Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and the left’s darkish cash effort to silence and cancel political opposition.”
Leo was subpoenaed by the committee in what’s the newest backwards and forwards between Senate Democrats and Leo because the Senate has continued summoning info relating to journeys and occasions that Supreme Court docket justices have taken and took part in over time.
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Dick Durbin and Leonard Leo (Getty Pictures)
For many years, Leo has been part of the Federalist Society, which has lengthy been criticized by liberal activists for its involvement in serving to advise and foyer former President Trump by means of the nominations of Supreme Court docket Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
The senators have beforehand requested for an itemized checklist of presents and funds from Leo or teams he’s related to courting again a long time and associated to any Supreme Court docket justice he has related to amid public outcry from Democrats accusing Supreme Court docket Justice Clarence Thomas of ethics violation, which have been dismissed by many as politically motivated.
In a Thursday letter to Durbin, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary, Leo’s lawyer David Rivkin Jr., reiterated Leo is “not complying” with the “illegal and politically motivated subpoena.”
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Chairman Richard Durbin, (D-IL), attends a Senate Judiciary Committee listening to to look at Texas’s abortion legislation on Capitol Hill (Tom Williams-Pool/Getty Pictures)
The senators’ calls for stem from ProPublica’s reporting on the journey habits of Justices Thomas and Alito. Particularly, ProPublica reported on an Alaskan fishing journey that Justice Alito took with hedge fund billionaire, Paul Singer, who would later have enterprise issues earlier than the excessive court docket.
Conservatives have extensively criticized by mentioning that lots of the “specialists” cited within the numerous studies have undisclosed ties to Democratic causes.
The committee has additionally beforehand licensed a possible subpoena for GOP donor Harlan Crow associated to presents he gave Thomas and known as the 2 subpoenas “key items of our legislative effort to ascertain an efficient code of conduct” for the Supreme Court docket.
Conservatives have known as out ProPublica for being primarily funded by organizations and donors who assist liberal causes, together with court-packing and eradicating conservative justices from the court docket.
Alito has defended himself in opposition to ProPublica’s reporting, and Leo has launched a press release dismissing the concept the fishing journey was someway stored from the general public.
“By selectively focusing on Mr. Leo for investigation on a politically charged foundation, whereas ignoring different potential sources of knowledge on the asserted subject of curiosity who’re equally located to Mr. Leo however have completely different political beliefs which are extra in step with these of the Committee majority, your inquiry seems to be political retaliation in opposition to a non-public citizen in violation of the First Modification,” Rivkin beforehand wrote to the committee.
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Affiliate Supreme Court docket Justice Clarence Thomas speaks on the Heritage Basis on October 21, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Drew Angerer/Getty Pictures)
Leo and his authorized staff have additionally identified that journeys taken by former Supreme Court docket Justice Stephen Breyer and cash obtained by late Supreme Court docket Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg haven’t resulted in inquiries from the committee.
“Since July 2023, Leonard Leo has responded to the reliable oversight requests of the Senate Judiciary Committee with a blanket refusal to cooperate,” Sen. Durbin instructed Fox Information Digital in a press release.
“His outright defiance left the Committee with no different selection however to maneuver ahead with the obligatory course of. For that motive, I’ve issued a subpoena to Mr. Leo.”
The assertion continued, “Mr. Leo has performed a central position within the ethics disaster plaguing the Supreme Court docket and, in contrast to the opposite recipients of knowledge requests on this matter, he has performed nothing however stonewall the Committee. This subpoena is a direct results of Mr. Leo’s personal actions and selections.”
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The U.S. Supreme Court docket (AP Picture/Mariam Zuhaib, File)
An aide for Durbin instructed Fox Information Digital that whereas the senator “actually expects the topic to acknowledge the gravity of a Congressional subpoena” there are “choices out there to the Senate to implement a subpoena within the occasion of noncompliance.”
Fox Information Digital reached out to the White Home for remark however didn’t instantly obtain a response.
In November, the Supreme Court docket adopted a modified ethics code in response to strain from Durbin’s committee and others.
Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox Information. Discover him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and electronic mail tricks to [email protected].
Conservative activist subpoenaed by Dems in SCOTUS ethics probe refusing to conform: ‘Politically motivated’
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