‘He is Wrong’: Senate Democrat Shreds GOP Mega-Donor Over Claim Congress Can’t Investigate ‘Lavish Gifts’ to Clarence Thomas
AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File
Harlan Crow, the Republican mega-donor who spent heavily on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, told Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) that Congress does not have “the authority to investigate Mr. Crow’s personal friendship with Justice Clarence Thomas.”
Crow made the assertion through his lawyers in a Monday letter to Durbin, in which the billionaire also declined to answer questions about his relationship with Thomas. The letter read, “Most importantly, Congress does not have the constitutional power to impose ethics rules and standards on the Supreme Court. Doing so would exceed Congress’s Article I authority and violate basic separation of powers principles. That precludes the Committee from pursuing an investigation in support of such legislation.”
“Separately, the Committee has not identified a valid legislative purpose for its investigation and is not authorized to conduct an ethics investigation of a Supreme Court Justice,” the letter added.
“The Committee’s stated purpose of crafting new ethics guidelines for the Supreme Court is inconsistent with its actions and the circumstances in which this investigation was launched, all of which suggest that the Committee is targeting Justice Thomas for special and unwarranted opprobrium,” concluded Crow’s lawyers.
Durbin hit back in a statement, saying, “Harlan Crow believes the secrecy of his lavish gifts to Justice Thomas is more important than the reputation of the highest court of law in this land. He is wrong.”
Crow’s relationship with Thomas has come under intense scrutiny in recent weeks after revelations that Crow not only paid for luxury trips for the justice, but purchased his family home that his mother still lived in and paid school tuition for a relative.
“The real estate transaction and the bulk of the hospitality went unreported on Thomas’ annual financial disclosures, as did Crow’s reported payments for the tuition of a grandnephew of Thomas’,” noted CNN.
