Senate Democrats Prepare To Subpoena Clarence Thomas' Wealthy Friends

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee announced plans this week to subpoena two of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' wealthy benefactors: Harlan Crow and Leonard Leo. This is part of the ongoing, although very slow-moving, investigation into the finances of Thomas and the gifts that he received from wealthy donors. With all of the other Republican insanity taking place, this scandal has been somewhat forgotten by the public. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains what's happening.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

With all of the insanity in the Republican party. You know, I mean, reports about Ron DeSantis footwear. You got Donald Trump violating gag orders left and right. You got Republicans who have obviously put a new extremist in charge of the House of Representatives after weeks of drama. It's been nonstop chaos coming from the GOP. And because of that, it's easy to forget important things like the fact that we have some of the most corrupt people on the planet serving in the United States Supreme Court being led, of course, by none other than Clarence Thomas, that scandal, right? The Harlan Crow, uh, uh, Leonard Leo, all of that money, all those gifts, he got the loan that was recently reported that he just never paid back. We need answers to that particular scandal that has been going on for months, but continuously gets overshadowed by the other. Chaos being cre, uh, created by the rest of the Republican Party.

But Democrats in the Senate this week assured us that they're not done. In fact, if anything, they're just getting started. The Senate Judiciary Committee led of course by, uh, democratic Senator Dick Durbin and Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse issued a letter this week informing both Harlan Crow and Leonard Leo that they're about to get hit with subpoenas because they're not happy with the information that these men have willingly given, of course, in response to Congressional inquiries. So here's what happened, obviously, when this scandal broke, right? When, when ProPublica did their, their phenomenal reporting, talking about the fact that we have all this info that, uh, uh, Clarence Thomas was not reporting these gifts, these men did have cases associated with their interests that went in front of the Supreme Court. Clarence Thomas was clearly conflicted in these issues when all of that happened and the dust started to settle, Democrats in the Senate on the Judiciary Committee began their investigation.

IIII use investigation in quotes there 'cause they haven't really done a ton. And as part of that minor investigation, they did ask some questions of Harlan Crowe, Leonard Leo, and they got back some responses, but according to them, uh, uh, this, let me just go ahead and, uh, uh, read this from their letter they sent this week. By accepting these lavish, undisclosed gifts, the justices have enabled their wealthy benefactors and other individuals with business before the court to gain private access to the justices while preventing public scrutiny of this Conte conduct. In order to adequately address this crisis, it is imperative that we understand the full extent of how people with interest before the court are able to use undisclosed gifts to gain private access to the justices. They then added that

Their replies to their questions, uh, either they refuse to comply or they gave limited information, which of course is what has now necessitated the need for the subpoenas. So basically what these two Democrats are saying is, listen, we gave you a chance. You know, we, we, we asked you the questions we wanted you to tell us. Honestly, you either straight up didn't answer us or the answers you gave us are really insufficient. So prepare to get hit with subpoenas. The vote is of course, expected to take place in this next week. Republicans may ask for a week, you know, to kind of delay it, but that's about all they can do.