According to a obtained by NBC News, a lawyer for Republican billionaire Harlan Crow agreed to meet with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to discuss Crow’s relationships with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Michael D. Bopp told Dick Durbin, D.Ill., chairman of the Judiciary Committee, that the committee played an “important” role in formulating laws pertaining to our federal court system. He “would welcome a conversation with your staff.”
Bopp’s Monday letter comes after he refused to provide Senate Judiciary Democrats with informationabout Thomas relationship with the billionaire last month. Bopp stated in a letter he sent to Durbin back in May that the committee did not have the authority to investigate Mr. Crow’s friendship with Justice Clarence Thomas and that Congress does not have the constitutional right to impose ethical rules and standards to the Supreme Court.
Durbin and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) quickly rebutted Bopp’s claims in a letter of follow-up, dated 26 May, claiming that the lawyer had not adequately responded to their request.
Durbin and Whitehouse wrote that “Your explanation was based on a flawed understanding of Congress’s Article I over-sight authority, a distorted reading of Congress constitutional authority to legislate within the area of government ethical standards, and a misplaced understanding of separation of powers. This doctrine is at stake when Congress asks for information from the coordinate branches of government and not private individuals.” You also conflated corporate property with personal hospitality, which is one of the main issues that the Committee wants to address.
Bopp’s refusal of compliance with the committee was similar to the statement he made last month before the Senate Finance Committee , in which he argued that the panel lacked a legislative purpose when it asked for a list Thomas had received from Crow.
Thomas has been criticized by ProPublica for allegations that he failed to disclose gifts and trips paid for by Crow. He also did not disclose the sales of Thomas and his family’s properties by Crow, and the tuition that Crow paid for a relative of the justice.
Thomas stated after ProPublica’s reports that he’d been told that the trips and gifts are “personal hospitality” from close friends and that he thought they didn’t have to be disclosed.
Durbin and the other Democrats in the Judiciary Committee requested that Crow provide a list of all gifts he had given to Thomas, or to any other justice or to their families. Crow was also asked to provide an itemized list of any real estate transactions he made, as well as transportation, lodging, and admissions to private clubs.
NBC News reached out to a Senate Judiciary Committee aide for comment Tuesday. The aide stated that Bopp’s letter “didn’t provide a meaningful answer” to the panel request, and that Durbin, and Whitehouse, will release a response soon, calling the letter “not a good-faith offering.”
The aide stated that “committee staff has already been in contact with Mr. Crow’s lawyer for several weeks. And the letter spends six full pages blatantly and incorrectly claiming Congress does not have the authority to legislate in this area or to conduct oversight — and only one sentence offering to stay in touch.”
The aide said, “That’s not a meaningful answer to the Committee’s legitimate information requests nor is it an offer unique to meet with the staff.”
NBC News did not receive a response from the Supreme Court or Thomas.
