Harlan Crow's lawyers tells the Senate to fuck off

[Nevilledog]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-23/justice-thomas-s-benefactor-crow-rebuffs-senate-on-ethics-probe


No paywall
https://archive.is/dNGRm

Harlan Crow, the Texas billionaire and GOP megadonor with close ties to Clarence Thomas, refused to answer questions from a Senate committee about his years of gifts to the Supreme Court justice.

Crow’s lawyers in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee argued that Congress does not have “the authority to investigate Mr. Crow’s personal friendship” with Thomas, according to a copy of the letter reviewed by Bloomberg News.

“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,” wrote Crow’s lawyers, who are from the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. They added that the committee is “targeting Justice Thomas for special and unwarranted opprobrium.”

In response, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois said in a statement that Crow “did not provide a credible justification” for his failure to answer detailed inquiries from the committee.
“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,” Durbin said. “He is wrong.”

*snip*

[leftyladyfrommo]

1. That's going to get interesting. The richest of the

rich are above the law.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

2. Spill the beans,traitor

You rich fucking pig.

[Celerity]

3. if this asshole gets away with this, it is a major blow to the rule of law

[progressoid]

6. If?

My cynical self expects he will. There isn't much stopping him at this point.

[aocommunalpunch]

7. Yup.

"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,” Durbin said. “He is wrong.”

Get back to me when he pays ANY consequence. He won't.

[misanthrope]

25. This your first week in the U.S.?

Welcome to the States, where we have not only have different justice systems for the various socio-economic classes, but different levels of overall reality as well.

[Celerity]

26. what?

This your first week in the U.S.?

I was born in Los Angeles (left whilst I was a toddler when my parents moved back to London), and lived in the US for several years (also in LA, Marina del Rey to be more precise) whilst I read for my MBA.

I am still currently living in Stockholm, after growing up for the most past in London.

We (my wife and I) may leave Sweden if the RW Sweden Democrats succeed in outlawing dual citizenship (as I am not going to give up my 2 other (UK and US) passports), but it will be a move to another EU nation, because Brexit has fucked me in terms of simply holding those 2 passports (UK/US, and for my wife, just her UK passport, as my wife is not a US citizen, I am the only one in my family who is) and still having freedom of movement within the EU, which we both refuse to forfeit.

that said

I am well aware of how imbalanced the US legal/justice system is, but Crow's brazen lawlessness (the virtual buying of a SCOTUS justice in Uncle Ruckus Thomas) is next level corrupt, even for a pretty broken legal system like the pne the US currently labours under.

[Bev54]

4. I hope the Senate pushes this to the DOJ.

[moonshinegnomie]

5. seize his assets

when he goes to court to complain tell the courts they dont have jurisdiction...
im tired of this shit

[rubbersole]

8. "I'll take this all the way to the Supreme Court."

[MOMFUDSKI]

10. That is

chilling

[LiberalFighter]

9. Bet the DOJ will take an interest.

[f_townsend]

11. Sweetchuck from Police Academy is in charge of the DOJ

Don't hold your breath anything good will happen.

[LiberalFighter]

15. You basing that on what?

[jaxexpat]

18. I'm guessing he may have been paying attention to the news about insurrectionists.

But I'm just guessing.

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

29. Or paying attention to idiots

Who don't understand how the judicial system works. That tends to be a common trait for Garland-bashers.

[jaxexpat]

30. The "justice system" doesn't work under all circumstances, obviously.

For instance, it is awfully ineffectual if its purpose is to remove from society politically high-profile conservatives in time to save the nation from their crimes. I fail to see anything idiotic in drawing logical conclusions about trends from observation of phenomena commonly available for all to see. The movement to remove democracy from the American equation and replace it with autocracy is well underway somewhat delayed by a bit of outcry which may not be sustainable if there is but a single misstep or unchallenged Republican outrage. The mysterious tipping point is nigh, friend.

Oh, and I understand clearly how impossible it would be if the DOJ to go about arresting politicians accused of crimes by their political opponents for political purposes. Of course, that maybe wouldn't be a problem if the DOJ was "by law" an apolitical entity. But alas, the whole process of AG appointment is steeped in politics and the current AG inherits departments staffed by their, often adversarial, predecessors. Plainly, as the DOJ morphs into a political behemoth, criminal prosecution becomes selective and the system becomes impotent to implement necessary methods to effectively counter contemporary threats.

[KS Toronado]

12. The Senate is not investigating Mr. Crow's "personal friendship"

They are going after corruption in the highest echelon of our Government.

[jaxexpat]

31. Bravo! Worth repeating loudly.

[diva77]

13. I understand that Thomas broke the law, but what law has Crow broken? -- I tried to

google an answer but couldn't find one. Obviously the gifts were unethical -- but were they illegal?

Thanks in advance for any answers!

[Nevilledog]

19. Bribery

[Zeitghost]

20. Why would you need to bribe

A radical right wing justice to make a radical right wing decision?

Thomas has one of the most consistently ideological records on the court, consistently wrong, but consistent none the less.

I understand why some buy into the fantasy, hoping Thomas can be led from the bench in cuffs. But let's be real, Supreme Court Justices are picked precisely because those picking them know exactly how they will vote on key issues. There is no reason to bribe them to do what they were chosen specifically to do. It's not like Thomas was ever going to take a liberal or even moderate position.

[jaxexpat]

32. It's crime 101

The subject is chosen for their tendencies and paid off to ensure the strategic specificity of those tendencies.

[diva77]

24. Makes sense, thanks for your answer-- which led me to google "bribery" and found this:

Bribery Charges and Defenses

https://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/resources/criminal-defense/crime-penalties/bribery-charges-penalties.htm

SNIP
A person convicted of federal bribery will face felony charges with penalties of up to 5 or 10 years in prison, along with steep fines.

Additional consequences may also apply, such as civil penalties or forfeiture of office or employment. For instance, a public official who accepts a bribe may have to give up their current position and forfeit future eligibility for office or to work in a government position.
SNIP

=================

Thank you, Nevilledog!

[Snackshack]

14. Why?

Since congress has sat back silent......forever apparently and never set any kind of guide/limit/boundary in terms of ethics for supreme court judges and just hoped that the person chosen as a Judge on SCOTUS would honor the system that is where they need to start there and with Thomas.

It looks like SCOTUS Judges have to follow no ethical standards like every other judge in the justice system

[Duppers]

16. Indeed! 👍

[flying_wahini]

17. Audit him. Watch him squirm.

[erronis]

21. I'm guessing you mean an IRS audit. Crow has more lawyers/$$$s to throw at this than the gov't.

Still, that may be the best way to uncover his dealings with SCOTUS and others.

[spanone]

22. Imagine if a liberal justice did this....

A ProPublica report last month said that Thomas and his wife traveled through Indonesia aboard Crow’s 162-foot yacht, vacationed almost every summer at his luxurious New York resort and flew on

his private plane around the world on trips worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The outlet also reported that Crow bought three Georgia properties — including the home where Thomas’s mother resides — from the justice and his relatives, and paid private school tuition for a

Thomas grandnephew. The disclosures about Thomas have set off a battle over the high court’s ethics.

[Celerity]

27. one of the most frustrating things is how much less aggressive the US left is than the US right

when it comes to framing and destroying our political enemies

[spanone]

28. I agree completely.

[markodochartaigh]

23. I don't know much about rich people.

But I do know that when a rich person has bought a shiny bauble they don't appreciate you asking where they got the money for it or how much it cost.