This article first appeared at ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.
I’m sure they will be 100% forthcoming. Mystery solved, my friends.
This is so stupid. “Shame” does not work with billionaires.
An accounting of gifts? Not likely
Billionaires don’t talk to little people
One thing is becoming very clear out of all this: Republican appointees to SCOTUS can no longer be trusted over anything. They all seem to be corruptn and that seems to go with all their like. Shameless!
I do hope the Senators are not holding their collective breath waiting for a response.
We would like our Judicial branch back. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. The “invitation” by the Dem Senators is hopefully just setting the stage for an impending subpoena. The 2024 Democratic campaign ads seem to write themselves.
OMG. Love it. But will the Senate EVER request production of docs by subpoena or EVER drag these guys in with a subpoena? Or will it even matter? Can you imagine Leonard Leo at the witness table? I envision “Judge” Trevor McFadden getting the ultimate court case and icing all subpoenas while he thinks about it for, say, 48 months. And then the Supreme Deciders can take the case and quash and squash until Uncle Thomas and Ginni dance a jig. Not to be cynical.
Why is the Senate Judiciary Committee timidly “asking” for responses, instead of issuing subpoenas? It would be a legitimate exercise of Congress’ oversight authority - if Leo and Singer want to quash the subpoenas, put the burden on them to go to court.
The picture of Leo in the article…taken at something called “the International Debutants Ball”…just screams:
”I am a friend of Jeffrey Epstein.”
It’s interesting that assholes like Leo and Singer are so hooked on changing a world they don’t live in. Sure the big business angle touches them but does abortion, racism, equality or LGBTQ? Nope. But they insist on using the power that money not being elected gives them to punish those that are impacted by those things.
It’s not cool to circumvent democracy in order to cut the “demos” out of it but until America gets over its love affair with those that do so we can expect to stay their victims.
There are no written records to give. One of the Rules of Billionaires is to not write what you sign and not sign what you write. This also encapsulates money bribes, emollienting gifts, spousal jobs, moolah manipulation, and empty seats on private jets…not to mention monthly caviar shipments, fishing lodges where the fish jump into your arms, made-up fraternal organizations with lots of trophies/backslapping and the like. It’s all done without much trace, other than pix and dumb paintings.
It’s about keeping down the potential mobs with the pitchforks and Molotov cocktails and also building their personal walls and towers larger.
ProPublica reported last month that Singer flew Alito on a private jet to a luxury Alaska fishing vacation in July 2008. Alito did not pay for the trip, including his stay at the fishing lodge, which was owned by Arkley, a significant conservative political donor. Leo helped organize the trip and asked Singer if Alito could fly on the billionaire’s jet.
A spokesperson for Singer said last month that the billionaire had “never discussed his business interests” with the justice and that Singer had not organized the trip.
Back in the day wouldn’t someone like Leo, who seems to be the arranger of all this bellavance, to certain SCJs be called a pimp?
John Roberts, through his wife, is probably the most corrupt of the bunch. That is why he does nothing but smile.
For those who don’t know it, she has “earned” millions upon millions over the years by being a recruiter for prestigious law firms with business before the court.
Everything leaves documentation even if its just flight records, invoices, etc. These billionaires aren’t generally smart enough to not leave a trail of evidence behind them, particularly when they delegate much of the effort to others.
The key will be finding who does the heavy lifting for Singer/Leo/etc and subpoena them. They won’t have the deep pockets for a drawn-out legal fight and flipping on their bosses will start looking like a much better deal.
That is Leonard Leo’s job.
What I love is the logical defense from Leo.
Leo declined to comment but previously said that Alito could never be influenced by a free trip.
So, since he can’t be influenced by a free trip, I reckon it is OK for him to get all of the free trips he can eat. The excuse that they can’t be influenced by all of the corruption they are participating in is some kind of logical fallacy - I just can’t figure out which one. Maybe all of them?
I came from poor folks who had a saying for people like Leo, Alito, Roberts and their ilk - “he thinks his shit don’t stink.” I just want to say, it does stink - it stinks to high heaven. No one has done more to bring this to everyone’s attention than Sheldon Whitehouse.
Unlike the GOP, Dems follow procedures. First you ask, then you subpoena.
I think we have to acknowledge that Leo has accomplished more than any private citizen in history in filling the federal judiciary with judges who 1) like religion and 2) don’t like government. And now he has $1.4B to play with. Some reporter should have Leonard Leo as her beat. 24/7/365. He wants to drag this country back to the '70s, the 1870’s.
Senate procedural traditions don’t always make sense, witness Tuberville’s current “hold” on senior military appointments.
In this case, Senate Dems, and in particular the Judiciary Committee under Dick Durbin, look timid and have failed to convey a sense of urgency about the corruption of the Supreme Court. It’s been over 3 months since the Pro Publica report on Clarence Thomas, and the Judiciary Committee is just now getting around to “asking” for the information in question (a request which they knew would be refused anyway). The Committee should already have gone ahead and issued the necessary subpoenas.