In his ongoing pursuit to intimidate conservatives and discredit the Supreme Court, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin subpoenaed constitutional scholar Leonard Leo Thursday -- demanding information about his friendships with Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and others.
“Today, I received an unlawful and politically motivated subpoena from U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin. I am not capitulating to his lawless support of Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and the left's dark money effort to silence and cancel political opposition," Leo said in a statement to Townhall.
The reasons for Leo's refusal to comply with Durbin's abuse of power were outlined months ago as Democrats ramped up their "inquiry."
"The Committee’s inquiry is defined by internal inconsistencies, over the top accusations of misconduct, and a myopic focus on one side of the political aisle that likely has more to do with soliciting donations for reelection campaigns than securing information that might assist in the discharge of the Committee’s lawmaking responsibilities. From top to bottom, the inquiry is a political operation that is being advanced under the guise of a congressional investigation," Leo's attorney, David Rivkin, Jr., wrote in an October letter to Durbin. "We have put forward clear and detailed reasons why the Committee’s inquiry is a form of political retaliation in violation of the First Amendment and the Equal Protection component of the Due Process Clause."
"The Committee has only expanded the retaliatory campaign it is mounting against Mr. Leo. We also have explained at length why the Supreme Court ethics legislation the Committee has written would violate the separation of powers if enacted, and thus cannot legitimate the Committee’s inquiry," Rivkin continued.
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Durbin and his fellow Democrats continue to allege Leo's personal relationships with a number of Justices is somehow unethical while ironically abusing his government position.
"The Committee Democrats have already made up their minds about Mr. Leo. In Committee Democrats’ imagining, Mr. Leo is a 'right-wing' 'fixer' who sits atop a conspiracy to capture the Supreme Court and poses a 'direct threat to American democracy,' and they appear determined to use the Committee’s investigative tools in an attempt to uncover evidence to substantiate those noxious beliefs, or at least to impose immense and costly burdens on Mr. Leo in order to punish him for his disfavored views. It is not our responsibility to aid in that partisan effort, and we choose not to do so today," Rivkin wrote.
Rivkin also responded to Durbin's demands with receipts and a long list of "ethics" issues the Chairman refuses to pursue against liberal Supreme Court Justices.
Appendix SJC Reply Letter - 101923(1) by Katie Pavlich on Scribd
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