he thinks harlan crow is trying to keep him comfortable. etch thinks his salary isn't high enough and therefore, he provides these benefits to him to elevate his lifestyle. as you pointed out, justice thomas' recent public comments about his salary are very, very different than what he was saying privately 20 years ago and the salary has not changed. >> well, maybe one will wink and just say inflation to you all of a sudden and explain everything. justin elliott, for all the noneconomists, myself included in the room. thank you so much. >> thank you. >>> hey, one note about some special programming we'll have here on cnn. we'll have special live coverage of the funeral of supreme court justice sandra day o'connor. i'll be part of that coverage hosted by wolf blitzer starting at 10:45 a.m. eastern. we'll see you there to honor justice o'connor. >>> up next, a guilty verdict and a career in jeopardy, actor jonathan majors dropped by marvel studios and nowow even fafacing time e behind barars. >>> well, the movie star jonathan majors was found

thomas never reports this. 2009, harlan crow reportedly gives $500,000 to a political nonprofit startednymously by a political links up to crow in 2011. 2012, conservative activists, leonard leo and kylian conaway to build a nonprofit group that he advises and give ginni thomas another $25,000. he says the paperwork should include no mention of ginni, of course. 2014, tonsils three pieces of property. he co-owns to crow, including his mother's house. despite the law outlining that real estate steals must be disclosed thomas doesn't do so. coming up, we laugh so we don't cry. donald trump impressions are the stuff of legends that the guy has rain. they help unpack the first gop primary debate after the break. primary debate after the break primary debate after the break liberty mutual customized my car insurance and i saved hundreds. with the money i saved, i started a dog walking business. oh. [dog barks] no it's just a bunny! only pay for what you need. ♪liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty.♪ i've never been healthier. only pay for what you need. shingles doesn't care. but shingrix prote

thomas never reports this. 2009, harlan crow reportedly gives $500, 000 to a political nonprofit startedmously by a political links up to crow in 2011. 2012, conservative activists, leonard leo and kylian conaway to build a nonprofit group that he advises and give ginni thomas another $25, 000. he says the paperwork should include no mention of ginni, of course. 2014, tonsils three pieces of property. he co-owns to crow, including his mother's house. despite the law outlining that real estate steals must be disclosed thomas doesn't do so. coming up, we laugh so we don't cry. donald trump impressions are the stuff of legends that the guy has rain. they help unpack the first gop primary debate after the break. (husband) they'd take thiss? (caroler) ♪ very much so. just trade in that old phone. ♪ ♪ for a free 5g phone, plus netflix and max ♪ (wife) you really just should have done that. (caroler) ♪ this didn't land, she didn't like that. ♪ (husband) honey! i immediately get it! (avo) this holiday turn any samsung phone, in any condition, into a galaxy s23+ on us. and now add netflix and max

plane to indonesia for an vacation on harlan crow 's yacht.e time. senator elizabeth warren said justice horns thomas wanted to boost his income and republican billionaires were happy to give him a lavish lifestyle so we wouldn't resign from the supreme court. it's corruption, plain and simple and quote. >> joining us jamelle bouie, he has written many columns in -- on this. also ahead of the progress -- here there's a little bit of context that clarence thomas had this conversation with the congressman on the airplane in 2000. that is, there was an election coming up. there was a possibility that our gore could become the president of the united states and if justice thomas were to resign in that initial period, there's a possibility that the democratically appointed justices could take his place. all of a sudden, it became imperative, it wasn't a stated threat, but it became imperative the probably don't want me to resign because i don't think i'm making enough money? >> i think that's right. i think that's very much what thomas had politica

you may remember this painting that was done at harlan crow's adirondack estates with the billionaire crow and justice thomas and leonard leo, the court fixer. well, also there is pal mark coraletta. he couldn't be more in the scheme than that painting shows. also carrie ^ sevarino is at the dark money funded federalist society and the judicial crisis network. and then of course there's "the wall street journal" editorial page whose people have received a million dollars in personal cash from the dark money bradley foundation at the middle of that dark money amicus flotilla. at attorney rifkin's request, i mentioned, justice alito even provided a cameo performance. in "the wall street journal" editorial page that defended the position of his friend leonard leo in plain violation of multiple judicial ethics guidelines. all that rifkin-leo-alito stunt, "wall street journal" editorial page stunt needed was paletto and sevarino to make it a clean sweep. steering away, mr. president, from troublesome facts is a constant theme in the mess we're trying to dig into over at the court. in the j

the way this process works is they have now authorized subpoenas of leonard leo and harlan crow, somewhateonard a is the architect of the dobbs decision. he was certainly responsible for the list of judges that trump touted when he was running for president, that this is where the supreme court justices would come from. by the way, all of them were smart people who knew they were taking a lifetime appointment, and a cut in salary. i'm not going to feel sorry for clarence thomas. >> me neither. >> if these subpoenas are approved by the senate, and it's a civil contempt, and it goes through the courts. guess where it ends up? at the supreme court. so, this will be interesting to see. this is a real question on checks and balances. does the u.s. senate have the right to ask questions about the ethics, about the conduct of the supreme court, which appropriates funds for? that is a question that is not decided on our country, it will be interesting to see how it turns out. it's a sticky wicket. >> lots of tests on our system. okay, claire give you a well deserved complement their. what do you

you might recognize harlan crow as the billionaire who has taken supreme court justice thomas on luxuryations for two decades. or as the guy who bought a house for, from justice thomas, but for some reason let justice thomas's mother continue to live there for free. for the man who paid for the private school tuition to a relative thomas said he was raising as a sign. you might remember leonard leo because of all the great propublica reporting about him acting as a powerbroker, setting up those luxury excursions for supreme court justices with rich republicans. democrats wanted to know more about all of that was a bridge too far from lindsey graham and his republican colleagues. coming up, as to arizona officials are indicted for delaying the certification of 2022 midterm election results, one local radio station is trying to combat disinformation in the grand canyon state. that is next. having triplets is... -amazing -expensive. so, we switched to the bargain detergent, but we ended up using three times as much and the clothes still weren't as clean as with tide. so we're back with tid

in trying to achieve that goal, he's cultivated a coterie of welty donors like harlan crow and the koch family, familiar names that i will come back to in a brief moment. but first, back in 2020, thomas would openly complain about how civil servants, which he had been most of his professional life, don't make much money. >> the job is not worth doing for what they pay. it's not worth doing for the grief. butt is worth doing for the principle. >> today, propublica is reporting those complaints were far more serious. so serious that justice thomas reportedly said if congress doesn't give justices a raise, that one or more justices will leave soon. this is according to records from the time- i'm sorry, records obtained by propublica, including a confidential memo to william rehnquist. thomas made that complaint to iff stearns, a vocal conservative who told propublica that thomas' importance as a conservative was paramount and that republicans wanted to make sure he felt comfortable in his job and he was being paid properly. you would also understand how thomas' complaints might trigger the

both leonard leo and harlan crow are central players in this crisis. their attempts to thwart the legitimate oversight efforts of the congress should concern all of us. as i said before, i do not seek this authorization lightly and do not ask for it often. but to protect congress's authority and advance the committee's efforts to implement an enforceable code of conduct for the supreme court, it is necessary to seek authorization to pursue compulsory process with respect to mr. leo and mr. crow. before turning to the ranking member senator graham his opening remarks, i will tell you that the standards we will follow in procedure are all president of the committee. they have been used by the two previous republican chairman and we can cite the exact date when that happened. senator graham is recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman. what a difference a day makes. yesterday we had four florida judges that came forward in the committee where the two senators from florida both republicans reached agreement with the white house to fill judicial vacancies at t

the senate judiciary committee last month authorized subpoenas or republican megadonor harlan crow andeo. crow and leo are pushing back, of course. they are not the only ones. ndsey graham called the subpoenas a vote a joke. the ethics investigation is looking to get to the bottom of recent reporting detailing justices clarence thomas and samuel alito takinglavish trips on donors dimes and accepting previously undisclosed gifts. the supreme court last month adopted what it is calling an ethics code but failed to disclose how those new rules would be enforced and by whom. joining me now is democratic senator mazie hirono, amanda moore of the senate judiciary committee. as i mentioned -- thank you. you and your democratic colleagues on the senate judiciary committee faced a significant obstacle of harlan crow and leonard leo refusing to comply with your subpoenas. how are you going to convince him republicans to vote to enforce the subpoenas if the republicans on your committee won't even participate in the vote. >> so far, they have been totally obstructing in terms of requesting or req

we talked to a yale professor who spent time with thomas, and his principal benefactor harlan crow, andioned with them. that professors view of the relationship was look, he did not think that harlem crow is trying to influence justice thomas's views. he is trying to keep him comfortable, he thinks his salary is not high enough. so he provides these benefits to him to provide this lifestyle. as you pointed out at the beginning of the segment, justice thomas recent comments about his salary are very, very different than what he was saying privately 20 years ago. and the salary has not changed. >> coates: well maybe one will just wink, and say inflation, and it will explain everything. , justin elliott thank you so much. >> thank you. >> coates: one note, about a special program we will have on cnn, we will have special live coverage of the funeral of supreme court justice sandra day o'connor. i will be a part of that coverage hosted by wolf blitzer 10:45 am eastern. we will see you there to honor justice o'connor. up next a guilty verdict, and a career in jeopardy after jonathan majors d

senate judiciary committee met to consider judicial nominees whether to subpoena republican donor harlan crowudicial activist leonard leo is part of a probe into alleged unethical financial ghosts provided to supreme court justices. at the end of the meeting voted to authorize the subpoena but republicans refused to remain for the vote. this is two hours. >> 11 members of the committee including two of the minority the meeting come to order. we have several items on today's agenda. three nominees on the agenda for the first time will be held over. sarah hill for the district court of the northern district of oklahoma. jon and david russell up for the u.s. district court for the northern district of oklahoma. ramona to the district court of the northern islands. today we will again vote on two judicial nominees who have been referred back to the committee due to a procedural issue the previous boat given the nominees have been debated at length we will move directly to those votes but we also vote on three additional nominees and a justice department nominee. the committee will then return to

this, week the committee approved subpoenas for activist leonard leo and harlan crow.e move follows a string of bombshell reports from propublica on the men tied to justices clarence thomas and samuel alito. all 11 democratic senators on the panel approved the subpoena, as well, republicans stormed out of the committee room without voting after the chairman refused to allow votes on unrelated gop amendment designed to stop a subpoena vote. those republicans later argued that the subpoenas are invalid because, you guessed, it there was no quorum present for the committee to conduct business. if leo and crow refuse to comply, the full senate would have to vote to enforce the subpoenas. and judging by their theatrical this week, it is unlikely republicans will start caring about ethics reform and how democrats reach the 60 vote threshold to move forward. threshold to move forward. and older protect against rsv with arexvy. arexvy is a vaccine used to prevent lower respiratory disease from rsv in people 60 years and older. arexvy does not protect everyone and is not for th

we learned a lot about harlan crow and clarence thomas. certainly the most jarring and alarming.m understanding the pie analogy best i think that what we have exposed, what we've learned here is what they all have pie on their face for their ethical -- >> when they came with their -- they still had to planted. >> after the georgia indictments came down, there were so many people involved in that that some of them decided that they were going to take please. the one that i found the most interesting ways digitalize. nobody used to know, she would show up next to rudy giuliani, and all of those press conferences, including at the four seasons in philadelphia. four seasons landscaping company. she would just talk, and talk, endlessly about stuff that was entirely nonsense. then when she took the plea and made a statement, if i had known now what i knew then i wouldn't have defended donald trump. come on, you just need to read a pamphlet. watching that allocution with something. it was notable. that's exactly right. >> you've got anyone else that you caught with blueberry pie? >> lik

the committee subpoenaed conservative activist leonard leo and republican billionaire mega donor harlan crow. you might recognize crow as the billionaire according to propublic law has taken justice clarence thomas on undisclosed jet flights and luxury vacations for two decades or as the guy who bought a house from justice thomas but for some reason let thomas' mother continue to live there for free. or as the man who paid for the private school tuition of a relative thomas said he was raising as a son. and you might remember leonard leo because of all the great propublica reporting about him acting as a powerbroker of sorts, setting up those luxury excursions for supreme court justices with rich republicans. but democrats wanting to know about all that was a bridge too far for lindsey graham had his republican colleagues. >>> coming up as, as two arizona officials are indicted under delaying the certification of the 2020 mid-term election results, one local radio station is trying to combat disinformation in the grand canyon state. that is next. disinformation in canyon state that is next i

harlan crow chief among them. you've got blockbuster's wayne huizenga. several others.ver had cases that were directly in front of the court, in this kind of bald manner where thomas did something unusual and you could see, well, there must be some quid pro quo there. we don't have that. we did report earlier this year that sam alito went on a lavish trip with leonard leo. leonard leo, one of the activists funded, with a hedge fund billionaire who's a conservative activist who then had a case before the court and alito didn't recuse. thomas we haven't had that. but what the speculation is from experts is that what this does is it kind of cocoons thomas in a lifestyle that is lavish and comfortable and an ideological cocoon, an ideological kind of bubble of like-minded people who feed him the latest, greatest thinking in conservative legal thought. and so this is kind of working twofold to kind of keep the consistency of his views because there have been a lot of right-wing judges who moved left over the history of the court. they wanted to prevent that. and two, it seem

of ingrained in this new world, if he had never really have access to before, with people like harlan crowive luminaries. he's brought in to speak for ten minutes at these conferences in the woods surrounded by the richest people on earth. he is placed on super yachts where he can talk about conservative economic theory over cigars and caviar. and suddenly, all of the incentives in his life really moved toward supporting the kind of legal infrastructure that keeps these guys wealthy. a, quote, limited government, attacks on, you know, power to regulate the economy, and assault on congressional power to tax which people, all of these sort of hallmarks of his jurisprudence emerged during this period. it all flow to the benefit of his new friends. so, i do think it's important to put in this context that it's not just about one or two individual rulings, it's about the whole jurisprudence shifting further and further to the right, as he is thinking out with the very people who stand to benefit the most from that shift. >> it seems like senate democrats will have a lock to q on when they come

you know, this was exactly the period when these relationships with wealthy businessmen like harlan crowsoming and various aspects of thomas' life were getting paid for by these friends so the salary issue became less important. >> interesting. then they can make money on books, for example. >> yeah. absolutely. that's another thing that justice thomas and really most of the justices at this point have done. justice thomas i believe got a $1.5 million book deal which obviously helped his financial situation. in the last 20 years. but also these relationships were you know, basic living expenses. things like batteries for his rv. tires. private school tuition. all these things were paid for by friends. and many of them political donors. which is something other justices have not done to our knowledge. >> justin, thank you very much for being with me. really appreciate your time. that wraps up the hour. you can always reach me on social media at jd balart. thank you for the privilege of your time. andrea mitchell picks up with more news r

harlan crow, the billionaire real estate developer paid about hundred thousand dollars in private schoolfor a child that clears thomas was raising. a half million dollar rv. friend loan him the money than forgave the long. it literally dozens of vacations all over the world. if you're making $300,000 as a supreme court justice which most people would take, i would take of my boss offered it to me, $300,000 goes a lot farther farther if you're not paying for your own vacations and other expensive. >> we have these annual age are training modules, maybe propublica, you have an ethics portion. someone wants to give you an expensive gift and they also might have business for your company. you sit there and just click now i can't take that, no, no, no. everything here is just so obviously flagrantly unethical. if it was presented is a thought experiment on your hr training module. >> in this reporting my colleagues and i have talked to maybe 20 federal judges at this point across the political spectrum. pretty much unanimously it has become clear that they just take the ethical standards and

. >> the two individuals that senate democrats were targeting , leonard leo and harlan crow are both i believe it should aric richards. excuse me, i want to make one point clear. in a request for time comes to the chair. i yielded to senator graham, has made a statement. now what is happening in the interim, with reports is the committee so you know exactly where we stand. in the time that i have served in the judicial committee and in recent times, the democrats have never invoked the two hour rule on this committee, never. so we were able to continue our business and finish it. now for the second time as chairmanship or the republicans invoke the two hour rule as it did under the group to nomination. which means that we literally have until 12:00 -- smack know, we have next week, and have the week after that, and we have the week after that. what is the urgency here? give me a break. you got bill of the floor. >> please let me finish. >> the chair has the floor. we will therefore proceed with the rule on the chairs of a second 2023 motion to authorize subpoena related to the commit

about in the senate judiciary committee with the subpoenas that were issued, they were issued to harlan crow, who is a friend of justice thomas. they are very good friends, very close friends. they want information about trips. gifts that helen crow has made to justice thomas. and then tell leonard leo, a friend of mine who was one of the heads of the federalist society, now he has left that, and whether i get you provided any trips or gifts to any of the justices either. they didn't issue any subpoenas to any of the people surrounding the liberal justices. i would have thought you would want to do that, just to preserve the possibility that this is bipartisan. but when it is really just targeted at people who are friends with the conservative justices, i think that makes it obvious that this is really an effort to attack certain justices because of disagreements with their decisions. i don't think either that case or the cases with justice thomas are showing remotely that these trips are gifts had produced any change in new that they decided cases or produced any real conflict of interest.

court, here is an article from november 30 in "usa today" that senate democrats voted to subpoena harlan crowonard leo in a supreme court ethics probe as the gop stormed out. republicans on the panel slammed the move as political theater and accused the 11 democrats of violating committee rules. democrats on the senate judiciary committee voted that particular thursday. a subpoena and after partisan victory and it rep -- and it ended with republicans and storming out. private club access provided to justices by a billionaire gop donor that appeared to have been tied in some cases to conservative legal activist leonard leo. they moved forward with subpoenas thursday after concluding neither of them were willing to voluntarily provide the information they had been seeking. democrats have been pushing for many more ethics moves by the supreme court especially in light of some of this reporting, and here is chairman dick durbin and ranking member lindsey graham just moments from the gop walkout. [video clip] >> on november 13, the super court announced that for the first time in its history it wo

court, here is an article from november 30 in "usa today" that senate democrats voted to subpoena harlan crowleonard leo in a supreme court ethics probe as the gop stormed out. republicans on the panel slammed the move as political theater and accused the 11 democrats of violating committee rules. democrats on the senate judiciary committee voted that particular thursday. a subpoena and after partisan victory and it rep -- and it ended with republicans and storming out. private club access provided to justices by a billionaire gop donor that appeared to have been tied in some cases to conservative legal activist leonard leo. they moved forward with subpoenas thursday after concluding neither of them were willing to voluntarily provide the information they had been seeking. democrats have been pushing for many more ethics moves by the supreme court especially in light of some of this reporting, and here is chairman dick durbin and ranking member lindsey graham just moments from the gop walkout. [video clip] >> on november 13, the super court announced that for the first time in its history it