is not a more keen observer of the supreme court in all of congress and democratic senator sheldon whitehousemunity, and he joins me now. senator whitehouse, thank you so much for taking the time with me today. you are among one of the first to call for the department of justice to investigate all of this. we don't have an update on whether or not they have started, the committee also asked if justice john rivers to come testify, he declined. what do you see is the next steps here on the investigative front? >> well, we are going to have a hearing in the court subcommittee and judiciary looking into what happened the last time that harlan crow's gifts of yacht and jet travel to justice thomas were a subject of investigation. that question was referred to the financial disclosure committee of the judicial conference, and it's not at all clear what happened to it back in 2011. and that matters a lot because this matter has got referred to the same committee. so it is a matter both of oversight of this time, an inquiry into what happened last time. the second thing is to look at the array of gro

committee member sheldon whitehouse joins me in a moment. >>> also tonight, it felt like trump had 40 zillion hands. that was testimony today from jessica leads, who claims she was molested by donald trump on a flight. she joins me tonight. >>> plus, some of your favorite tv shows are going dark as hollywood writers go on strike. tonight, a look at the important issues that led to the walkout. >>> and we begin tonight with the united states supreme court. the nine individuals with lifetime appointments highest law giving body in the nation, who have the power to determine whether you can or cannot make decisions about your own body or whether you can or cannot legally marry your partner. the nine individuals whose literal job it is to make rules that every single american must abide by, those same people have decided apparently that they don't need any rules for themselves. earlier today, senate democrats at a judiciary committee hearing made the case for supreme court ethics reform, calling for a code of conduct that justices must follow, which is basically just the bare minimum. the

joining me to talk more about this, a member of the committee, sheldon whitehouse. to you. i want to read for folks this tweet you sent out with regard to crow's attorneys' response to the ask by the senate committee saying there's a ritualistic quality to these, quote, separation of powers claims that are being made to protect justice thomas's ethics reporting problem from scrutiny. talk more about this. >> well, the seven-page letter by the lawyers i guess for harlan crow said that they wouldn't cooperate because the congress had no role here and what they failed to address is that the ethics reporting statute that we are investigating the enforcement of was, in fact, passed by congress, and the body that oversees the enforcement of that act passed by congress is called the judicial conference, and it is a body established by congress. so you have a law congress has passed being enforced by a body congress has created, and over decades the supreme court has never objected either to the law or to the body as having been created by congress. so this is a last minute

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i will be joined by senator sheldon whitehouse. what he says -- and it's been a busy week in the effort to restrict women's rights to make decisions about their own bodies. from courts to state legislators, some disturbing developments. we will break down what it all means. and the republican field of candidates is expanding, governor ron desantis and tim scott, they've got -- but can either of them take down donald trump? i'm simone sanders townsend, and i have something to say. do you hear that? it is the sound of a clock ticking, and with each passing second, your financial future is more at risk. after hitting pause on the debt ceiling negotiations for hours, negotiators for the white house and congressional republican negotiators patrick mchenry and darren gray's continued talks last night, but left without progress. we are reporting they are not expected to meet today. republican negotiators are demanding the white house cave in to some of the drastic spending cuts. now, president biden is currently in hiroshima for the g7 co

sheldon whitehouse's idea to have an appellate court of chief justice justice is an idea and justice is denied in another idea from blumenthal from connecticut is to your point every agency of the executive branch has an inspector general that inspector general's position is charged with protecting independent investigations of the i branch. during the obama destruction that inspector general and eric holder what have to do an interview. then it would go to capitol hill and testify and release it to the media and that was the way to hold accountability to the executive branch. they could similarly conduct investigations from within the branch. >> speaking of separation of powers the chief justice was invited to testify in front of the senate judiciary committee and the thus show the letter that was sent back to senator dick durbin saying mr. chairman thank you for your letter. i must decline your invitation to the testimony before the senate judiciary committee by the chief justice of bennett states is exceedingly rare and as one might expect he might have separation of powers concer

the court move to the left and you can't do that. >> and joining me now is democratic senator sheldon whitehouse, who chairs the judiciary committee subcommittee on the federal courts. senator whitehouse, welcome back to "meet the press." >> thank you. >> i want to start with -- i want to go back to 2013. you voted for, you praised harry reid's decision at the time to end the filibuster for the lower courts. it was -- i say this, i get it in the time. but looking back, considering where we are with the 50-vote threshold, is that... is that good governance? >> i think it would be better for the country if the supreme court and the nominations process had not been so heavily politicized and we were operating under what more looks like a regular order. but we saw back then that there was no amount of persuasion that could convince republicans to vote for d.c. circuit democratic nominees. and that's why harry had to do what he had to do with the clear understanding, the clear bipartisan understanding at the time that this would not move the supreme court. we carved out the supreme court on purpose.

. >> in just 60 second, the sheldon whitehouse, we'll ask what he plans to do if everything, hate to goes to hell. day four in the man hunt of the texas shooter and how long it took police to respond to their 911 calls, and he raped you. what the first person e. jean carroll says she -- who she called after the alleged attack by donald trump shared with jurors today about their conversation. we are back in 60 seconds. heir conversation we are back in 60 seconds. it's your business. it's your verizon. i think i'm ready for this. heck ya! with e*trade you're ready for anything. marriage. kids. college. kids moving back in after college. ♪ here's to getting financially ready for anything! and here's to being single and ready to mingle. who's ready to cha-cha?! lactaid is 100% real milk, just without the lactose. tastes great in our iced coffees too. which makes waking up at 5 a.m. to milk the cows a little easier. (moo) mabel says for you, it's more like 5:15. man: mom, really? (vo) verizon small business days are back. april 27th through may 3rd. it's more like 5:15. get a free tech ch

so one of the bills by senator sheldon whitehouse, for example, would create a complaint system wherecould send in complaints that a supreme court justice was undermining the integrity of the court for whatever reason. it's not really defined, that seems like a pretty broad phase to -- phrase to me. and then those complaints would get vetted and go to the a panel of circuit court judges for review. it seems to me almost like an open-ended rolling impeachment process at -- paul: it'd be open political season on the court anytime they issued an opinion that people didn't like. >> and similar to the recusal system. so the white house bill has a forced, congressionally-enforced recusal rules. republican witnesses were saying that basically what you'd end up in any real big case was pre-litigation over which of the justices are allowed to hear the case. and i don't think that's really a way to, you know, prove the integrity of the court. paul: dan, the language that sheldon whitehouse used, the supreme court has proven it can't police itself. police? why should we be policing the supreme c

tonight, senator sheldon whitehouse on the ongoing cover-up in plain view, and what democrats will do about it. then, the former president's sworn testimony in his civil rape trial is released to the public. >> when you're a star they let you do it. >> historically that's true with stars. >> and breaking news from fulton county. >> this is not a game at all. >> eight fake electors have cut a deal with prosecutors. what it means for the criminal investigation of trump world in georgia. when all in starts, right now. good evening from new york. i'm chris hayes. we begin tonight with a question. just how much money has secretly flowed from right-wing donors and interest into the household and supreme court justice clarence thomas? and the reason we have to ask there's the stunning series of revelations one after another after another after another that we have seen in the last few weeks. the latest came just last night when we learned that the conservative activist leonard leo was quietly directing money towards an organization run by clarence thomas's wife, ginni. now we have covered le

joining us now, democratic senator sheldon whitehouse from wyoming, a you dish subcommittee member. see you. there's a lot of criticism of justice thomas, some of justice roberts, but all nine justices, all nine seem to be on the same page they do not need increased oversight, including the three liberal justices. if you can't get them to align with you on the issue of oversight, what's the next step? >> well, first of all, let's not be so sure about that because one justice has said publicly the court has tried to put together an et ibs code together for itself in the past and it hasn't succeeded yet. it's fair to say none of the nine justices want it and haven't sorted it out yet. the other judges are getting quite fed up with the supreme court justices' behavior because they do have to live under ethics code and ethics processes they know would not permit the kind of behavior that the supreme court is both engaged in and trying to justify. so there's also going to be pressure from within the rest of the federal judiciary to clean up this mess. if push comes to shove, we've got le

i will be joined by senator sheldon whitehouse. decisions about their own bodies. from courts to state legislators, some disturbing developments. we will break down what it all means. and the republican field of candidates is expanding, governor

spoke with of the judiciary committee members and former ag's, richard blumenthal and senator sheldon whitehouse both of them again stressing that they would like to see something done on a bipartisan level but also leaving the room open to see if something could get it done. >> you also talked with senator cruz who is saying as far as arguments go or constitutional arguments there are some questions. >> i spoke with senator cruz who argued in front of the supreme court nine times and he said he doesn't see it as a viable argument but also kind of stressed his thoughts that the white house wouldn't make such a move and a similarly we found a show the secretary was also pushing back on the idea that that would be an option and similarly i spoke with progressives, senator bernie sanders into senator elizabeth warren who kind of stressed let's have a new wait and see before really talking about that as an option. >> one of the other things possibly the possibility that it could haveve as a short-term extension is there an appetite for that? >> we are not seeing a ton of appetite for that. they are

sheldon whitehouse, thank you for spending time on it with us.tive executive judicial demand justice. claire is still was. let me read more of this harlan crow interview. it is extraordinary. if he had a press person, i used to be the press person. i won't throw the press person under -- well, yeah, he will. this is terrible press work also. quote, the deal over thomas' mother's house seemed to baffle crow completely. he said he considers thomas' rise the kind of american story you dream about. he asked thomas if he could buy the house at fair market value and develop the area with eventually opening the house to the public to honor him. quote, i'm a real estate guy crow added. thomas's mother received an estate part of the transaction which is very common in real estate deals involving the elderly. an insignificant expense compared to the cost of the deal as a whole. only rich people describe the price of a house as insignificant and say it's common for the elderly and say i'm a real estate guy. and the bigger problem around all of this is they

senator sheldon whitehouse. >> measure play. >> thank you so much., how the right wing has moved its all out assault on voting rights a little bit under the radar. there's brand new reporting in "the new york times" about how gop efforts to restrict the right to vote may not be quite as visible, but they are very much ongoing and here to stay. the reporter who broke that story will be our guest, along with our friend top democratic voting rights attorney marc elias. don't go anywhere. (cecily) so you got an awesome network... (seth) and when i switched, i got to choose the phone i wanted. for free. not bragging. (cecily) you're bragging. (neighbor) oh, he's bragging. (seth) who, me? never. oh, excuse me. hello, your royal highness, sir... (cecily) okay, that's a brag. (seth) hey, mom. i gotta call you back. (vo) visit your verizon store during our spring savings event and choose the phone you want, like the incredible iphone 14, on us. verizon we've stripped all over this mountain. i love it when he strips for me. i strip on sick days. breathe right

would like to see senator sherrod brown of ohio, senator chris coons of delaware, or senator sheldon whitehouse of rhode island. i think any one of those three sitting senators would make an excellent candidate for the democratic party, allne right. donald with three senators on his mind. let's hear from marjorie now. marjorie in silver spring, maryland, on the biden line. >> caller: yes, i would definitely vote for president biden. he's had the experience. he's had the talent with foreign countries, with leaders. and he's honest. he doesn't tell lies like president trump. so my vote would definitely go for president biden. >> host: appreciate that call, marjorie.. next up we have wrought in kentucky. you say you are voting for trump. two that's correct. i will gladly vote for president trump again and just had to ask marjorie, i mean, if she doesn't think resident biden lies, i can't get that but hey everyone is entitled to their opinion. but i just think president trump he was the best president that we had in my lifetime. i am 52 and you think he's the best president we've had. look at our e

another person on this subject for many years is the chairman of the court subcommittee, sheldon whitehouse of rhode island. i recognize him now. sen. whitehouse: thank you, chairman. we are here because the supreme court is playing out of bounds of the ethics rules for federal judges. justices read the ethics rules in unique and eccentric ways, and when they are cut out of bounds, they refused to allow any investigation of the facts. the personal hospitality problems i've been pursuing began with justice scalia, who took more than seven doesn't undisclosed hunting vacations. most people know of two, one where he was with dick cheney, and the one where he died. there were 70-plus more. it was systematized. an intermediary with the owner of resort extending to scalia a personal invitation to the resort. even when the owner was someone he had never met, scalia treated as personal hospitality because of the personal invitation, and failed to disclose the vacations. gun industry advocates and republican political figures often tagged along. no reading of personal hospitality would cover this, b

this is rhode island democrat sheldon whitehouse. >> the supreme court is playing out abounds of thethics rules for federal judges. justices read the ethics rules in unique and eccentric ways and when they are cut out of bounds, they refused to allow any investigation of the facts. amy: ranking republican senator lindsey graham accused democrats of "selective outrage" and going after the court due to its conservative supermajority. no justices were at the hearing after chief justice john roberts declined committee chair dick durbin's invitation to testify last week. we'll have more on this story after headlines. a you in -- u.n. human rights panel is urging the united states government to immediately release long-term guantÁnamo prisoner abu zubaydah, warning it could constitute as crimes against humanity. findings were released right after reviewing several guantÁnamo cases over the past 15 years. the panel's report also condemned afghanistan, thailand, poland, morocco, and lil wayne yeah abu zubaydah was held at several black sites before being transferred for being "jointly respon

i did not realize that sheldon whitehouse and hank johnson in the house are sending letters to the judicialgnited states, which is an agency charged with administering the courts to refer thomas to the a. g. to merrick garland for investigation. merrick garland has a lot on his plate. what can be done to fix this? >> i've called on garland to appoint a special counsel. >> much like richard nixon did for abe fortas. >> there you go. i think that's a few things. one, there needs to be a stark response no. the reason i say that is thompson not be on the supreme court for a long time. his accolades will be on the supreme court well into the -- >> why don't you think he'll be on the court for a long time? >> just because of his age. >> you don't think he won't resign? >> of course. not i think the cause of him to resign and in peach our it was the time, sorry. i think we need to send a strong message, whether that be investigated by special counsel, investigation by the judiciary committee, but that she in the house, investigation by the judicial conference,, fighting thomas under the law for ev

joining me now is one of the members of the jet is to chip -- from rhode island, sheldon whitehouse.ator, thank you for being with us. the supreme court has long been left to police themselves when it comes to these sorts of ethics questions. you had said that that's not enough. what are the options here? how do you balance the independents of the court with the idea that this branch is not above reproach? t this branch is>> well first og the core police itself has absolutely nothing to do with its independence. it can be independent all day long, and still police itself. what they have done is simply refused to please apply the judicial code of ethics to themselves. which is a very, very convenient decision. but it's one that their behavior shows is no longer tenable. so they have to clean up the mass, and they have to come up with an effective way of having real ethics procedures within the supreme court. >> so senator, what are some of that the options here, particularly on your committee, i mean some people have flirted with the idea of subpoena so they can appear in front of you

that's why sheldon whitehouse and hank johnson and and congressman jerry nadler are leading the serve judicial code of ethics that applies to the supreme court. it would create rules for this supreme court to abide by, it would create an independent body within the judiciary to investigate the code of ethics. it would create disclosure requirements. all of this is essential right now to the legitimacy of the supreme court. what i think the supreme court does not recognize, that chief justice who sent a letter to the senate judiciary committee this past week, essentially, reiterating that they continue to abide by ethics rules, is that the american people don't believe that anymore, as these conflicts of interests and clear corruption trickles out of the court as it relates to clarence thomas and leonard leo and harlan crow. and all of these very conservative people who have been funneling money to clarence thomas and his family. and hoping to get favorable rulings in response. which justice thomas has delivered. that is not okay, and it is time that the supreme court does something, a

judiciary hearing this week on ethics in the supreme court, or lack thereof, democratic senator sheldon whitehouseeonard leo this way. >> this guy doesn't have business before the court. his business is the court. >> according to "the washington post," in january 2012, leonard leo told conservative pollster kellyanne conway to bill the judicial education project nonprofit. leo then instructed conway to give ginni thomas another $25,000, and the documents show he emphasized there should be no mention of ginni thomas in any paperwork. never good when someone tells you not to put something in writing and then puts it in writing. leo told "the post," quote, it is no secret that ginni thomas has a long history of working on issues in the conservative movement. when asked why he wanted to keep ginni thomas' name off the paperwork, leonard leo told "the post," quote, knowing how disrespectful, malicious, and gossipy people can be, i have always tried to protect the privacy of justice thomas and ginni, unquote. apparently the belief that transparency and accountability for the highest court in the land ar

let me welcome senator sheldon whitehouse. thank you all. i think the routine here if i talk for about 10 minutes, then we have question and answers. so let me start by thanking you for coming out. and thank you for the interest in this book. i worked pretty hard on it. as if you get around to reading it, you'll see, it's pretty dense stuff. i would describe it as more or less equal parts textbook if that doesn't scare you off detective story and warning flare. and as we talk about it there are two concepts i want to put in your mind. first because they'll help illuminate rest of the conversation. the first is something called agency capture or regular battery capture, which is a phenomenon that goes way back into our history. and you might think of some of the early episodes of agency capture or regulatory capture as, say, railroad barons running the railroad that sets the rates for their railroads and and there's been a lot of literature about it, both in the economic field, in the field of administrative law. so have that thought in mind?

so sheldon whitehouse's idea to have a panel of the appellate court chief justices, that is one idea.g blumenthal, senator from connecticut, he makes a good point that every agency in the executive branch has something called an inspector general, and opposition is in charge of conducting independent investigations of the branch in which they serve. i used to work in the justice department and we had an inspector general. eric holder would have to do an interview and issue a report. the inspector general would. and then he would go to capitol hill and testify about the report and release into the media. that was a way to impose accountability on the executive branch from within. the idea is to have an inspector general for the judicial branch and they can conduct similar investigations. host: speaking of separation of powers, the chief justice was invited to testify in front of the senate judiciary committee. i will show the letter that was sent back to chairman dick durbin saying, dear mr. chairman, thank you for your letter, i must respectfully decline your invitation. he says testi

the way that sheldon whitehouse talks about it is he says you know i hope that my republicans my republican friends will embrace something. it will warm the cockles of their hearts if it if it hurts china. so they're trying i mean they're trying to find you know the politics of this are very very interesting. because you'll see this you know when you start to see these lawsuits when you start to see these numbers when you start to see this making its way towards the supreme court. we will start to feel the impacts of these policies that are driven by these numbers um and i think we'll start to see some new policies emerging. as this number gets done and gets worked through. one final note. absolutely this could become part of the 2024 campaign. at the moment is not can become a we do not have a law that incorporates it. we do not have a statute. the number, the social cost of carbon right now i do not think is going to be embedded or the strength of regulation. even if it does the desantis or second trump administration can come in and undo it not right away but i mean it would if trump bro

we got a chance to ask senator sheldon whitehouse about your column yesterday.oday. but let me show you his reaction to your column. >> i think the court press also kind of prides itself on access and has not taken a hard look. there's been nothing like the kind of inquiry made that should have been into the dark money spending behind the advertisements that put the justices on the court, where the federalist society got its list now we know the federal itself society didn't create the list. what billionaires cooked up the list. the questions go on and on. >> he specifically agreed with what you wrote. for people that don't understand how the press corps attached to the white house and how the president works, it's seven days a week, whether the president is on family vacation or working in the white house. it's obviously the same in washington, an organized congressional press corps some reporters also with more access to a senator or representative in their districts or in their states. the supreme court has nothing of the kind and it's a structural change tha

honor to serve alongside my colleagues in the rhode island delegation, senators jack reed and sheldon whitehouse, congressman jim langevin and seth magaziner. though our delegation may not be small, we never stopped from delivering big for our state. your collaboration and friendship have meant the world to me. one of the hardest parts of leaving this job is leaving behind so many dear, dear friends. hakeem, joe, teri, jamie, pramila, robin, frederica, bill, mark, lucy, veronica, maxine, melanie, eric, deborah, grace, and the list goes on and on. we've been through so much together over the years and i will always cherish our friendship. i know that we'll continue to stay close even after i leave washington. let me say a special word about two colleagues, speaker emrita nancy pelosi and congresswoman rosa delauro. i first came to know nancy while mayor of providence. i will remain in awe of her genius and her extraordinary leadership and all the kindness she's shown me over the years. she's been a powerful ally in all of my biggest priorities during my time in congress. thank you, speaker pelosi

my colleague, senator sheldon whitehouse, dedicated a major part of his career to this issue of ethical standards before the supreme court. the notion we just invented this because of unhappiness with a recent court decision just doesn't hold up. many of us have been working on this issue for years, years before any of these decisions were handed down. there was also an argument that congress has no authority to establish standards for the supreme court. as i mentioned earlier when we had this stock disclosure law passed last year, it was embraced by the court. the court goes through some form of financial disclosure based on a law passed in 1978. and by and large, there are many ways that the congress interfaces with the supreme court, not the least of which is its budget. so we're in constant communication with the court and its operation. i believe that we clearly have the authority to establish ethical standards in law for the supreme court. the republicans to a person disagreed with it. we also had an argument made that somehow we had singled out clarence thomas, a justice on the s

. >>> later, democratic senator sheldon whitehouse lays in on the potential for e thdebt ceiling agreementoid default. "squawk box" will be right back. >> announcer: this cnbc program is sponsored by truist wealth. where we focus on person-to-person connections so you can focus on what matters most thank you! like your workplace benefits and retirement savings. with voya, considering all your financial choices together... can help you make smarter decisions. for a more confident financial future. hey, a tandem bicycle. you can't do that by yourself. voya. well planned. well invested. well protected. sfx: [alarm] every day you get to choose. do i want more? can i grow stronger? can i get better? bodyarmor lyte. more than a sports drink. >>> microsoft will skip salary increases for full-time employees this year according to the email from ceo nadella microsoft nearly doubled the budget form merit increases the budget will be in their words closer to historical averages the move including cutting 10,000 jobs which was announced in january. >>> google will embed information in images to notify

another person on this subject for many years is the chairman of the court subcommittee, sheldon whitehouse of rhode island. i recognize him now. sen. whitehouse: thank you, chairman. we are here because the supreme court is playing out of bounds of the ethics rules for federal judges. justices read the ethics rules in unique and eccentric ways, and when they are cut out of bounds, they refused to allow any investigation of the facts. the personal hospitality problems i've been pursuing began with justice scalia, who took more than seven dozen undisclosed hunting vacations. most people know of two, one where he was with dick cheney, and the one where he died. there were 70-plus more. it was systematized. an intermediary with the owner of a resort extending to scalia a personal invitation to the resort. even when the owner was someone he had never met, scalia treated as personal hospitality because of the personal invitation, and failed to disclose the vacations. gun industry advocates and republican political figures often tagged along. no reading of personal hospitality would cover this, b

sheldon whitehouse chair it is subcommittee.e the lowest standard of ethics in the federal government. >> if you look at the polls, the credibility of the supreme court is at record lows. usually whenever you talk about expanding the united states supreme court the same way it was expanded the beginning of the republic. lincoln did it. people talk about how it would undermine the supreme court. the supreme court is most politicized and certainly in my lifetime. you have people running out, laughing, making jokes about -- at federalist society meetings. taking victory laps over supreme court ruling on abortion. a guy who i think he got over a billion dollars. again, just to shape the direction of the supreme court and the coming years. where's the legitimacy in that? what do we do to bring legitimacy back to the supreme court when it is bought and paid for by a single organization? >> joe, that really is a valid question. i'm hearing it more and more. the majority on the supreme court reflects an organization. the federalist soci

sheldon joining us tonight. you know what that means, that means there is more to say about clarence thomas and harlan crow and harlan crow refusing to reveal to senator whitehouse