🚨 HISTORY OF ETHICAL LAPSES INVOLVING HARLAN CROW, LEONARD LEO🚨

For years, Harlan Crow & Leonard Leo have gained private access to SCOTUS justices for themselves and friends.

Private planes, luxury resorts, lavish gifts… it’s damning. And why we’re investigating.

THREAD ⬇️ 2008 – Leonard Leo organized private jet travel for Justice Alito to Alaska for a luxury fishing trip.

Justice Alito did not include any of this on his financial disclosures. propublica.org/article/samuel…

The 150 lifetime judges confirmed under President Biden bring the demographic and professional diversity reflective of America to the bench.

Take a look. ⬇️ We’ve confirmed more Black women to the federal circuit courts than all prior Presidents combined.

We’ve confirmed the first-ever Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court: Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Senator Feinstein was the first woman to ever serve as Chair or Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Her accomplishments, her kind heart, and her legacy will impact our federal judiciary and our nation forever.

Take a moment, and appreciate her legacy. ⬇️ Dianne led the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.

She worked with @SenatorDurbin, @SenJoniErnst, and @LisaMurkowski to reach consensus.

It strengthened a lifeline for many survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence.

Here’s the road map for Supreme Court ethics reform.

The Chief Justice could adopt an ethical code of conduct today. But he hasn’t.

If the Supreme Court doesn’t act, Congress must. We’ve encouraged the Court to adopt a code of ethics for over a decade, spanning multiple administrations and much of the Roberts Court.

Despite astonishing revelations, he has so far refused to take meaningful steps to restore public confidence in the Court.

NEW: the Biden-Harris administration just announced a multi-year plan of action to support successful reentry for incarcerated people.

This visionary plan will help provide life-changing second chances.

HERE are the highlights. 🧵 The admin’s Alternatives, Rehabilitation, and Reentry Strategic Plan is all-encompassing.

It’s an all-options approach across government to strengthen public safety, improve rehabilitation, and support successful reentry.

It’s a response that meets the importance of the work.

THREAD: Firearm-related fatalities are a leading cause of line-of-duty deaths—a threat that's only become worse with the proliferation of assault weapons.

Here's just some of the law enforcement leaders calling on Congress to do more to address the threat of gun violence ⬇️ “I have seen the devastating consequences [that] unchecked gun violence can have on the communities we serve – gun violence that could have been curbed by meaningful action by Congress.” – East Baton Rouge County Sheriff's Office Captain Frederick Thomas cnn.com/2022/06/16/pol…

MUST-READ: The fall of Roe didn't happen overnight. It's the result of a decades-long effort by extreme anti-abortion lawmakers to peddle misinformation and pass laws to chip away our rights.

HERE is how Republican lawmakers & judges have been mobilizing for a post-Roe America⬇️ Just hours after SCOTUS overturned Roe, ARKANSAS Attorney General Leslie Rutledge confirmed that abortion is now immediately illegal. AR is one of 13 states with “trigger bans” which will prohibit abortion within 30 days of Roe's fall—several of which took effect the day of.

COMING SOON: Former acting AG Jeffrey Rosen testifies alongside two other former DOJ officials, Rich Donoghue and Steve Engel, on information uncovered in this Committee's October 2021 investigative report.

Here's what you need to know before the upcoming #January6thHearings ⬇️ Last year, this Committee interviewed Rosen, Donoghue, and former US Attorney BJay Pak as a part of our tandem #January6th investigation. Their testimony makes clear that DOJ repeatedly told Trump that the stolen election claims he was peddling were false. judiciary.senate.gov/subverting-jus…

THIS MORNING 🚨 former U.S. Attorney BJay Pak testifies in the #January6thCommitteeHearings.

This Committee was the first to interview Pak in Summer 2021 about the Big Lie and false claims of election fraud in Georgia.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW before today's hearing ➡️ On December 3, 2020, Rudy Giuliani made a variety of false claims at a GA Senate subcommittee hearing, including claiming a video showed that election workers at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena had tabulated suitcases full of illegal ballots they had pulled from underneath a table.

MUST READ: As the #January6thCommitteeHearings begin, get caught up on what the Senate Judiciary Committee investigation has uncovered thus far.

WHAT WE FOUND in our investigation into former President Trump’s campaign to pressure DOJ to overturn the 2020 Election.

⬇️⬇️⬇️ On 1/22/21, @ktbenner reported that Acting AAG Jeffrey Clark sought to involve DOJ in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results & plotted with then-President Trump to oust Acting AG Jeffrey Rosen, who reportedly refused Trump’s demands. /1 nytimes.com/2021/01/22/us/…

TONIGHT, the #January6thCommitteeHearings begin in the House.

On the Senate side, this Committee has worked in tandem to investigate the events leading up to January 6, 2021, including the involvement of the President and House Republicans.

⬇️ WHAT WE FOUND ⬇️ In October, following the first 8 months of our investigation, Chair @SenatorDurbin released new testimony and a majority staff report entitled "Subverting Justice: How the Former President and his Allies Pressured DOJ to Overturn the 2020 Election." judiciary.senate.gov/press/dem/rele…

Last year, Simone Biles and other gymnasts testified before this Committee during a hearing on the FBI's dereliction of duty in the Nassar case. It's obvious that the agents were not only negligent, but did their best to cover up what had happened—and that is inexcusable.

https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1534492456250753024

"How much is a little girl worth? It truly feels like the FBI turned a blind eye to us."

ICYMI: Olympic champion Simone Biles first testified to Congress in front of this Committee last September, telling her story of abuse at the hands of Larry Nassar.

https://twitter.com/JudiciaryDems/status/1438188369092153348?s=20&t=PxnxwUkBUFlF8NKpehftgw

The National Republican Senatorial Committee circulated talking points insisting that Republicans aren't pushing toward a total ban on abortion, nor infringing on other privacy rights like contraception.

HERE is the truth about what's happening in red state gov'ts RIGHT NOW ⬇️ ARKANSAS: If Roe is overturned, the state has a 2019 “trigger law” that will immediately ban abortions within the state except to save the life of the mother. The state's AG affirmed that this ban would take effect immediately. arkansasonline.com/news/2022/may/…

Let's get right to it: Senator Cruz and others who spoke on the floor today are wrong... yet again.

Here's why ⬇️ 1. Judge Jackson provided documents totaling 12,000 pages from her time on the Sentencing Commission alone. If you stacked all those pages together, you'd get a pile nearly four feet tall—and that's not counting her nearly 600 opinions. Republicans have all relevant material.

Yesterday, multiple Republican Senators made a series of inaccurate claims about Judge Jackson in an attempt to rationalize their “no” votes. If you’re going to oppose such a well-qualified & historic nominee, at least tell the truth to the American people.

HERE are the facts ⬇️ 1. Judge Jackson’s record shows that she does not engage in judicial decision-making with a specific result in mind. She’s ruled for and against plaintiffs, criminal defendants, law enforcement, unions, employers, and the Trump and Obama Administrations.

Some Republican Senators have criticized Judge Jackson for recognizing the anguish a criminal conviction can cause the defendant’s family. But judges they supported have said the same thing—and spoken with far more sympathy about child pornography offenders. (thread) Senators Cruz and Cotton voted for Judge Kurt Engelhardt’s elevation to the Fifth Circuit. This was after, as a district court judge, he sentenced a defendant found with nearly 3,000 images depicting sexual exploitation of minors. Here’s what he said at the sentencing:

Numerous Trump judicial nominees declined to label their judicial philosophy during their confirmation hearings. Republicans supported them all. Below is a just a small sample. (thread) Chief Justice Roberts stated during his confirmation hearing: “I have said I do not have an overarching judicial philosophy that I bring to every case, and I think that’s true.”

THREAD: Republicans claim Judge Jackson evaded their questions. With over 23 hours of in-person questioning and a record-breaking 1500 written questions for the record (QFRs), let's take a look at what some of these questions were ⬇️ Cruz QFR No. 102: “President Joe Biden announced that he would only consider possible nominees who are African American women. Are you aware of what criteria or qualities the office of White House Counsel used to determine whether possible nominees are women?”

The Republican Leader's opposition to the first Black woman nominated to the Supreme Court must be based on some alternative set of facts—because he said himself she is "clearly qualified."

HERE are the facts ⬇️ On court packing: The size of #SCOTUS is up to Congress, not SCOTUS itself and certainly not Judge Jackson. When then-Judge Barrett was asked about Court expansion, she herself said “That is a question left open to Congress” and that she “couldn’t opine on it.”

Important FACT CHECK re: the First Step Act—a landmark bipartisan Durbin/Grassley-led criminal justice reform bill.

Yesterday, the junior Senator from Arkansas questioned Judge Jackson about a case dealing with the First Step Act’s compassionate release provision. (thread) In that case, Judge Jackson reduced the sentence of Keith Young, finding that a significant change in the law after he was sentenced was an “extraordinary and compelling” circumstance that justified compassionate release.

"The overwhelming majority of Senators were asking appropriate questions...and respectful of the nominee before us. But for many Senators, yesterday was an opportunity to showcase talking points for the November election."

Chair @SenatorDurbin starts today with a FACT CHECK ⬇️ False claim 1: All Democrats are "soft on crime."

Durbin to Jackson: "You made a mess of their stereotype… Law enforcement is on your side because you've been on their side at critical moments... So the soft on crime charge, which leads all others, falls on its face."