{"id":1982557,"date":"2023-07-25T18:39:01","date_gmt":"2023-07-25T22:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federalist-societys-leonard-leo-snubs-senate-democrats-supreme-court-records-request\/"},"modified":"2023-07-25T18:41:05","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T22:41:05","slug":"federalist-societys-leonard-leo-snubs-senate-democrats-supreme-court-records-request","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federalist-societys-leonard-leo-snubs-senate-democrats-supreme-court-records-request\/","title":{"rendered":"Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society rejects Senate Democrats&#8217; SCOTUS records plea."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffederalist-societys-leonard-leo-snubs-senate-democrats-supreme-court-records-request%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1982557&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Conservative Legal Activist \u200cLeonard Leo Refuses to\u2064 Disclose Details\u200c on Supreme Court Justices<\/h2>\n<p>Conservative legal activist Leonard Leo has \u200cdeclined to provide information regarding any travel, gifts, or payments involving Supreme Court justices. Instead, he has \u200ccriticized the request from Senate Judiciary Committee\u2064 Democrats \u2063as &#8220;political \u2064retaliation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Leo was given a Tuesday deadline to submit documents to Democratic \u2064Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Dick Durbin \u2062regarding any financial relationships he may have had with justices. However, Leo&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/our-country-is-slipping-pastor-whose-church-was-locked-by-police-warns-of-growing-state-tyranny\/\" title=\"\u2018Our Country Is Slipping\u2019: Pastor Whose Church Was Locked By Police Warns Of Growing State Tyranny\">legal counsel argued<\/a> that the committee&#8217;s inquiry\u200d goes beyond constitutional limits and\u200b is an attempt to vilify him for his lawful public advocacy.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;Your investigation of Mr. Leo infringes two\u2064 provisions of the \u2064Bill of \u2064Rights,&#8221; \u2064an attorney for Leo wrote in a letter to Whitehouse and Durbin.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Whitehouse and Durbin had \u2062previously sent a letter to Leo and billionaires Paul Singer and Robin Arkley II, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/conservative-attorneys-general-investigate-six-major-banks-for-wokeness\/\" title=\"Conservative Attorneys General Investigate Six Major Banks For Wokeness\">requesting information related<\/a> to a ProPublica report that Justice Samuel Alito had accepted a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/justice-samuel-alito-accepted-luxury-vacation-from-billionaire-with-cases-before-supreme-court-report\/\" title=\"Justice Samuel Alito reportedly accepted luxury vacation from billionaire with cases before Supreme Court.\">luxury fishing trip<\/a> in 2008 without disclosing it. Leo was allegedly involved in organizing the trip.<\/p>\n<p>The lawmakers demanded an itemized list of gifts and payments from Leo or associated groups, dating back several years and involving any Supreme Court justices he is associated with.<\/p>\n<h3>Creating Reliable Ethics Guardrails<\/h3>\n<p>In a \u200bjoint statement on July 12, Whitehouse and Durbin expressed their concerns about the ethics \u2063crises\u2064 surrounding the Supreme Court and the lack\u2062 of action from\u2063 Chief Justice Roberts. They emphasized the\u200b need for\u2062 Congress to investigate \u200dand create\u200b reliable ethics \u2064guardrails at the Court.<\/p>\n<p>An attorney for Leo, who is co-chairman of the Federalist \u2062Society, argued that\u2062 the request is a form of political retaliation and violates the First Amendment. The attorney also pointed out that the investigation lacks a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-can-have-access-to-only-some-of-trumps-financial-records-judge-rules\/\" title=\"Democrats Can Have Access To Only Some Of Trump\u2019s Financial Records, Judge Rules\">valid legislative purpose<\/a> and highlighted examples \u200bof Democratic-appointed justices accepting lavish trips and funds from undisclosed donors.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s hard \u200cto conclude that the \u200ddisparate treatment to which\u200d Mr. Leo is being subjected is\u2064 the result of anything other \u2064than sheer vindictiveness\u200d motivated by politics,&#8221;\u200b the attorney wrote.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The Federalist Society has faced criticism from liberals for its involvement in advising former\u2064 President Donald Trump&#8217;s nominations of Justices Neil Gorsuch, \u200bBrett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.<\/p>\n<p>ProPublica&#8217;s reporting \u2062on the justices \u200bbegan earlier this year with the \u2063revelation \u2064that Justice Clarence Thomas had failed to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federalist-societys-leonard-leo-snubs-senate-democrats-supreme-court-records-request\/\" title=\"Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society rejects Senate Democrats' SCOTUS records plea.\">disclose multiple \u2064trips financed<\/a> by\u200b wealthy GOP \u200bmegadonor Harlan Crow.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the \u2063controversy, Leo and Alito have defended themselves against the allegations, with Leo \u2064stating that the fishing trip was not meant to be kept secret.<\/p>\n<p>The\u200b allegations of impropriety within the Supreme Court have led to new litigation from Whitehouse, aiming to create a binding code of ethics.\u200d However, the bill is unlikely to become law due to the Republican majority in the House.<\/p>\n<p>The Washington Examiner has reached out to Durbin and Whitehouse\u2062 for a response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Conservative activist Leonard Leo refused to disclose travel, gifts, or payments related to Supreme Court justices, citing Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats&#8217; request as &#8220;political retaliation.&#8221; Leo missed the Tuesday deadline to submit documents to Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Dick Durbin regarding his financial associations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1982558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1982557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1982557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1982557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1982557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1982558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1982557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1982557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1982557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}