Harlan Crow lawyer grudgingly agrees to talk to Senate panel

Michael Bopp, lawyer for Harlan Crow—Republican megadonor and very dear and generous friend to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas—has grudgingly relented in blocking a Senate Judiciary Committee inquiry into that friendship. Bopp offered to talk to committee staff in a letter obtained by CNN, though he still insists that the committee has no business questioning the friendship between Crow and Thomas, which is one that includes the expenditure of millions of dollars’ worth of hospitality and gifts to Thomas and his family. In a series of articles, ProPublica has detailed the many favors extended by Crow to Thomas.

Bopp’s offer to respond to committee staff follows an exchange of letters between him and committee chair Sen. Dick Durbin, who initially wrote to Crow and the holding companies that own his private jet, private yacht, and Topridge Camp to find out the extent of his generosity. Bopp blew off Durbin’s initial request, claiming that the committee not only does not have “the authority to investigate Mr. Crow's personal friendship with Justice Clarence Thomas,” but, “Most importantly, Congress does not have the constitutional power to impose ethics rules and standards on the Supreme Court.”