'Going to get nothing done': GOP’s last-minute amendments stall subpoenas for Harlan Crow, Leonard Leo

The Senate Judiciary Committee delayed a scheduled vote on subpoenas for two far-right activists after Republicans submitted a flurry of 11th hour amendments late Wednesday night.

Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), who chairs the committee, told Politico that he still "absolutely" plans to reschedule the vote on the subpoenas for Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society and conservative billionaire Harlan Crow, but that he "ran out of time" after seeing Republicans' laundry list of amendments that would have required hours of debate and consideration. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) warned that the committee was "going to get nothing done," adding that the meeting would be "a complete sh-- show."

"We just decided that we would take on the challenge of a filing,” Senator Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) said of the amendment barrage. “I think at the end of the day, [Democrats] decided it probably wasn't worth it."

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Democrats initially announced the pending vote to subpoena Crow and Leo as part of an ethics investigation into their roles in arranging expensive vacations and perks for sitting Supreme Court justices. The Senate Judiciary Committee also planned to subpoena billionaire Robin Arkley II as part of the investigation.

Crow, for his part, was found to have personally showered Associate Justice Clarence Thomas with gifts and trips dating back decades according to a ProPublica investigation. The Guardian reported that Arkley arranged and bankrolled Associate Justice Samuel Alito's luxury vacation to Alaska in 2008. Those justices' travel records went largely undisclosed prior to those details coming to light, and anti-corruption activists are calling on Congress to impose an ethics code on the Court.

Leonard Leo is co-chairman of the board of directors for the Federalist Society, which is a conservative legal think tank with five alumni — Justices Alito, Barrett, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Thomas — currently on the Supreme Court. In a statement, Leo referred to the subpoena threat as "vile and disgusting liberal McCarthyism that seeks to destroy the Supreme Court."

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who is the Judiciary Committee's ranking member, said the committee's Democrats are "in for a fight" over the subpoenas. Sen. Graham added that the battle to subpoena Arkley, Crow and Leo comes down to "what [Republicans] would like to subpoena versus what [Democrats] would like to subpoena," suggesting that members of his party may want to seek subpoenas to investigate "what's going on in Biden world."

READ MORE: Inside the saga of Trump megadonor Leonard Leo's judicial strategy