Senate asks supreme court chief justice to testify on ethics amid Clarence Thomas revelations – live

Key events

Once they’re confirmed, supreme court justices don’t appear before Congress often. How did we get to the point where a top Democrat wants the court’s chief justice to appear before his committee? This piece from the Guardian’s Ed Pilkington answers that question:

Earlier this month, the supreme court justice Clarence Thomas put out a statement in which he addressed the storm of criticism that has engulfed him following the blockbuster ProPublica report that revealed his failure to disclose lavish gifts of luxury vacations and private-jet travel from a Texan real estate magnate.

Thomas confirmed that the Dallas billionaire and Republican mega-donor Harlan Crow and his wife Kathy were “among our dearest friends”. Thomas admitted, too, that he and his wife Ginni had “joined them on a number of family trips during the more-than-a-quarter-century we have known them”.

The justice, who is the longest-serving member of the nation’s highest court and arguably its most staunch conservative, insisted he had taken advice that “this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends” did not have to be reported under federal ethics laws. He emphasized that the friend in question “did not have business before the court”.

CBS News reports that Senate judiciary chair Richard Durbin hopes John Roberts will honor his invitation to testify before his committee, and isn’t considering sending the chief justice a subpoena:

Senate invites supreme court chief justice to testify on ethics

The Democratic chair of the Senate judiciary committee has asked chief justice John Roberts to testify on 2 May about the court’s ethics, following revelations of undisclosed links between a Republican megadonor and conservative justice Clarence Thomas.

In a letter to Roberts, judiciary committee chair Richard Durbin did not mention those reports about Thomas specifically, but noted that since he last addressed the court’s ethics in 2011 “there has been a steady stream of revelations regarding Justices falling short of the ethical standards expected of other federal judges and, indeed, of public servants generally. These problems were already apparent back in 2011, and the Court’s decade-long failure to address them has contributed to a crisis of public confidence. The status quo is no longer tenable.”

Durbin said the hearing would focus on “the ethical rules that govern the Justices of the Supreme Court and potential reforms to those rules,” while noting that the “scope of your testimony can be limited to these subjects, and that you would not be expected to answer questions from Senators regarding any other matters.”

At a press conference following the House’s passage of a measure to keep transgender athletes out of women’s sports, CNN reports speaker Kevin McCarthy made it clear he wasn’t interested in discussing conservative supreme court justice Clarence Thomas’s links to a major GOP donor:

The GOP’s offensive into so-called culture war issues – like the transgender sports ban – apparently has limits. As the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell and Lauren Gambino report, Donald Trump is unconvinced that a national abortion ban is a good idea for the party to pursue:

Donald Trump considers a federal abortion ban a losing proposal for Republicans as the party prepares to enter the first presidential election since the supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade – and is unlikely to support such a policy, according to people close to him.

The former president has told allies in recent days that his gut feeling remains leaving the matter of reproductive rights to the states – following the court’s reasoning in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization that ended 50 years of federal abortion protections.

But Trump’s crystallizing stance appears to be, in essence, a recognition that a federal abortion ban could cost him in the 2024 election should he become the Republican nominee, mainly because a majority of Americans simply do not support making abortion mostly or entirely illegal.

House passes ban on transgender athletes in women's sports

House Republicans have succeeded in passing the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, a ban on transgender athletes playing in women’s sports at schools and colleges that receive federal funding.

The bill, which attracted no Democratic support, will not make it through the Senate, but was cast by the GOP as a necessary measure to ensure fairness in sports. “Our daughters should not be forced to compete against biological men in competitive sports, which is why House Republicans took a stand for fairness and to protect the future of women’s sports from being diminished by the radical gender fluidity agenda,” Elise Stefanik, the third-ranking House Republican, said.

Democrats like House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries have condemned the bill as a “bullying” measure targeted at the transgender community:

Similar legislation has been passed by 21 Republican-controlled states, according to the Movement Advancement Project.

Senator Joe Manchin, the White House’s best frenemy. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

At some point, the Senate will have to consider legislation to raise the debt ceiling, and while Democrats may control that chamber, getting all their lawmakers on board with whatever deal is agreed to is no sure thing.

A new reminder of that dynamic just arrived this morning in the form of a statement from Joe Manchin. He represents deep-red West Virginia and, should he choose to run, faces a tough re-election battle next year. He also has proven to be a thorn in the side of the Biden administration and its priorities over the past two years.

Manchin’s statement was far from an endorsement of McCarthy’s plan, but also called on Biden to negotiate with the House speaker – something the president has refused to do, saying the debt ceiling should be increased, and fiscal reforms should be discussed separately.

Here’s what Manchin said:

America is facing a historic economic crisis brought on by an abject failure to address our exploding national debt, chronic inflation, a looming recession, and the more immediate need to raise the debt ceiling. Our elected leaders must stop with the political games, work together and negotiate a compromise. Instead, it has been more than 78 days since President Biden last met with Speaker McCarthy. This signals a deficiency of leadership, and it must change. The fact is we are long past time for our elected leaders to sit down and discuss how to solve this impending debt ceiling crisis.

While it is reasonable to sincerely disagree with any specific debt ceiling approach, we will achieve a historic default, and the economic whirlwind which follows, if President Biden continues to refuse to even negotiate a reasonable and commonsense compromise. To that end, I applaud Speaker McCarthy for putting forward a proposal that would prevent default and rein in federal spending. While I do not agree with everything proposed, the fact of the matter is that it is the only bill actually moving through Congress that would prevent default. For the sake of the country, I urge President Biden to come to the table, propose a plan for real and substantive spending cuts and deficit reduction, and negotiate now. Failing to do so may score political points with the extremes of the Democratic Party, but make no mistake, it will be the American people – and our nation – who will pay the ultimate price if partisan politics continues to define our politics and policies.”

Shifting back to the debt ceiling debate, one of the biggest problems Republicans face is getting all their lawmakers to back House leadership’s proposal to raise the limit while cutting government spending.

The GOP controls the House but only by a narrow margin, and some of its most conservative lawmakers say they won’t vote to raise the debt ceiling at all. George Santos, the Republican congressman and prolific liar, is among that group, Punchbowl News reports:

That’s not all the news there is about Donald Trump today. The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports that a top adviser to the former president is being interviewed by the special counsel tasked with getting to the bottom of his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and his possession of classified documents:

Donald Trump’s senior adviser and legal counsel Boris Epshteyn is scheduled to be interviewed on Thursday by special counsel prosecutors investigating the former president’s retention of classified-marked documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort and his role in the January 6 Capitol attack.

The investigation Epshteyn is being asked to talk about – potentially both – remains unclear, according to a person familiar with the matter who confirmed the meeting on the condition of anonymity. His lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.

But the interview, which was requested by special counsel prosecutors, marks a moment of potential peril for Trump given Epshteyn has been one of his closest advisers in recent years, with more knowledge about the former president’s legal entanglements than perhaps anyone else.

Appeals court blocks GOP subpoena to former Trump prosecutor

A federal appeals court has temporarily stayed a subpoena from the Republican-led House judiciary committee that would have compelled the deposition of Mark Pomerantz, a former prosecutor for Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg who was looking into alleged misconduct by Donald Trump.

Pomerantz left Bragg’s office in 2022, and published a book this year outlining why he believes there’s a criminal case against the former president. The House GOP subpoenaed Pomerantz following Bragg’s indictment of Trump last month on charges of allegedly falsifying business records. The prosecutor then sued the committee and its chair Jim Jordan to block the subpoena, a petition that was initially turned down by a judge before being upheld by a federal appeals court today, Politico reports.

With Republican proposal, debt limit battle begins

It’s been brewing for months, but with the release of the House Republican proposal to raise the debt ceiling yesterday, it’s safe to say that the latest skirmish in the perennial Washington standoff has officially kicked off.

There’s a lot to say about the debt ceiling, but here’s the gist: the United States, somewhat uniquely, places a legal limit on how much debt the government can take on. The US borrows continuously and that limit was reached in January, meaning everything the government does – from social security payments to the salaries of government workers – is being paid for by the cash the government has on hand. As soon as early June, by some estimates, those funds will be exhausted, meaning the US won’t be able to pay its bills. Of chief concern are the payments it must make on its outstanding debt – if American defaults on one of those, it could have major consequences for the economy.

Led by House speaker Kevin McCarthy, the Republicans yesterday unveiled the Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023, which would raise the limit through March of next year, while targeting several of Joe Biden’s priorities. The bill would block his plan to cancel some federal student loans, rescind $80bn in new funding for the Internal Revenue Service, which was meant in part to crack down on tax cheats, and make across-the-board spending cuts.

“The American people expect and deserve serious, sensible action to address our soaring national debt,” McCarthy and other House Republican leaders said in a statement announcing the bill. “Unfortunately, President Biden has avoided taking any action, even though he added $6 trillion to our nation’s debt burden in two years and caused historic inflation that continues to hurt families and small businesses. The President seems to have no interest in negotiating a responsible debt limit increase. What President Biden is demanding is irresponsible.”

Biden immediately criticized the idea, and his press secretary’s statement this morning makes clear the White House is not happy with the GOP’s starting position in what will likely be weeks of negotiating. But with the fate of the world’s largest economy in the balance, negotiating is all the two sides can do.

White House excoriates Republican debt limit proposal

Good morning, US politics blog readers. The White House apparently spent the evening at the whetstone, sharpening their rhetorical knives for use against the proposal released by the House Republicans to increase the debt ceiling while also cutting spending to a variety of Joe Biden’s priorities. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is out with a statement first thing this morning that says: “Maga House Republicans are holding the American economy hostage in order to take a hatchet to programs Americans rely on every day to make ends meet.”

With the US government expected to exhaust its cash on hand sometime in early June (a date that could change), we are surely going to be hearing a lot about this battle in the weeks to come.

That’s not all that’s happening today:

• The House will vote on GOP legislation to ban transgender athletes from women’s athletics at schools and colleges, with speaker Kevin McCarthy holding a press conference about the bill around 11.15am eastern time, after its expected passage.

• A Republican senator has introduced a motion of no confidence in homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, a frequent target of Republican ire over migrant arrivals at the southern border.

• Donald Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn is scheduled to be interviewed today by Jack Smith, the special prosecutor looking into the former president’s possession of classified documents and involvement in trying to overturn the 2020 election.