GOP donor Harlan Crow rejects Senate requests for info on ties to Clarence Thomas

Washington — Texas real estate magnate and GOP donor Harlan Crow rejected requests from Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee for a full accounting of the gifts, trips and travel accommodations he has given to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, claiming the committee lacks the authority to probe Crow's relationship with the justice.

Michael Bopp, a lawyer for Crow, told Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin in a letter obtained by CBS News that the panel has not identified a "valid legislative purpose" for its investigation, and does not have the authority to conduct an ethics examination of a member of the Supreme Court.

"The Committee's stated purpose of crafting new ethics guidelines for the Supreme Court is inconsistent with its actions and the circumstances in which this investigation was launched, all of which suggest that the Committee is targeting Justice Thomas for special and unwarranted opprobrium," Bopp wrote in the letter, dated May 22.