an acceptable example because the justice insists he lost money in the transaction. how low can the court go? the question today. for their part republicans tried to portray the hearing as an attempt by democrats to smear the court. senator john kennedy returned to a line clarence thomas used in his confirmation hearing decades ago, kennedy accused democrats of a, quote, high-tech lynching, by bringing up questions swirling around thomas relationship with republican mega donor billionaire harlan crow. that defense was undermined almost completely in a statement from leading conservative intellectual former judge michael ludig, the role he played in convincing mike pence he could not and should not joe biden s electoral college victory from being certified january 6th. ludig, submitted a statement to the senate judiciary committee calling for congress to come up
code that is on par with what you have to do as a senator, on par with what people serving in the executive branch, cabinet down to staffers like i was. but the second is this these disclosure violations which the senator alleges may be violations of law. what i mean are you considering a criminal referral to the justice department to investigate that? well, again, i think there needs to be consequences, but to get to those appropriate consequences there needs to be an investigation. and so the report that s been done through the press is shows there s more than smoke there. whether it s the supreme court themselves and they re refusing to hold themselves to account or their department of justice as senator blumenthal suggests, congress has a role to play, absolutely. senator padilla, we ll stay on this story and watched the hearing and appreciate you for joining us to talk about it. thank you very much. thank you so much. melissa, i want to come back
a potential for a development in the landmark proud boys seditious conspiracy trial over that group s role in the january 6th attack on the u.s. capitol. the justice department has accused its leader enrique tarrio and four other members of the group of conspiring to keep donald trump in office, of wanting to be, quote, donald trump s army, and of, quote, thirsting for violence and organizing for action. the jury is on day four of their deliberations. today nbc news learned joors sent two notes to the judge which included detailed specific questions about the seditious conspiracy charge and what to do in the event that they can t reach a unanimous verdict. joining us from outside the courthouse is justice reporter ryan riley and former u.s. attorney and msnbc contributor glen kisher in is back.
crowe before the committee answering questions? there s a lot of people starting with harlan crow that need to answer questions. you made reference to how partisan some of the discussion in the committee was, just ask yourself this, how would republican members of the senate be reacting if the reported conduct we ve been reading about was by a justice appointed by a democratic president. it s not the new appointed justice in question. it is the conduct, whether a justice appointed by a democratic or a republican president, it s the conduct that is unacceptable. let me show you what your colleague senator blumenthal had to say about that. the public confidence in the united states supreme court has plummeted. we can go back and forth as to what cause is, but a lot of the american public are increasingly
i don t know, but among my colleagues in congress that merrick garland is supremely cautious. and has not been aggressive in bringing indictments that seem to be warranted. now, maybe in the end that will be justified, but we are worried about how long things take, because as you get closer and closer to the 2024 election, there are, you know, under sort of internal procedures at doj, indictments get put on ice. so yeah. so, if you re looking at justice and bringing people to justice, it s got to be done soon. i mean, because it doesn t get easier as we head into a republican primary calendar. claire, i want to come back to you and show you what congressman jamie raskin said about the elephant in the room, that this committee exists when i think 19 republicans who were at a meeting in the roosevelt room in the west wing of the