Harlan Crow evades questions on financial ties to Clarence Thomas.

GOP megadonor Harlan Crow declined to answer specific questions from Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin and other Democrats on the committee about his financial ties to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Crow's lawyer argued that the committee did not have the authority to investigate Crow's personal friendship with Thomas and that the investigation was part of a larger campaign to target and intimidate the justice. Crow's relationship with Thomas has been under scrutiny since reports detailed luxury travel and other lavish gifts that Thomas received from Crow, as well as Crow's purchase of a home still lived in by the justice's mother.