Dick Durbin blocks request to subpoena Jeffrey Epstein's flight logs, Senator Blackburn claims

During a Thursday Senate Judiciary Committee meeting, Democrat Chairman Dick Durbin forbade GOP Senators from speaking out about two Biden judicial nominees ahead of roll call votes. On the same day, Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn accused Durbin of blocking a request she had put forth to subpoena the flight logs of disgraced pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

"I think this deserves some commentary given the nature of the nominee and I'd like to ask to speak on the nomination," one senator said.

Blackburn added, "Mr. Chairman, I would also like to speak on the nomination."

Durbin replied, "I understand what you’d like to do, but I’m saying that in fairness, we’ve debated these nominees twice, I ask the clerk to call the roll."

The room erupted, with senators questioning why they weren’t allowed to speak before the roll call.

“You’re going to have a lot of consequences coming if you go down this road,” Republican Senator Tom Cotton said. “I’ve cautioned a lot of you.”

“So you’re telling us to shut up? You want us to shut up? Is that what you’re saying?" Blackburn said.

One Senator asked those who were not able to speak previously on the issue to raise their hand, adding, "We've got several folks, Mr. Chairman, who didn't have a chance to speak."

"We want to tell you again why these nominees are awful," another senator added.

"Mr. Chairman, you can't limit debate without invoking Rule four. You haven't done that," said one member, to which Durbin replied, "we have debated."

"We've, we've debated on prior occasions where we didn't have a quorum. That vote didn't count. We got people who were here now who weren't here then who’d like to speak," the senator said.

This continued as the roll call was conducted. When the clerk reached Cotton’s name, he said, "Mr. Cotton says the chairman needs to rethink his decision and let Sen. Cornyn and Sen. Blackburn speak. That’s what Mr. Cotton says so you can mark that down as my vote. Everybody over there who’s not willing to look at me or look at Dick Durbin needs to think about it as well.”

When Blackburn was called on, she replied, "I’m waiting to be heard on the nominee, I’ve requested several times to be heard on the nominee."

Cotton responded, "Now I guess Senator Durbin isn’t going to allow women to speak. I thought that was sacrosanct in your party."

“Mr. Chairman you just destroyed one of the most important committees in the United States Senate,” Senator John Cornyn said. “And you set a precedent which will be repeated. Any time one party or the other takes advantage and takes the low road it sets a precedent that will then become a norm.”

The hearing was in relation to two judicial nominees, Mustafa Taher Kasubhai and Eumi Lee.

During the same hearing, Durbin called a vote to authorize subpoenas for conservative donor Harlan Crow and Federalist Society co-chairman Leonard Leo over allegations that the two played roles in taking Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas on vacations.

The vote passed with 11 Democrats voting, and all Republicans left the room by the end of the roll call vote, according to The Hill.

"This is a sad day in the history of the prestigious Judiciary Committee and further underscores the Left’s two tiers of justice crusade. Senate Democrats have long been trying to undermine the Supreme Court and Justice Clarence Thomas, but want to ignore Justice Sotomayor allegedly using her taxpayer-funded staff to coordinate speaking engagements in exchange for selling and promoting thousands of her books. They also don’t want to have a conversation about the estate of Jeffrey Epstein to find out the names of every person who participated in Jeffrey Epstein’s human trafficking ring," Blackburn said.