Global Courant 2023-05-05 07:08:38
Virginia “Ginni” Thomas at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on Feb. 23, 2017.Susan Walsh/AP
A conservative activist helped Ginni Thomas raise nearly $100,000 for advice, That reports the Washington Post.
Conservative attorney Leonard Leo reportedly made sure Ginni Thomas’s name was not on the paperwork.
Leo’s nonprofit filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court that same year.
Just over a decade ago, a conservative judicial activist helped Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomassafe consulting work that netted her nearly $100,000 — as she asked her name from the financial records office, according to a new Washington Post report.
Leonard Leo, a lawyer and conservative legal activist, told then-GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway to bill his nonprofit, Judicial Education Project, in January 2012 and give that money to Ginni Thomas, the outlet reported, citing financial documents.
That same year, Leo’s nonprofit filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in a landmark voting lawsuit in which a 5-4 majority — including Thomas — ultimately chose to strike down a section of the Voting Rights Act.
The latest scandal comes in the middle a flood of allegations of judicial misconduct against Thomas in recent weeks. A series of ProPublica reports claimed the longest-serving justice sold his childhood home to GOP mega-donor Harlan Crow without disclosing the sale and accepted decades duration – and secret – vacations from Crow.
Ginni Thomas has previously sparked controversy with her public, pro-Trump activities and other conservative activism.
The Post said documents show Leo Conway ordered Ginni to give Thomas “another $25,000” at the time, noting that the billing information “shouldn’t include any mention of Ginni, of course.”
“If you’re funneling tens of thousands of dollars to the wife of a Supreme Court justice and going out of your way to specify that her name be omitted from all documents of the transaction, that means you know you’re doing something wrong,” Sarah Lipton -Lubet, president of the Supreme Court nonprofit Take Back the Court, said in a statement shared with Insider.
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Neither Ginni Thomas nor a Supreme Court representative immediately responded to Insider’s request for comment.
Previously, SCOTUS experts have said that a major problem is the lack of enforcement of ethical standards; judges are in charge of checking themselves.
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Read the original article Business Insider
