US Supreme Courtroom Justice Clarence Thomas’s spouse Ginni accepted tens of 1000’s of {dollars} from Leonard Leo, the president of a conservative authorized group often known as the Federalist Society, for consulting work over a decade in the past, in keeping with a brand new report from the Washington Submit. The report is the most recent in a sequence of revelations relating to the Thomases and alleged monetary improprieties.
Between June 2011 and June 2012, Leo paid Ginni’s consulting agency a minimum of $80,000. Leo relied upon Kellyanne Conway, former advisor to President Donald Trump and on the time a Republican get together pollster, to facilitate transactions between Leo’s Judicial Training Challenge and Ginni’s Liberty Consulting. Paperwork reveal that Leo particularly requested that the transactions make “no point out of Ginni.” As an alternative, the paperwork dealt with by Conway’s Polling Firm listed the aim of the funds as “Complement for Structure Polling and Opinion Consulting.”
In December 2012, the Judicial Training Challenge filed an amicus brief in a case pending earlier than the US Supreme Courtroom often known as Shelby County v. Holder. The courtroom granted the case, which challenged a portion of the landmark Voting Rights Act, overview in November 2012. In line with the Washington Submit’s reporting, paperwork revealed that Leo and Ginni’s relationship seemingly persevered by means of the tip of 2012. Paperwork from the Polling Firm reveal that the Judicial Training Challenge was to pay Liberty Consulting an extra $20,000 between June 2012 and December 2012.
In response to the Washington Submit’s reporting, Leo stated:
It’s no secret that Ginni Thomas has a protracted historical past of engaged on points inside the conservative motion, and a part of that work has concerned gauging public attitudes and sentiment. The work she did right here didn’t contain something related with both the Courtroom’s enterprise or with different authorized points.
Neither the Thomases nor Conway responded to a request for remark from the Washington Submit.
In current weeks, reporting from ProPublica revealed that Justice didn’t disclose 1000’s of {dollars} in private gifts from conservative donor Harlan Crow. Among the many reported presents are 1000’s of {dollars} in tuition payments for Thomas’s great-nephew, non-public flights, holidays and yacht journeys.
Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee Dick Durbin (D-IL) said of the current revelations, “The cumulative proof of Justice Thomas’ monetary connections with Harlan Crow and Leonard Leo does a disservice to the Courtroom–and exposes the hazards of its longstanding moral vacuum.” He continued, “It comes down to 1 query: will the Chief Justice lastly say sufficient and save the repute of his Courtroom?”
Whereas different branches of the federal authorities and decrease federal courts are sure by codes of ethics, the US Supreme Courtroom is essentially left to police itself. An issue delivered to mild in 2019 by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Elena Kagan.
