Yahoo News Clarence Thomas' Wife Ginni Accepted Thousands in Payments from Judicial Activist: Report
Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, accepted thousands of dollars in secret payments from a right-wing judicial activist, according to a new report
Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, accepted thousands of dollars in secret payments from a right-wing judicial activist — who specifically emphasized that her name be kept off the documents reporting the payments — according to a new report.
The Washington Post reports that Ginni, 65, was on the receiving end of payments from activist Leonard Leo, who in 2012 allegedly directed GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway to “give” Ginni “another 25k," emphasizing "No mention of Ginni” on the documents reviewed by the Post.
According to the outlet, Conway's firm, the Polling Company, paid Ginni's firm, the Judicial Education Project, $80,000 between June 2011 and June 2012 — with another $20,000 expected before the end of 2012.
Leo — the former vice president of The Federalist Society who has led campaigns to support the nominations of conservative justices including Thomas, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh — told the Post in a statement that the work Ginni did for him "involved gauging public attitudes and sentiment."
Conway and the Thomases did not respond to the Post's requests for comment.
The Post report comes in the wake of reporting by ProPublica, which last month detailed Clarence Thomas' friendly relationship with GOP mega-donor Harlan Crow, which came with luxury trips in addition to real estate deals and tuition for a child he raised.
Among those vacations, ProPublica reported, were annual week-long retreats to Crow's private resort in the Adirondacks, vacations at Crow's ranch in East Texas, and a nine-day trip that Thomas and his wife took to Indonesia in 2019 — complete with island-hopping aboard super-yachts and private jets.
The outlet also reported on the real estate transactions, which reportedly total $133,363 and included a single-story home and two vacant lots purchased by Crow and previously co-owned by Thomas, his mother and the family of Thomas' late brother. The home was being lived in by Thomas' elderly mother and, according to the outlet, underwent costly renovations after it was purchased by Crow.
Ginni Thomas has made headlines in recent months, after the U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riots obtained 29 texts between she and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. In the messages, which were reported by the Post and CBS News, Ginni beseeched Meadows to do what he could to keep Trump in power, despite Biden's win.
Three days after the election, for instance, Ginni wrote to Meadows: "Do not concede. It takes time for the army who is gathering for his back."
Of her text messages with Meadows, Ginni later told the committee she came to regret "the tone and content," saying, "it was an emotional time, and I was texting with a friend who I had known a long time. So I really find my language imprudent and my choices of sending the context of these emails unfortunate."
Emails obtained by the committee also showed that Ginni was in contact with conservative attorney John Eastman, a central figure in the investigation who had written a detailed plan to attempt to persuade then-Vice President Mike Pence to throw out the 2020 election results on Jan. 6.
The Washington Post also reported how, in the wake of the election, Ginni "sent identical emails to 20 members of the Arizona House and seven Arizona state senators" — more than half of the Republican members of the state legislature. In her message, she told lawmakers to "stand strong in the face of political and media pressure" and "ensure that a clean slate of Electors is chosen."
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