Whenever there is an announcement of newly indicted defendants or a new DoJ investigation of wrongdoing in Washington, I frequently see comments and questions around this: What about Ginni Thomas? For well over a decade, the extremist activist wife of Justice Clarence Thomas has inserted herself into politics and our legal system in unseemly and often brazenly unethical ways. She has lobbied within the White House. She has headlined at radical, conspiracy-peddling conventions. And as the January 6 Committee unearthed, she
Okay, back to the Thomases. A review of Justice Clarence Thomas’s financial disclosure amendments by Open Secrets raised some more troubling holes in the full financial picture.
In 2011, Justice Thomas amended 20 years of filings since assuming his role on the Supreme Court. Those amended disclosures revealed that his wife was paid nearly $700,000 between 2003 and 2007 by the Heritage Foundation, another extremist group that participated in justices’ nomination processes and has filed amicus briefs and even had cases before the Supreme Court.
Since those amendments, the only income to Ginni Thomas that Clarence Thomas has reported came from her own company, Liberty Consulting. Because she is hiding the amount of her pay behind an entity, the rules don’t require the disclosure of the amount she actually received, and the sources remain hidden.
Perhaps not for long. Liberty Consulting is now the subject of congressional inquiries looking into ethics disclosures. Senate Democrats have demanded an accounting of the financial gifts that Leo and Crow have showered on the Thomases. And perhaps most importantly, a Justice Department investigation into Leo’s vast network has now been officially launched.
A key question is now this: Did Leonard Leo use millions in nonprofit contributions in a conspiracy with others to illegally enrich himself and his friends, including the Thomases? (Narrator: Duh.)