Clarence Thomas scandal deepens with report of rightwing activist’s secret payments to wife

Rightwing judicial activist Leonard Leo made secret payments to Clarence Thomas’s wife, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, ten years ago and emphasized “No mention of Ginni” on the documents, according to a new Washington Post investigation.

In January 2012, Leo directed GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway to bill the Judicial Education Project, a non-profit group he advises. He then ordered that money be used to pay Ginni Thomas, telling Conway that he wanted to “give” Thomas “another 25k”.

“No mention of Ginni, of course,” Leo told Conway, who later became a senior adviser to Donald Trump, the Post reports. The subsequent bill sent to the JEP by Conway’s firm, the Polling Company, titled the purpose as “Supplement for Constitution Polling and Opinion Consulting”, according to documents reviewed by the Post.

Later that year, the JEP filed an amicus brief in a case that challenged a civil rights law that sought to protect minority voters. In a 5-to-4 majority which Clarence Thomas was part of, the supreme court stripped away a formula in the Voting Rights Act that determined which states had to get federal permission before altering their voting rules and procedures.

Following the Post’s revelations about the secret payments, Leo defended himself, telling the outlet:

“It is no secret that Ginni Thomas has a long history of working on issues within the conservative movement, and part of that work has involved gauging public attitudes and sentiment. The work she did here did not involve anything connected with either the Court’s business or with other legal issues…

As an advisor to JEP I have long been supportive of its opinion research relating to limited government, and The Polling Company, along with Ginni Thomas’s help, has been an invaluable resource for gauging public attitudes…

Knowing how disrespectful, malicious and gossipy people can be, I have always tried to protect the privacy of Justice Thomas and Ginni.”

The investigation comes amid a handful of reports in recent weeks surrounding Clarence Thomas, who received luxury gifts, travel and tuition payments from the GOP billionaire donor Harlan Crow without publicly disclosing them. He has since faced a slew of impeachment calls.

In response to the reports, Democrats have been calling for investigations into Clarence Thomas and for tighter ethics standards for the supreme court justices, which Republicans have condemned as an “assault … well beyond ethics … [and] about trying to delegitimize a conservative court”.

Meanwhile Leo himself has been accused of illegally misusing $73m from non-profit groups and diverting money to his businesses, according to a complaint from the non-profit watchdog organization, Campaign for Accountability.