New Ginni Thomas secret pay scandal 'won't fade away' like the others: legal analyst
Reacting to new reporting that Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, was getting money from a conservative activist secretly funneled to her by former Trump White House official Kellyanne Conway, CNN's Supreme Court correspondent Joan Biskupic predicted the latest scandal will be hard for the court to ignore.
On Thursday, the Washington Post reported that Ginni Thomas, already under a cloud for her attempts to help aides to Trump overturn the 2020 presidential election results, was on the receiving end of payments from activist Leonard Leo, according to documents the newspaper had seen.
The Post report stated, "Leo, a key figure in a network of nonprofits that has worked to support the nominations of conservative judges, told Conway that he wanted her to 'give' Ginni Thomas 'another $25K,' the documents show. He emphasized that the paperwork should have 'No mention of Ginni, of course,'" before adding, "Conway’s firm, the Polling Company, sent the Judicial Education Project a $25,000 bill that day. Per Leo’s instructions, it listed the purpose as 'Supplement for Constitution Polling and Opinion Consulting,' the documents show."
Asked how the new revelations will impact the court, CNN's Biskupic said the new allegations are quite different than the reports of Texas billionaire funding Ginni Thomas and her Supreme Court justice's lavish lifestyle with gifts and expensive vacations.
In particular, she notes that money was reportedly being exchanged which could lead to a criminal investigation.
"Those instances were supposed to be reported as money that came to Clarence Thomas," she explained to host Kate Bolduan. "This instance arguably did not have to be reported in any way because right now the spouses don't have to detail their income on these forms."
"But that aside, let me just say that once again it's another issue that points up how much we don't know about wealthy interests trying to influence justices or maybe not even trying to influence justices, but raising that kind of spectre," she elaborated. "And that's why there's so much pressure for the justices to adopt a formal code of ethics rather than as the justices hope this all fades away. I don't think this time, Kate, this is going to fade away."
CNN 05 05 2023 09 19 14 youtu.be