So did Leonard Leo bribe Clarence Thomas via Kellyanne Conway & Ginni?

[Botany]

And isn't bribery illegal? This payments also happened before the Supreme Court struck down key parts
of the 1964 Voting Rights Act (or was it the Civil Rights Act?). And after that how many millions of people
were removed from voter rolls across America? And by the removal of those voters, the Electoral College,
and massive Russian rat fucking did we get President Donald Trump?

Please tell me that I'm just bat shit crazy and this is all a bad dream. Or that the DoJ is going to open up an
investigation into the bribery of C. and Ginni Thomas.



Washington Post:

Judicial activist directed fees to Clarence Thomas’s wife, urged ‘no mention of Ginni’

Conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo arranged for the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to be paid tens of thousands of dollars for consulting work just over a decade ago, specifying that her name be left off billing paperwork, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post.

In January 2012, Leo instructed the GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway to bill a nonprofit group he advises and use that money to pay Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the documents show. The same year, the nonprofit, the Judicial Education Project, filed a brief to the Supreme Court in a landmark voting rights case.

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.”

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.

In all, according to the documents, the Polling Company paid Thomas’s firm, Liberty Consulting, $80,000 between June 2011 and June 2012, and it expected to pay $20,000 more before the end of 2012. The documents reviewed by The Post do not indicate the precise nature of any work Thomas did for the Judicial Education Project or the Polling Company.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/05/04/leonard-leo-clarence-ginni-thomas-conway/

[Irish_Dem]

1. Clarence Thomas was selling his Supreme Court votes to the highest bidder.

He was angry at his low pay and thought he deserved a better lifestyle.

[dalton99a]

3. He didn't really like Walmart parking lots

[Irish_Dem]

4. Yes half a million dollar vacations are more to his liking.

[Botany]

8. Hard to pick between the two

[Irish_Dem]

9. I known, such a hard decision.

Hard to turn down that Walmart parking lot.

Even has mini snow slopes.

You could maybe go snowboarding.
Then go to the Walmart snack bar for hot chocolate.

Then catch a blue light special.

Yep I can't decide either.

[Goddessartist]

2. Absolutely!

[no_hypocrisy]

5. Every man has a price.

[machoneman]

15. Every R woman has a price! Kellyskank Spinway is in real trouble now.

[gab13by13]

6. DOJ needs to open up an investigation

Just posted a thread saying so. Not holding my breath, our AG is an institutionalist.

I have been thinking about what it means when someone comes out publicly and says he/she is an institutionalist? Shouldn't we all be institutionalists? Shouldn't we all respect the institutions of our government?

Merrick Garland is concerned that prosecuting a former president could do damage to the institution, I posit that not prosecuting Trump will do damage to the presidency and damage to our democracy and to our rule of law. I think Garland has it backwards.

[bucolic_frolic]

7. Nothing say innocence like keeping your fingerprints off the receipts!

[tanyev]

10. Is it a bribe when the recipient would have made the same decisions without it?

More of a gratuity, maybe.

[gab13by13]

11. Andrew Weissmann answered your question,

saying he would have voted that way anyway isn't a valid excuse.

[NoMoreRepugs]

18. Tips come AFTER the meal, not before.

[tanyev]

21. Right. Maybe a retainer fee, then.

[NoMoreRepugs]

33. Strong possibility.

[Farmer-Rick]

29. Yeah, sure, when the murderer pays off the judge

We all know the judge would have let him off anyway.

When the restaurant manager pays off the health inspector, we all know the health inspector would have given them a clean bill of health anyway.

When judges are bribed we all know they would have let those criminals off Scott free. Right.

Just think of Thomas J. Maloney, who was a judge in Cook County Illinois and indictment for bribery in 1991. He was eventually convicted on four counts of accepting bribes (including fixing three murder cases). He served 12 years of a 15-year prison term.

But when Supreme Court judges are bribed what do we do? Too bad Maloney wasn't in the Supreme Court. He would have gotten away with it.

[Zincwarrior]

12. Interesting

I am shocked, just shocked that there's gambling going on in this establishment!

If you paid the wife of the appraisal commissioner responsible for giving your company a zoning exemption would that be legal? Just asking...

[Botany]

14. And if your biz that wanted the zonig exemption used a 3rd party to pay off the wife of the ..

... commissioner but told that 3rd party "not to use the wife or her commissioner husband's names"
so the 3rd party paid that money not to the wife but to an organization the wife started.

[Zincwarrior]

16. Exactly

I am sure its all in the up and up.

[bpj62]

13. January 6th

The investigation of January 6th by the DOJ, Congress and investigative reporting has exposed the truly seditious and let them eat cake nature of the Republican party. It has exposed a direct link to potential corruption by members of the highest court in the land. What all of this shows us is just how badly money has corrupted the political body.

[Botany]

17. "Just how badly money has corrupted the political body."

See Citizens United.

[machoneman]

19. It's the crooked, immoral, uncaring, cheating and lying people that populate the Republican Party.

Amazing all the recent disclosures of crime at all levels and across the nation related to R politicians, staff, advisors and more. Sex crimes, FEC violations, double dealing, lying under oath and more. Their is no end to the illegal and immoral shenanigans so many R's are actually charged with and imprisoned. Yet in red states like TexASS, even the gov and his acolytates, craged with crimes, never go to trial or jail due to a totally red TX Supreme Court.

[spanone]

20. Best Supreme Court money can buy.

[gibraltar72]

22. This was about the time frame when Ginni

resigned as chair of the board for Christian Nationalist Hillsdale College, telling Larry Arnn she could get more things done from the inside. He then started shoveling money to the Thomases.

[Botany]

26. Christian Nationalist Hillsdale College is really an evil institution a friend of mine sent me .....

.... "a study" that was done with the help from and promoted by Hillsdale showing that liberal
doctors, social workers, and therapists are promoting gender re-assignment surgeries to under
age people who don't them. The study which looked to be a scientific one was just lots of made
up crap and "some people say" or "it has been reported that" and right wing buzz words or phrases.
Much of the targeting of trans people and those that support them by the GOP and outlets like Fox
News that we see now has some kind of connection to Hillsdale College. Doesn't surprise me that
Ginni Thomas has connections to Hillsdale.

[housecat]

23. It's a good day for their lies to die.

[TeamProg]

24. Holy F***!!!

LOCK THEM UP!!!

[ancianita]

25. As the Post says, bribery or attempted bribery can't be directly proven by the documents.

But these players could be legally liable through text messaging evidence of a conspiracy to bribe.

[NotASurfer]

27. Might be time to re-litigate a few things

Argue that the dissenting opinions were correct, that the decades or centuries of prior decisions were correct, and mention that one or more Justices either had conflicts of interest, or stood to benefit when they issued their decisions. See if you can get the Appeals courts to agree, and issue a ruling that counters the Supreme Court.

Either it stands, or the Supreme Court takes up the issue - and if they do, you address that last point first. Call out whoever you know now has a conflict of interest or stands to benefit and insist they recuse themselves. Use the opportunity to go after the ethical abuses. I mean, you already know the decision in that case has been bought and paid for, so shine a klieg light on it

[KPN]

34. I like it, but must admit I have no idea whether this is actually feasible and

have some vague doubts as well. But my main point is I like it and would love to see past decisions put aside and re-litigated on this basis.

[ananda]

28. Clarence might as well be wearing a FOR SALE sign.

...

[AverageOldGuy]

30. Do you have to ask?

[Effete Snob]

31. Are we supposed to pretend George Conway didn't know?

Or are his fans here going to ignore that.

[world wide wally]

32. I have always wondered how much the NRA paid the SC to get that perverted

interpretation of the Second Amendment to stand as "Law"

[maxsolomon]

35. Not "conservative judicial activist" Leonard Leo

FEDERALIST SOCIETY BOARD CHAIRMAN Leonard Leo. The "Judicial Education Project" is just another scam charity of theirs.

Say it's name, WaPo.