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6. Clarence's billionaire pal, Harlan Crow, gave Ginni Thomas $500,000 to fund Liberty Central
Thu Apr 6, 2023, 08:25 AM
Apr 2023
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/06/virginia-thomas-extends-her-conservative-reach-for-2020/

...In 2009, Thomas founded the group Liberty Central, a 501(c)(4) created to “promote education and civil discourse focused on protecting the core founding principles of the United States,” according to its website at the time. The group received nearly $1.5 million in its first two years from undisclosed donors. As a so-called “dark money” issue-advocacy group, it was not required to reveal the source of its donations.

Liberty Central’s officers included several prominent conservatives, including current president of the Federalist Society Leonard Leo, current chairman of the American Conservative Union Matt Schlapp, and former FBI agent Gary Aldrich, who gained fame for writing a book critical of the Clinton administration’s security protocols.

According to tax documents, Liberty Central had approximately 25 employees in 2010, as well as 10 volunteers. That year, it spent $600,000 on payroll (including a $120,000 salary for Thomas) and an additional $850,000 on “other expenses.”

Liberty Central’s now-defunct website featured various forms of conservative advocacy. A blog entry from June 7, 2010, for example, encourages readers to contact their senator and encourage a “no” vote on a cap-and-trade bill. When the Supreme Court took up the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2011, more than 70 Democratic members of Congress wrote a letter calling on Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from the case on the basis that his wife’s anti-ACA lobbying activities through Liberty Central made it impossible for him to remain unbiased. Justice Thomas declined to do so and ultimately wrote his own dissenting opinion in the case...


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