Senator lays out possible tax violations and 'fraud' for payments to Clarence Thomas’ wife
06 May 2023
Editor's note: This story has been updated to include Leonard Leo's status as a conservative legal activist and to correct grammatical errors.
One senator recently explained all of the possible violations U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas could face over payments made to him and his wife, Ginni Thomas.
On Friday, May 5, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) appeared on MSNBC's "All In with Chris Hayes" where he weighed in with his take on the questionable payments. According to Whitehouse, the payments may ultimately lead to potential tax violations and even fraud.
“Do you think the notion that Roberts and the chief justice of the court should police itself over this is sufficient?” Hayes asked.
“No,” Whitehouse stated as he laid out the ethical concerns within the high court.
“The second thing is that all the mischief with [conservative legal activist] Leo [Leonard] and these phony front groups – all of that is potentially in violation of the tax code,” the Rhode Island lawmaker continued. “Some of it is conceivably even fraud. There could be potentially criminal aspects to this, particularly if there was no work performed for that $25,000. And all of that can be properly investigated without getting into the internal operations of the court and Clarence Thomas.”
Whitehouse's remarks came one day after The Washington Post released a bombshell report about the payments.
Per Mediaite, The Post's report noted, "One day in 2012 Leonard Leo instructed Kellyanne Conway’s polling firm to bill an entity called Judicial Education Project – controlled by Leo – for $25,000. Leo told Conway to give the money to Ginni Thomas’s firm, Liberty Consulting. In all, Thomas received at least $80,000 from Leo via Conway."
Watch the video below or at this link.
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