Kellyanne Conway Thrown Into Center of Ginni Thomas Scandal
Kellyanne Conway, former senior counselor to Donald Trump, has been thrown into the center of the latest controversy surrounding Virginia 'Ginni' Thomas.
Thomas, a conservative activist and attorney, is married to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. She is facing renewed scrutiny following reports she received payments from conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo.
Leo, co-chairman and former executive vice president of the conservative Federal Society, reportedly directed Conway to bill a nonprofit group he advises for $25,000 in January 2012 and pay the money to Ginni Thomas.
According to documents reviewed by The Washington Post, Leo told Conway he wanted her to "give" Thomas "another $25K" and added that the paperwork should include "No mention of Ginni, of course."
Conway's firm, the Polling Company, sent Leo's nonprofit, the Judicial Education Project, a bill for $25,000 that same day. The purpose of the bill was listed as "Supplement for Constitution Polling and Opinion Consulting" based on Leo's instructions, the Post reported on Thursday.
The Judicial Education Project later filed an amicus brief with the Court in December 2012 in the major voting rights case Shelby County v. Holder. The outcome of the case was consistent with what the Judicial Education Project and other conservative groups had been advocating.
In that case, the Court ruled 5-4 to strike down part of the Voting Rights Act that dealt with which states had to receive pre-clearance before changing election rules—and Justice Thomas was part of the majority.
The Polling Company paid Ginni Thomas' firm, Liberty Consulting, a total of $80,000 between June 2011 and June 2012 and expected to pay a further $20,000 or more by the end of 2012, according to the newspaper's report.
That report has thrust Conway, a strong supporter of former President Trump, back into the headlines and has put her at the center of growing controversy surrounding Justice Thomas.
Thomas, now the longest-serving member of the current Supreme Court, has been the subject of intense scrutiny and criticism in recent weeks over his ties to billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow.
A report from investigative journalism organization ProPublica, published last month, detailed dozens of trips that Thomas and his wife took, which were paid for by Crow, citing interviews and documents related to the travel.
Before The Washington Post's report on Thursday evening, ProPublica reported that morning that Crow had paid at least one month of tuition for Justice Thomas' grandnephew to attend boarding school at a cost of $6,000.
Crow's real-estate company made the payment in July, 2009 and it is not clear if the billionaire paid anything further toward the tuition. Thomas did not report the tuition payment from Crow on his financial disclosures.
Conway served as former President Trump's campaign manager in 2016 and then as senior counselor to the president from January 2017 to August 2020. Conway resigned from that role hours after her daughter, Claudia, tweeted that her mother's job "ruined her life."
In March, Conway and her husband George Conway announced that they would be divorcing after 22 years of marriage. George Conway has been an outspoken critic of Trump.
Newsweek has reached out to Kellyanne Conway via her website for comment.
