"In the months before the US supreme court handed down Citizens United, the 2010 ruling which unleashed a flood of dark money into American politics, the wife of a conservative justice worked with a prominent rightwing activist and a mega-donor closely linked to her husband to form a group to exploit the decision."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/11/ginni-thomas-leonard-leo-harlan-crow-citizens-united-dark-money

#thieves #liars #sins #greed #ginnithomas #clarencethomas #LeonardLeo #supremecourt #corruption

"A key question is now this: Did Leonard Leo use millions in nonprofit contributions in a conspiracy with others to illegally enrich himself and his friends, including the Thomases? (Narrator: Duh.)

~ Jay Kuo

#LeonardLeo #GinniThomas #SupremeCourt #corruption
/3

https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/what-about-ginni

And all of this is happening in the shadows, the dark, with no daylight shining in:

"The movement’s triumphs are now visible but its engine remains hidden: A billion-dollar network of groups, most of which are registered as tax-exempt charities or social welfare organizations. Taking advantage of gaps in disclosure laws, they shield the identities of most of their donors and some of the recipients of the funds."

A formula for corruption.

#LeonardLeo #GinniThomas #SupremeCourt #corruption
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Who's really running the country? Leonard Leo, Ginni Thomas, the corrupt Supremes they've bought, and their super-rich backers:

"From those early discussions among Leo, Thomas and Crow would spring a billion-dollar force that has helped remake the judiciary and overturn longstanding legal precedents on abortion, affirmative action and many other issues."

~ Heidi Przybyla

#LeonardLeo #GinniThomas #SupremeCourt #corruption
/1

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/10/ginni-thomas-leonard-leo-citizens-united-00108082

Excellent reporting by @HeidiReports it continues & gets even crazier w/millions going to #GinniThomas; characters such as #JohnEastman, #CletaMitchell & more submit amicus briefs & attempt to influence #SCOTUS; #CarrieSeverino a #ClarenceThomas clerk & #LeonardLeo #JEP assoc briefs SCOTUS on the anti-#abortion anti-#Obamacare #HobbyLobby case; the 2016 #Trump election; #FederalistSociety groomed judges #AmyConeyBarrett, #BrettKavanaugh & #NeilGorsuch get appointed.
Recommended read.

Now, #LibertyConsulting is a focus of interest from congressional committees probing #SCOTUS’s #ethics disclosures. #Senate #Democrats have demanded that #LeonardLeo & #HarlanCrow provide a list of “gifts, payments, or other items of value” they’ve given #GinniThomas & her husband.

Meanwhile, Leo’s network of *nonprofits* — whose annual donations have skyrocketed into the hundreds of millions of dollars — is the subject of an investigation by the DC AG….

A key #LeonardLeo aide, Sarah Field, would come aboard to help #GinniThomas manage the group, which they called #LibertyCentral.

After Liberty Central went public, it provoked an outcry over a #SCOTUS justice’s wife promoting causes like overturning #Obamacare that were before her husband’s court. Leo & Thomas changed gears. His network reactivated a dormant group, the #JudicialEducationProject, which would go on to become a major supplier of #AmicusBriefs before the nation’s highest court.

The activists included #FederalistSociety leader #LeonardLeo &his ideological soulmate, a hard-edged activist named #GinniThomas, the wife of #SCOTUS Justice #ClarenceThomas.
“Ginni really wanted to build an organization & be a movement leader. Leonard [Leo] was going to be the conduit of that” said a person familiar….
She also had… #HarlanCrow, the… #billionaire who helped Thomas & her husband in many ways, from #funding #luxury #vacations to picking up #tuition payments for their great-nephew.

This story of how #corruption permeates the highest level of our country's legal and political systems continues to unravel and yet there is no action. This is shameful, and deadly for our democracy. What #GinniThomas and #LeonardLeo wrought: How a justice’s wife and a key activist started a movement. Thanks to #SCOTUS #CitizensUnited ruling, a trove of so-called #darkmoney was about to be unleashed. 2 activists prepared to seize the moment. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/10/ginni-thomas-leonard-leo-citizens-united-00108082

Thanks for posting @GottaLaff

Me: I've been shouting from the rooftops for years that Citizens United singlehandedly ruined American politics & wld end democracy, too. Of course--Leonard Leo & Ginni Thomas had a big part in amassing exactly what it was meant to do😡

"Via NYCSouthpaw:

As Citizens United decision was being written at the Supreme Court, #GinniThomas, #LeonardLeo, #HarlanCrow & #CletaMitchell were laying groundwork for a dark money empire. #SCOTUS https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/10/g

@panamared27401 @GreenFire #LeonardLeo is an #insurrectionist

#DC #AG is probing #LeonardLeo’s network. #FederalistSociety co-chair & ex-Trump #judicial adviser has utilized nonprofit groups to collect more than $1 billion for #conservative causes. Best known as #Trump’s WH“court whisperer,” Leo played behind-the-scenes role in nominations of all 3 of former prez #SCOTUS justices, promoted them through his multi $B network of nonprofits. Trump chose his 3 #SCOTUS picks, #Gorsuch, #Kavanaugh #ConeyBarrett from list drawn up by Leo. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/22/d-c-attorney-general-is-probing-leonard-leos-network-00112331

white nationalist activist Leonard Leo under investigation in Washington DC..#LeonardLeo..#GOP..#whitenationalism https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/rightwing-activist-leonard-leo-under-investigation-in-washington-dc/ar-AA1fJspK?ocid=winp2fptaskbar&cvid=0ba76364ab5b49579ac70ff143285fe6&ei=8

"Washington D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb is investigating judicial activist Leonard Leo and his network of nonprofit groups, according to a person with direct knowledge of the probe. …

Best known as Donald Trump’s White House 'court whisperer,' Leo played a behind-the-scenes role in the nominations of all three of the former president’s Supreme Court justices…."

~ Heidi Przybyla

#LeonardLeo #FederalistSociety #SupremeCourt #OpusDei

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/22/d-c-attorney-general-is-probing-leonard-leos-network-00112331

#federalistsociety #investigation #DC #AttorneyGeneral #Schwalb #NonProfits #LeonardLeo

WELCOMED BUT WAY OVERDUE.

#LeonardLeo personally picked the last 3 #SupremeCourt justices, as well as countless federal #judges. Those picks are supposed to be made by the #President, but Trump handed over the authority to Mr. Leo marking the first time in American #history that Supreme Court justices were chosen by a private citizen and partisan political activist. Leo's #FederalistSociety represents an unprecedented #threat to the #nation, and a federal #investigation is truly fantastic news.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/22/d-c-attorney-general-is-probing-leonard-leos-network-00112331

As Adam Gabbatt reminds us, Florida judge Aileen Cannon, who raises eyebrows because of her ineptness and willingness to bend over backwards to serve the ends of one Donald Trump who appointed her, is also closely connected to Leonard Leo and his Federalist Society. Of which she has been a member since 2005….

#AileenCannon #Trump #LeonardLeo #FederalistSociety
/1

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/11/leonard-leo-aileen-cannon-trump-conservative-judges

In short, Eastman's hostility to US democracy and to its endorsement of the rights of minority communities including the LGBTQ community, doesn't arise out of nowhere: it has a specific right-wing Catholic origin, an ideological center also shared by the group of Supremes who now control the Supreme Court.

But good luck getting the mainstream media to report on all of this.

#Eastman #insurrection #FederalistSociety #LeonardLeo #OpusDei #SupremeCourt #democracy
/4

Eastman previously chaired the National Organization for Marriage, an anti-gay outfit determined to roll back rights for LGBTQ Americans (and LGBTQ people elsewhere in the world). NOM, previously led by Maggie Gallagher, also Catholic, and connected to another leading anti-LGBTQ Catholic activist Robert P. George, has long had close ties to the US Catholic bishops.

#Eastman #insurrection #FederalistSociety #LeonardLeo #OpusDei #SupremeCourt #democracy #NationalOrganizationforMarriage
/3

Both Eastman and Leo are, it's reported, members of the powerful, wealthy, secretive, right-wing Catholic cult Opus Dei, which has long been inimical to democracy and has strong theocratic aspirations.

A number of the Supremes who constitute the right-wing Catholic cabal now controlling the court have Opus Dei ties. (The one non-Catholic member of the cabal, Gorsuch, was raised Catholic.)

#Trump #Eastman #insurrection #FederalistSociety #LeonardLeo #OpusDei #SupremeCourt #democracy
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