Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) has been excoriating what he perceives as a failure of ethics on the Supreme Court, especially when it comes to the money-soaked relationship between Justice Clarence Thomas and billionaire Harlan Crow. In a congressional hearing last week on Supreme Court ethics, Whitehouse asked his Twitter followers Did you think I’d show up to the hearing on Supreme Court ethics without receipts?
The Senator proceeded to present detailed and ample evidence of what he characterized as Thomas’s impropriety, at the very least. See video below.
Did you think I’d show up to the hearing on Supreme Court ethics without receipts? pic.twitter.com/QjdF7T0rIl
— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) May 2, 2023
A name which pops up all over the Clarence Thomas revelations is that of Leonard Leo, co-chair of the Federalist Society and a lawyer whom many credit as the architect of today’s certifiably conservative majority on the SCOTUS, anchored by Thomas, its longest serving Justice.
Whitehouse is making it his business to out Leo, as journalists have long been doing, as a manipulator, controlling various “front organizations” with “fictitious names” — he means misleading names — that use billions from wealthy donors to influence policy on critical things like the judiciary and voting rights.
Whitehouse forwards a New York Times exposé on Leo’s operations, writing his own succinct description: “To be precise, the ‘Honest Elections Project’ is a ‘fictitious name’ of the 85 Fund, and part of a network of front groups operated by Leonard Leo,” Whitehouse writes, “into which a right-wing billionaire just dropped $1.6 billion.”
To be precise, the “Honest Elections Project” is a “fictitious name” of the 85 Fund, and part of a network of front groups operated by Leonard Leo, into which a right-wing billionaire just dropped $1.6 billion.https://t.co/VYc54TaUWE
— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) May 10, 2023
Not finished there, Whitehouse outed two more “front groups” funded by right wing billionaires. He writes: “Election Transparency Initiative, and the Foundation for Government Accountability are also right-wing billionaire front groups.”
Election Transparency Initiative, and the Foundation for Government Accountability are also right-wing billionaire front groups.
— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) May 10, 2023
Election Transparency Initiative has been a vocal critic of the 2020 presidential election, alleging that there was widespread voter fraud. The organization has filed numerous lawsuits challenging the results of the election, but none of those lawsuits have been successful.
