An obscure conservative activist group led by Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, collected nearly $600,000 in anonymous donations to wage a cultural battle against the left over three years. Via the Washington Post:
The previously unreported donations to the fledgling group Crowdsourcers for Culture and Liberty were channeled through a right-wing think tank in Washington that agreed to serve as a funding conduit from 2019 until the start of last year, according to documents and interviews. The arrangement, known as a “fiscal sponsorship,” effectively shielded from public view details about Crowdsourcers’ activities and spending, information it would have had to disclose publicly if it operated as a separate nonprofit organization, experts said.
The Post’s investigation sheds new light on the role money from donors who are not publicly identified has played in supporting Ginni Thomas’s political advocacy, long a source of controversy. The funding is the first example of anonymous donors backing her activism since she founded a conservative charity more than a decade ago. She stepped away from that charity amid concerns that it created potential conflicts for her husband on hot-button issues before the court.
Thomas’s activism has set her apart from other spouses of Supreme Court justices. She has allied with numerous people and groups that have interests before the court, and she has dedicated herself to causes involving some of the most polarizing issues in the country.
"Crowdsourcers for Culture and Liberty." As usual with right-wing efforts, the name of the group means against culture and against liberty.
Some familiar names in this story, too. Cleta Mitchell, who has never met an extremist cause she didn't like and was working with her pal Ginni to overturn the presidential election. James O'Keefe, who cosplays investigative reporting. Donors Trust, which is the major funding conduit for right-wing fuckery. (They gave Ginni most of the start-up money.)
“Ginni Thomas had no knowledge of nor any connection whatsoever to an amicus brief CRC joined,” her lawyer wrote in response to an inquiry. Sure, Mark.
Someone released a video of a private donors meeting with Thomas.
“We have some culture warriors, but we have a lot more to do,” Thomas said at a meeting of the Council for National Policy in Northern Virginia, according to the video, which was obtained by the nonprofit watchdog Documented and has been previously reported. “Conservatives and Republicans are tired of being the oppressed minority.”
Oh, there we go. "Minority"? It's not enough that they control the House and the Supreme Court, or the majority of state legislatures. The relentless gerrymandering, the new and imaginative ways of voter suppression. Fox News, OAN, Breitbart, and countless deep-pockets think tanks.
But their feelings are hurt. Their kids come home from college and tell them they're racist! (Because they are.) THEY ARE SO OPPRESSED.
And they get paid to whine about it.
