As The Washington Post explains, the money probably came from a similarly-named company. Thomas has been reporting thousands of dollars in income from a firm called Ginger, Ltd., Partnership. That company, which was launched by wife Ginni Thomas and her family, was shut down in 2006. A new company, managed by Ginni Thomas’ sister, was formed that same year, called Ginger Holdings, LLC. Yet Clarence Thomas has continued to report income of between $50,000 and $100,000 from the original, defunct company.
It speaks volumes that Thomas can’t be bothered to properly report the source of such large streams of money deriving from his wife’s family. The Post points out that this error “is among a series of errors and omissions that Thomas has made on required annual financial disclosure forms over the past several decades.”
It's not just the jaw-dropping largesse from Thomas’ Nazi-curious bestie and GOP megadonor Harlan Crow, that is concerning. Thomas’ failures to properly comply with ethics regulations go way back.
More from The Post:
In 2011, after the watchdog group Common Cause raised red flags, Thomas updated years of his financial disclosure reports to include employment details for his wife, conservative activist Virginia “Ginni” Thomas. The justice said at the time that he had not understood the filing instructions. In 2020, he was forced to revise his disclosure forms after a different watchdog group found he had failed to report reimbursements for trips to speak at two law schools.
…
Ginni Thomas earned more than $686,000 from the conservative Heritage Foundation from 2003 until 2007, according to the nonprofit’s tax forms. Clarence Thomas checked a box labeled “none” for his wife’s income during that period. He had done the same in 2008 and 2009 when she worked for conservative Hillsdale College.
Thomas acknowledged the error when he amended those filings in 2011. He wrote that the information had been “inadvertently omitted due to a misunderstanding of the filing instructions.”
In some years before those omissions, however, Thomas had correctly reported his wife’s employment.
All this is on top of the recently-revealed ultra-luxury travel Thomas and his wife were treated to by Crow, which was never disclosed, and Thomas’ $133,000 real estate sale to Crow, which was also undisclosed.
Then there’s the fact that Thomas has failed to recuse himself from matters his right-wing activist wife has involved herself in.
That’s a priceless return for the Thomas’ conservative benefactors.
Whether Thomas’ false and missing disclosures are just sloppy or a deliberate attempt to hide doesn’t really matter. A Supreme Court justice ought to know how to follow the law and to do so, period.
