Exclusive: Conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo arranged for the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to be paid tens of thousands of dollars for consulting work nearly a decade ago, specifying that her name be left off billing paperwork. wapo.st/3LzCGpM
Leo instructed the GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway to bill a nonprofit group and use that money to pay Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, documents show. The same year, the nonprofit group filed a brief to the Supreme Court in a landmark voting rights case. wapo.st/3LzCGpM
Leo told Conway that he wanted her to “give” Ginni Thomas “another $25K,” documents show. He emphasized that the paperwork should have “No mention of Ginni, of course,” so the purpose was “Supplement for Constitution Polling and Opinion Consulting.” wapo.st/3LzCGpM
The Post is continuing reporting on the U.S. Supreme Court, including on potential conflicts of interest for its nine justices. Do you have information to share or questions The Post should explore? Tell us about it at this link. We appreciate your help: wapo.st/418IpIS
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Former president Donald Trump is embracing the cause of people charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol — lending his voice to a recording of the “J6 Prison Choir” and playing it to start the first rally of his 2024 presidential campaign. wapo.st/3LWkoA8
The song, “Justice for All,” features Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance mixed with a rendition of the national anthem, inspired by the inmates’ nightly custom of singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” in their D.C. jail cells. wapo.st/3LWkoA8twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
The ritual was captured in a video that Trump allies have shared online in the past two months. The D.C. Department of Corrections confirmed that the video was taken in one of the housing units, and the agency is now investigating.
Breaking news: Former Proud Boys chairman Henry “Enrique” Tarrio and three other members of the extremist group were found guilty Thursday of seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. wapo.st/3LXRIXP
Over nearly 15 weeks of trial, prosecutors alleged that the Proud Boys on trial saw themselves as Donald Trump’s “army.”
The jury, which began hearing testimony in January, deliberated about 30 hours over seven days in Washington. wapo.st/3ny87sA
Defense attorneys for Tarrio fought back by blaming the former president, saying prosecutors made the five defendants scapegoats for an unplanned riot triggered by Trump’s incitement of angry supporters. wapo.st/3ny87sA
The same Texas billionaire who treated Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to lavish vacations paid private boarding school tuition for Thomas’s grandnephew, a boy the justice has said he raised as a son, according to a new report which said Thomas did not disclose the… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
ProPublica reported that Harlan Crow, a prominent Republican donor, paid tuition at Hidden Lake Academy, a boarding school in Georgia, as well as at Randolph-Macon Academy in Virginia, for Mark Martin, for whom Thomas had legal custody. wapo.st/44ueMV1
A bank statement that showed Crow paid $6,200 in monthly tuition at Hidden Lake Academy in July 2009 and quoted Christopher Grimwood, a former administrator at the school, as saying that Crow “picked up the tab” for the entire time Martin was a student there, about a year.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
The sudden transformation of California’s landscape from dry and barren into kaleidoscopic fields of wildflowers is a phenomenon that has become increasingly rare.
Due to a changing climate and sprawling human development, the super bloom is under threat. wapo.st/3NAWR9w
The Carrizo Plain National Monument sits 150 miles northwest of Los Angeles and is the largest native grassland left in the state. This year, it’s the super bloom capital of California. wapo.st/3NAWR9w
The most important ingredient for a good bloom year is precipitation, both the amount and the timing. The massive winter storms, followed by weeks of consistent rainfall, created ideal conditions for many annual wildflower species to bloom simultaneously. wapo.st/3NAWR9w
The fallout came fast when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s new election police unit charged Peter Washington with voter fraud as part of a crackdown against felons who’d allegedly broken the law by casting a ballot.
But not long after, the case against Washington began falling apart.
A judge from Florida’s Ninth Judicial Circuit ruled the statewide prosecutor who filed the charges didn’t have jurisdiction to do so. The case was dismissed in February. wapo.st/3VrTx29
One by one, many of the initial 20 arrests announced by the Office of Election Crimes and Security have stumbled in court.
Six cases have been dismissed. Five other defendants accepted plea deals that resulted in no jail time. wapo.st/3VrTx29
At a March meeting in Annapolis, Md., that state lawmakers held to discuss proposals for new safety and privacy protections for children online, one local resident made a personal plea urging officials to reject the measure wapo.st/41Wd4u0
What Szabo didn’t initially disclose in his two-minute testimony to the panel: He is vice president and general counsel for NetChoice, a tech trade association that receives funding from tech giants including Amazon, Google and Facebook parent company Meta. NetChoice has vocally… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…