- Leonard Leo, a conservative activist, has spent many years transferring federal courts to the suitable
- He oversees a big community of teams that again advocacy campaigns for conservative judges.
- However one current PR marketing campaign has centered on Justice Clarence Thomas, The Washington Submit reported.
A yearslong public relations marketing campaign praising and defending Supreme Courtroom Choose Clarence Thomas could be traced to a community of nonprofit teams tied to a outstanding conservative activist, The Washington Submit reported.
Leonard Leo, co-chairman of The Federalist Society, has spent a number of many years pushing federal courts to the suitable by leveraging a big community of nonprofit organizations during which he holds formal or casual roles.
In line with the Submit, Leo has additionally used that community to assist the affirmation of each conservative Supreme Courtroom justice prior to now twenty years. However yet another current marketing campaign was directed at Justice Thomas, who had already spent about three many years on the Courtroom’s bench.
The initiative features a two-hour film, “Created Equal,” launched in 2020, that adopted Thomas’ upbringing; web sites that reward Thomas’s life or dispute the sexual harassment allegations made by Anita Hill; and even a Twitter fan account with near 30,000 followers. The Submit discovered that the trouble price not less than $1.8 million from conservative nonprofits tied to Leo.
The marketing campaign started in early 2016, the Submit reported, when HBO was set to launch “Affirmation,” a movie that facilities on Hill’s explosive allegations throughout Thomas’ 1991 nomination hearings. The film starred Kerry Washington as Hill and Wendell Pierce as Thomas.
One one who was tapped to steer the frilly public relations marketing campaign was Mark Paoletta — a former Trump White Home aide, legal professional, and shut buddy of Thomas. In line with the Submit, a nonprofit referred to as the Judicial Schooling Undertaking paid the lawyer about $300,000 in 2016 for “media initiatives.”
Leo doesn’t have a proper position within the Judicial Schooling Undertaking nonprofit, based on the Submit. Nonetheless, he beforehand informed the newspaper he’s an advisor to the group.
Paoletta didn’t return a request for remark despatched exterior of enterprise hours and through the weekend.
Paoletta denounced the HBO movie after reviewing the script and despatched a letter to HBO’s then-president on March 7, 2016, claiming the film contained “quite a few distortions, omissions and fabrications” in an try and bolster Hill’s “credibility and smearing.”
Len Amato, HBO’s president on the time, disputed the assertion to Politico and stated there was “no agenda” behind the movie and that it is “fairly evenhanded.”
Within the time surrounding the movie’s launch, the legal professional started submitting op-eds to conservative retailers such because the Every day Caller, Nationwide Assessment, and Washington Examiner, defending Thomas and attacking the movie.
Paoletta additionally sought assist from Javelin, a Virginia-based PR agency, to launch a web site, confirmationbiased.com, to dispute or “truth test” the movie.
“I used to be decided to not let these lies go unanswered, so I reached out to Javelin to assist me develop a media presence to push again,” Paoletta informed The Submit.
Data obtained and interviews carried out by the Submit present Paoletta labored with one other public relations agency referred to as CRC Public Relations — now CRC Advisors, which Leo chairs — to drum up web sites and a social media account.
In line with the Submit, CRC helped create a Twitter fan account round September 2016 to publish quotes from Thomas or video clips of the justice. The account’s bio now exhibits that it is run by Judicial Disaster Community, a nonprofit additionally led by Leo, though his title doesn’t seem within the group’s tax filings. The New York Instances has beforehand reported how Leo has labored carefully with the group throughout affirmation hearings.
The agency additionally helped create anitahillcase.com, devoted to disputing Hill’s allegations, and justicethomas.com, which praises Thomas.
“This website is devoted to Justice Clarence Thomas and his three many years of jurisprudence on the Supreme Courtroom of the US,” the web site states. “Since his affirmation on October 15, 1991, Justice Thomas has been a stalwart defender of the unique that means of the Structure.”
In line with the Submit, Paoletta would additionally search assist from conservative filmmaker Michael Pack to make “Created Equal,” which solely options interviews from Thomas and his spouse, Ginni Thomas. The movie’s monetary backers included the Judicial Schooling Undertaking and the Crow household.
Harlan Crow was just lately the topic of a ProPublica investigation that exposed how the GOP donor poured lavish items onto Thomas.
The Judicial Disaster Community (JCN) additionally spent $1.5 million to advertise the movie in 2022 throughout Kentanji Brown Jackson’s affirmation hearings. One advert took a dig at Jackson for saying she would not “perceive” how Thomas grew to carry his conservative views as a Black man. The remark was made years in the past in a 2007 biography of Thomas, “Supreme Discomfort: The Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas.”
A spokesperson for JCN didn’t reply to a request for remark despatched through the weekend.
The movie later spawned a ebook of the identical title, during which Pack stated that Paoletta was “an unsung, uncredited government producer” of “Created Equal,” the Submit reported.
In a press release to the Submit, Paoletta confirmed that the work he paid to do for the Judicial Schooling Undertaking was associated to Thomas and that “my good buddy Leonard Leo’s group supplied funding for this work.”
A spokesperson for The Federalist Society didn’t reply to a request for remark despatched through the weekend.
