Clarence Thomas accused of burying another scandal as Justice and other conservatives claimed his lawyer was framed for racist text messages

According to The New Yorker, a law clerk recently hired by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas amid bigotry allegations has improved her public image by reshaping the narrative surrounding a 2015 incident during which she was accused of sending a racist text message to former colleague.

Crystal Clanton, a 2022 graduate of George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School in Virginia, was hired by Justice Thomas in late February after a meteoric rise to a highly coveted position on the nation’s highest court as a brand new theory paints her as a victim of a vengeful associate.

The racial controversy erupted in 2015 when Clanton served as national field director of the conservative student organization Turning Point USA, a GOP supporter group with close ties to former President Donald Trump and also known for its divisive rhetoric.

Two years later, an investigative report by The New Yorker revealed a text message from Clanton during which she wrote to a co-worker: “I HATE BLACK PEOPLE…Like hell – all of them…I hate black people. End of story.”

Screenshots of a string of messages tagged with Clanton’s phone number were shared with the magazine in 2017, and multiple employees on the time confirmed that Clanton was the sender.

When asked in regards to the messages, Clanton explained that she didn’t remember writing them and asserted that the comments “do not reflect what I believe or who I am,” she told the news outlet on the time.

Clanton resigned in disgrace over the incident, but never apologized to the Black community for the hurtful comments that led to her removal as second-in-command of the conservative group in 2017.

Nearly a decade after the alleged text messages, Clanton has managed to place the episode behind her, benefiting from powerful connections inside and outside the Republican legal community, including Thomas’s wife, Ginni, who hired Clanton in 2017 to help her working as a citizen conservative activist.

As part of the agreement, Judge Thomas allowed Clanton to live of their Virginia home for almost a 12 months because Ginni Thomas and Clanton knew each other from Turning Point USA.

During this time, the Thomases encouraged Clanton to pursue a legal profession, and Judge Thomas even really useful that she be admitted to Antonin Scalia Law School despite her questionable background.

After graduating from law school, Clanton was immediately hired as a law clerk for two Republican-appointed federal judges, including U.S. District Judge Corey Maze in Birmingham, Alabama, and later Chief Judge William H. Pryor, Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, known for his conservative rulings and the admission of latest law clerks to Judge Thomas.

The Thomases’ support and Clanton’s subsequent promotion brought into the highlight her past controversies that otherwise may need faded into oblivion.

In 2021, reports of racism allegations against Clanton resurfaced as she lined up for clerkships with Maze and Pryor.

At that point, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee learned of the racist incident and filed an ethics criticism against Maze and Pryor out of concern that Clanton’s hiring would undermine confidence within the federal court system.

The criticism was ultimately dismissed by the 2nd U.S. Judicial Circuit in New York after Judge Thomas defended Clanton in a letter to Chief Judge Debra Ann Livingston, claiming that his wife “informed me of the terrible way in which” Clanton “was treated at Turning Point.”

Judge Pryor also wrote a letter to Livingston revealing that he and Thomas had met privately and discussed the case involving Clanton, resulting in a brand new theory in regards to the incident that Clanton was the actual victim.

However, the immediate query arose as to why Clanton never mentioned it through the firestorm.

Pryor said Clanton had not previously denied the allegations in regards to the racist text because she was allegedly sure by a non-disclosure agreement, which she didn’t mention to reporters or her lawyer on the time. Clanton’s lawyer said he never prepared an NDA for her.

In his appeal to the judge, Pryor said Judge Thomas assured him that Clanton “was the victim of a pernicious attempt to portray her as a racist,” while maintaining that the previous worker, who was not named, “created fake text messages” that were intended to other employees for misconduct.

Livingston’s ruling concluded that the unique press reports about Clanton were false and that Clanton all the time treated everyone with “kindness, respect and honesty,” while noting the facts presented by Judge Pryor, who maintained that the racist lyrics were fabricated, praising Clanton as a highly qualified.

The judge found that Pryor and Maze performed all needed due diligence, which allowed Clanton to emerge calmly from the crisis, which led to Thomas hiring her to work in his chambers on the very best court within the land.

In recent weeks, Clanton’s story has turn out to be a rallying cry for conservatives who see her as a victim of false accusations and apparent cancel culture, suggesting that racist lyrics were fabricated to tarnish her fame.

As the warmth of the debacle subsided, Clanton began claiming that she had resigned from Turning Point USA, however the nonprofit’s CEO, Charlie Kirk, who was Clanton’s boss when she sent the racist text message, had previously suggested that Clanton had been fired from because of the incident.

“Turning Point assessed the situation and took decisive action within 72 hours,” he told The New Yorker in an email. Four years later, the nonprofit officially confirmed that Clanton “was fired from Turning Point after the discovery of problematic lyrics.”

However, when contacted by Judge Pryor, Kirk modified his story, saying: “The media is alleging that Crystal has said and done things that are simply untrue.”

The United States Judicial Conference’s Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability attempted to further investigate the allegations against Clanton. They asked the select committee to find out whether Clanton made racist statements and what she said to Pryor and Maze. The special committee suggested hearing Clanton and the witnesses mentioned within the media reports, but this has not happened up to now.

Judge Pryor and Judge Maze invoked a legal doctrine that prevented the Judicial Conference from reviewing Livingston’s ruling dismissing the Clanton ethics criticism.

Supporters of Justice Thomas called it inside his discretion, citing the close relationship between judges and officials. But critics see it as another example of Judge Thomas ignoring ethical principles.

According to The New Yorker, Judge Thomas, Ginni Thomas and Judge Maze declined to comment, while Judge Pryor didn’t respond.

Despite skepticism in regards to the sanitized version of events, Clanton continues to receive significant support from Judge Thomas, several federal judges and distinguished Republican political groups.

There is way to achieve from a position as a Supreme Court justice, which generally lasts one 12 months and is incredibly rewarding each professionally and financially.

Former officials often receive significant bonuses that may exceed half one million dollars after they take their first real job after their internship. Additionally, having a Supreme Court position in your resume opens the door to prestigious academic and political positions and increases the likelihood of a future appointment to the federal bench.

Typically, only elite law students with excellent résumés have a shot at becoming a Supreme Court clerk, while behavioral aspects, such as being fired for alleged racist remarks, can often disqualify a candidate.

However, Clanton managed to avoid these concerns when Ginni Thomas began fighting for her latest paralegal, as shown in a leaked video from a 2019 National Policy Council meeting. In the video, Thomas introduced Clanton as her special conservative guest and described her as “the wind in my sails”.