It’s not like we haven't suspected there's a shadow right-wing media machine designed to sanitize Clarence Thomas’ corruption and turn him into a right-wing martyr. But The Washington Post has brought the receipts. They all seem to lead back to SCOTUS justice-picker Leonard Leo.

In case you’re not aware of just how much Leo is responsible for the Supreme Court pickle we are in today, The Post points out that he has “led advocacy campaigns to help confirm every conservative Supreme Court justice over the past two decades. He advised President Donald Trump on his selection of three justices.”

But, apparently, taking away a woman’s 50-year right to make her own health care choices, turning back the clock on civil rights, voting rights and gay rights is not enough for Leo. He’s also spending lots of dough on keeping the justices in his lap, so to speak.

Leo steered tens of thousands of dollars in consulting payments to Thomas’s wife, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, in 2012, The Post reported recently. He also arranged a fishing trip to Alaska for Justice Samuel Alito in 2008, a vacation that included a free ride on the private jet of a billionaire businessman who later had interests before the court, ProPublica reported.

Leo has also clandestinely steered lots of money to “lionize” Thomas, as The Post put it, even as some Leo associates were working to promote right-wing causes before the court.

For example, The Post reports that in 2016, the 25th anniversary of Thomas’ confirmation, Leo helped secretly finance a PR effort that included a pro-Thomas documentary, media attacks on Anita Hill and websites celebrating his career:

It was not apparent at the time, but the rush of favorable content was part of a coordinated and sophisticated public relations campaign to defend and celebrate Thomas, according to a Washington Post examination of public and internal records and interviews with people familiar with the effort. The campaign would stretch on for years and include the creation and promotion of a laudatory film about Thomas, advertising to boost positive content about him during internet searches and publication of a book about his life. It was financed with at least $1.8 million from conservative nonprofit groups steered by the judicial activist Leonard Leo, the examination found.

One of those conservative groups associated with Leo is the Judicial Education Project. Leo has “no formal role” in that group but Mark Paoletta, a lawyer it paid $300,000 for “media projects,” including the film, said his “good friend” Leo provided funding for the work, The Post reported. Also, Leo has previously told The Post he is an adviser to the Judicial Education Project.

While it was doing Thomas so many solids behind the scenes, the Judicial Education Project was also publicly seeking his vote on the court:

In April 2016, a month after it began paying Paoletta, the group filed an amicus brief challenging an Obama program that would have allowed undocumented immigrant parents to work legally in the United States. The Supreme Court, down to only eight justices because of the death of Scalia, split 4-4 on the case, United States v. Texas, meaning a lower court’s decision striking down the program was upheld. The court issued its decision without releasing how each justice voted.

We can all guess which side Thomas was on.

I highly recommend the entire article, though you may want to break out the Alka Seltzer or blood pressure meds first.

In any event, Elie Mystal makes a great case for why the Supreme Court corruption necessitates much more media scrutiny and should serve as a call to action for Democrats and the left in the upcoming election, too.