Former Trump aide, Kellyanne Conway, has defended payments she made to Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. The payments were made in response to calls from legal activist Leonard Leo, who instructed Conway to bill a nonprofit group he advised and use the money to pay Ginni Thomas. However, $25,000 was billed to the Judicial Education Project, which soon had an interest before the Supreme Court. The same year the payments were made, the Judicial Education Project filed a brief to the Supreme Court in a landmark voting rights case. The Post reported that between June 2011 and June 2012, Conway's firm, the Polling Company, paid Thomas's firm, Liberty Consulting, $80,000 and expected to pay another $20,000 by the end of 2012. It is unclear what work Thomas did for either the Judicial Education Project or the Polling Company. Conway emphasized that Thomas was one of her contractors and had a long history of involvement in the conservative movement. Of the effort to keep Thomas's name off paperwork, Leo said: "Knowing how disrespectful, malicious and gossipy people can be, I have always tried to protect the privacy of Justice Thomas and Ginni."