Lawyers Who Argued Supreme Court Cases Paid a Clarence Thomas Aide Via Venmo

While the rest of us were Venmo-ing our friends for the dinner check, an aide to conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was apparently receiving payments on the app from lawyers that appeared before the high court.

The Guardian reports that the aide, Rajan Vasisht, served Thomas from July 2019 to July 2021 and received at least seven payments from lawyers via Venmo during November and December 2019. One of the lawyers in question is Patrick Strawbridge, a partner at Consovoy-McCarthy Park PPLC with ties to the ultra-conservative Federalist Society. Strawbridge recently argued against affirmative action in a Supreme Court case brought against the University of North Carolina. Vasisht’s Venmo account was apparently public prior to The Guardian requesting comment from the former aide. Vashist and the Supreme Court did not immediately return Gizmodo’s request for comment on the payments.

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Strawbridge is only one of seven lawyers that appeared on Vasisht’s public Venmo feed—the other six include Kate Todd, Elbert Lin, Brian Schmalzbach, Manuel Valle, Liam Hardy, and the late Will Consovoy. The amount of each payment has not been revealed, but the transactions have Christmas-themed captions such as “Thomas Christmas Party” or “CT Christmas Party,” referencing Thomas’ initials, per the Guardian.

The revelation of the payments comes as Thomas faces repeated scrutiny for accepting gifts and donations from conservative benefactors, as the New York Times described in detail. Specifically, in April, news broke that Thomas had accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in travel from Harlan Crow, a wealthy Dallas real estate developer and Nazi memorabilia collector. Crow gifted Thomas flights on his private jet and trips to his yacht, complete with a private chef, while also paying for private school tuition for Thomas’ adoptive son.

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