By Amy Gardner
Virginia Thomas, political activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, has decided to relinquish control of Liberty Central, the conservative group she founded less than a year ago, so that the organization can escape the "distractions" of her media celebrity, a spokeswoman said.
The spokeswoman, Caitlin Carroll of CRC Public Relations in Alexandria, Va., said Monday morning that an announcement was scheduled for later in the day or Tuesday morning, detailing the merger of Liberty Central with another organization and Thomas' decision to step down as chief executive.
"She'll take a back seat so that Liberty Central can continue with its mission without any of the distractions," Carroll said. "After discussing it with the board, Mrs. Thomas determined that it was best for the organization."
Carroll declined to elaborate, but a source not authorized to speak publicly about the details said Liberty Central would be merging with the Patrick Henry Center, a Manassas, Va.-based conservative organization founded by Gary Aldrich, the former FBI agent who wrote a tell-all book about life inside the Clinton White House.
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Thomas launched Liberty Central in May as a grass-roots organizer and educator intended to serve as a clearinghouse of policy and candidate information for conservative activists and Tea Party groups.
More recently, however, Thomas has been in the news as a result of her phone call to Anita Hill, the lawyer who accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment during his 1991 Senate confirmation hearings. Virginia Thomas rekindled a long-ago controversy by leaving a voice mail message at Hill's Brandeis University office seeking an apology.
Read the rest of this article at the Washington Post.
