Thomas bangs the door and asks to be let out, but it is to no avail. Back in 2003, playboy Ridge Forrester (then Ronn Moss) and former stepmother Brooke Logan were in South America to tie the knot for the third time when the groom was kidnapped by merry murderess Sheila Carter, another former stepmother but one that he had no interest in marrying. Let me reintroduce you. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. And he claimed online that he would send busloads of people to the protests. Not hard to imagine that. When James and Thomas make their way onto the boat to sail away, Jed is nowhere to be seen. But what he said was that he thought that Ginni Thomas is - her behavior is reprehensible. DAVIES: What does Chief Justice John Roberts think about all this? So I think he - you know, he probably doesn't want anybody interfering with the way that he runs the court. He, meanwhile - this is where it begins to get - sort of the plot thickens and it gets concerning - is that he, meanwhile, was very much advocating publicly for Trump's so-called Muslim ban that was going to try to exclude Muslim countries from having immigrants come to the United States. The Vanishing Ending: Why Did Thomas Kill James? She was on the board - the advisory board of Turning Point Action, which is another group whose founder, Charlie Kirk, had a big role in organizing the January 6 protests. And they, during the Trump administration, played a really unusual role and, I think, one that raised a lot of eyebrows even inside the Trump White House, which was that they compiled a list of people that they claimed were disloyal members of the so-called deep state who were, they thought, not going along enough with Trump. This would let James take care of his family, and Donald and Thomas also see a carefree life in their futures. I think it goes back at least till 2013, and it still exists. And that's not fudging it. DAVIES: You know, there's one case about the January 6 assault on the Capitol that's already come before the court. The beginning of the film alludes to Thomas loneliness and the fact that he has no family to take care of. His appearance is limited but adds a bit of life to the dreary scenes on the gray island. DAVIES: Right. Thomas and James carry the chest up the cliff as Donald fights off the man and kills him with a rock in self-defense. The problems could have arisen because of their childrens death, as it is hard for many couples to deal with such a tragedy. However, the distrust among the three men leads them down a dark path. It was supposed to be a six-week shift, so the next set of keepers would have come to the lighthouse when their shift was up. So there is an effort by Congress to try to fix some of these rules, particularly having to do with ethics, with financial disclosure and with these amicus briefs. But she has a website, and on it she boasts that she can get access to any door in Washington. MAYER: Yeah, it was really disturbing for him. In Sommersby, a bearded, muddy figure (Richard Gere) tromps across the dark green wilderness of the American South, finally arriving in Vine Hill, Tenn. But no one had foreseen what would happen next. You want to explain who he is? It is a remake of Sluizer's 1988 French-Dutch film of the same name . The Cecil Hotel. She is a staff writer and chief Washington correspondent for The New Yorker. And they presented what they said were better people, their friends, who should be hired. Like the Ravenel Bridge today, the Grace Bridge actually crossed two bodies of water - the Cooper River and Town Creek. The guardians, delighted to discover the precious metal, see in it the solution to all their problems. And she opened the meeting, actually, by looking around the room and saying she didn't trust everybody in it. And she's backed all kinds of Trump causes and Trump's election. MAYER: I've listened to a number of her speeches now. MAYER: It was called Making America Great. It's a nonpartisan group. MAYER: He was the only vote that - Trump side and said that Trump didn't need to release his documents, his papers to the January 6 committee. So I asked somebody who knows a lot about how the court works, and I was told that no way, that each justice sort of functions as their own law firm separately, independently, and that no justice would feel that it was appropriate to criticize another. Ultimately, Thomas and James venture into the sea with their precious gold and Donalds dead body. And he became an academic. She worked for the Heritage Foundation, which is a conservative think tank. After the lighthouse keepers deal with the crew members who come to the island looking for their missing man and the chest full of gold he traveled with, the tension in the movie increases manifold. That was in about, I think, 2011. There's sort of two sets of rules. Those range from her activities on behalf of Trump to her speeches condemning the Affordable Care Act. Thomas admitted, too, that he and his wife Ginni had "joined them on a number of family trips during the more-than-a-quarter-century we have known them". DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR, and we're speaking with New Yorker, staff writer and chief Washington correspondent Jane Mayer. DAVIES: Yeah, you know, I think most of us would not want to be judged by the - many of the things we did in our 20s. So there's this appearance test. MAYER: The court has to accept the amicus briefs. When he sees the face of the boy, he is immediately reminded of his own son, and his sanity takes an ugly turn. The Code of Judicial Conduct For United States Judges, written by the U.S. And we're speaking with New Yorker staff writer and chief Washington correspondent Jane Mayer. The climax of the film shows no indication of the state of the lighthouse after the keepers leave. Only 40% of the country said that they respected the court. We are speaking with Jane Mayer. A persons mental health may deteriorate under such circumstances. Chief Justice John Roberts - when he joined the court, his wife, Jane Sullivan Roberts, gave up her law career in order to not pose any kind of conflicts. She has not registered as a lobbyist. The Vanishing locations are primarily located in Washington with . I don't think anybody knew at the time other than the Thomases, maybe, you know, and Frank Gaffney. The film was not released commercially until 1991, perhaps because distributors feared American . On Wednesday morning, Ginni Thomaswife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas endorsed the rally in Washington demanding that Congress overturn the election. Furthermore, we believe the lighthouse remained unmanned after the keepers abandoned their posts. This is FRESH AIR. This is not a matter of picking on Justice Clarence Thomas for some reason. She has an active lobbying firm and has ties to many groups that have an interest in cases that may come before the court. But things look up when James comes back to them and seems to be himself again. Her latest article is about the conservative activism and influence of Ginni Thomas, wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. The keepers, excited to discover the precious metal, see them as the solution to all their problems. And the reason, according to experts that I interviewed, is that it's become a form of lobbying. She was earning a decent chunk of change from Frank Gaffney in 2017 and 2018 from his nonprofit. If it's something, a situation, that might make a reasonable person who knows the facts think that you as a judge can't be impartial, you should step aside. He just really loves Maldonado, 51. DAVIES: So I'd like you to give us a sense of Ginni Thomas' political views. But what's interesting is that these rules apply to all judges who are in the federal system except for those on the Supreme Court. Following the events on the island, James resolves to end his life because he cant live, haunted by the lies and the secrecy. Desiree and Stella Vignes are . Two days later, the circumstances of its disappearance remain cloaked in mystery. You can see from its sort of incorporation papers, it's just a little place. The keepers are torn between keeping the chest locked as per protocol and opening it to find something valuable. Ginni Thomas brought in a group of people. What do we know about that meeting, how it happened, what occurred? The movies climax shows no indication of the condition of the lighthouse after the keepers sailed away. But what about judges? The amended forms disclosed that over that over four year period, the conservative Heritage Foundation had paid his wife $680,000. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. MAYER: Well, he gave an end-of-the-year statement at the end of this last year in which he tried to fend off reformers in Congress or also there's been a - Biden has appointed a committee to kind of review the Supreme Court and see if they can submit ideas for reform. And she stepped down from a political position she had. But you can see that the other justices - many of them - have handled these issues much more carefully, much more sensitively. And it sounded grim and kind of scary. He certainly did vote for it over and over again. Hardcover, 343 pages. He was a simple man who worked hard and supported his family. But now we have this movement of money from an active pro-Trump group to a private advocacy organization, to Ginni Thomas' one-person lobbying firm while this case is before the court. McMaster, the former national security adviser to Trump, who they felt was not hawkish enough and not pro-Trump enough. They're taking a position on the cases in front of the court. MAYER: Well, there are actually very specific rules applying to judges' spouses and family members. And so she sees enemies everywhere. And they - there's just a lot of murk there. And the reason there's an appearance test is because, in this country, the thinking has been that the appearance of justice is just as important as the fact of justice, that it's incredibly important in a democracy that the public trusts the courts and thinks that the judges are not corrupt. What happened to experienced island men Donald MacArthur, James Ducat and Thomas Marshall on the lonely island of Eileen Mor? Tom Clancy's attorneys have countered by asking that the economic issues be separate and that the divorce be granted immediately. They . DAVIES: Do you have any information or did any of your sources think that Justice Roberts or other justice may have reached out to Clarence Thomas about this to make it clear they're uncomfortable with Ginni Thomas' connections to groups with business before the court? James asks Thomas for help when he cannot do it himself. Eventually, Thomas and James venture into the sea with their precious gold and Donalds corpse. DAVIES: I guess the question that obviously occurs is, how does he know what the other eight justices think? That has led some to suggest that her husband, Justice Thomas, should recuse himself from issues in which his wife has played a prominent role. She had harbored ambitions of running for Congress, but when he went on the Supreme Court, she felt she really couldn't do that, and she felt somewhat stuck and stymied. Towards the end, Thomas sits and cries in the chapel, asking for spiritual forgiveness as he thinks he left his wife to die. The movie is a testament to human strength, both mental and physical. Clarence Thomas defends himself after . Francis Crane is the 16-year-old daughter of the wealthy businessman who owns Crane Flour, a . This also enables him to devote 25 years to manning the lighthouse. DAVIES: Jane Mayer is a staff writer and chief Washington correspondent for The New Yorker. She's a director of a group called C.N.P. We got this amicus brief. It's kind of an online network, a secret network of right-wing activists who are trying to coordinate with conservative members of Congress and their staff and conservative members of the media and quite a few other activists. Following the events on the island, James resolves to end his life because he cannot live, haunted by lies and secrecy. They find a few random items, like shoes and some clothes, and the precious gold bars are tucked away at the bottom of the box. She then sent her "LOVE . In one message obtained by The Post, she asserted that "many of us are hurting" after Trump's loss to President Joe . Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. The women were all seen by witnesses, but they somehow vanished into thin air. Throughout this 2018 thriller flick directed by Kristoffer Nyholm, we see a certain tension build in the aura of the lighthouse. We see him making arrangements for his family early in the film as he hands money to his wife and kisses his children goodbye. MAYER: So she apparently felt quite stuck and stymied by the fact that he went on the Supreme Court. This event makes them waver off their principal duties, and greed drives them to do ugly things. Thomas was a popular child actor in the 90s, best known for his role on the sitcom Home Improvement, while Pomers starred in the series Reba in the early 2000s. But it looks like she had sort of some rocky years. In 1988, George Sluizer made a French-Belgian production, also called "The Vanishing," that was one of the most intelligent thrillers I've seen. When Thomas bursts through the door, he sees Donalds corpse next to James as he kills him as well. It's another kind of form of dark money spending. So where's this coming from? No specific indication was given about the dogs whereabouts. Additionally, we believe the lighthouse remained unmanned after the keepers abandoned their posts. DAVIES: And what connection does Ginni Thomas have with him? And in 2017 and 2018, according to filings that he submitted to the IRS, he hired Ginni Thomas' consulting group, each year, for over $100,000, to work for him. What was his concern? It's - if the circumstances would raise a question which would undermine the court's sense of impartiality, that's a problem. So, Jane Mayer, one of the things you write about is that Ginni Thomas often has connections to people or organizations that would file amicus briefs in Supreme Court cases. But it is certain that Thomas sailed away with all the gold they found in the chest. Anita Hill accused him of sexual harassment. They had undercover women who were going to try to meet with him in a restaurant and get him to sort of loosen up and say inappropriate things about Trump, and they were going to surreptitiously tape him. Overview. With Gerard Butler, Peter Mullan, and Connor Swindells as the lead keepers of the light in The Vanishing, the film explores multiple themes, such as the impact of trauma, dealing with guilt, and how greed can completely alter a persons behavior. Read more: 10 overlooked 1990s thrillers you need to see. She basically talks about - in one speech about how the enemies of America, who she defines as the left, are trying to kill people like herself. This event makes them waver from their main duties, and greed drives them to do bad things. 1. The film ends with Thomas on a boat with gold, leaving the lighthouse he has agreed to keep. What do the legal scholars you talked to think about this position of Roberts? Even before that, Clarence Thomas had been described as listening to Ginni Thomas more than anybody else. So he had his reasons for wanting to kind of go along with and stay on good terms with Justice Thomas. In her interview with the Free Beacon, Mrs. Thomas said she and her husband do not discuss Supreme Court cases "until [the court's] opinion are public --and even then, our discussions have always been very general and limited to public information.". We also see Thomas lighting three candles in the chapel while reciting three names Jessica, Freya, and Cathy. The Michaelsons have been living out a fantasy in which they think their daughter is still alive because they have been unable to successfully go through the stages of grief, after learning from Paul's brother that their daughter had died six years before. We are speaking with Jane Mayer. The White House was not informed that Frank Gaffney was actually a lobbying client of hers. The Supreme Court falls under the Ethics in Government Act, as do other branches of the government, and that requires that the Supreme Court justices disclose some things about their financial interests, publicly. And if you push back further and kind of, you know, turn the rocks over further, what you find is that Gaffney's center was funded by a political group which was chaired by Rebekah Mercer, the sort of well-known Trump backer. And I think this is an important thing for people to understand. He discovers the hidden gold and immediately packs up the chest as it was. And the reason is there's a feeling that it's becoming just another - you know, the justices are just politicians in robes. SPOILERS AHEAD! Thomas tries to give her some meaning by reminding her that what Donald did was in self-defense. However, mistrust between the three men leads them down a dark path. Let's just talk a little bit about Ginni Thomas' background. As Thomas throws the body overboard, James voluntarily enters the sea and drowns. MAYER: Well, he has a - sort of a advocacy group that's called the Center for Security Policy. MAYER: Some of the people I interviewed who are legal scholars have suggested that Thomas really has to recuse. Understanding James pain and agony, Thomas accepts his dying wish and holds his head underwater. Thomas slams the door and asks to leave, but in vain. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas talks to his wife, Ginni Thomas, a conservative activist, at the Heritage Foundation on Oct. 21, 2021, in Washington, D.C. Ginni Thomas, the controversial wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, says her activities on behalf of Donald Trump and other conservative causes have no bearing on the work of her husband. It's just - as one of the legal scholars I interviewed, David Luban, said, it's slicing the baloney a little bit too thin. And he also had some interests that were sort of personal interests in keeping on good terms with Clarence Thomas. And he's always very careful. And it's also been the source of a lot of controversy. Dec. 6, 1926. And so there's been somewhat of a call for recusal for Justice Thomas. He starts blaming Donald for their situation because if Donald had not killed the man who landed on the shore, nothing else would have happened. I mean, for the most part, the justices, as I said, self-enforce and self-disclose. Justice is another one. She gave that up in order not to have - you know, pose these kinds of conflicts and create these problems. After the lighthouse keepers deal with the crew members who come to the island in search of their missing man and the chest full of gold he traveled with, the tension in the film increases dramatically. Marisol Maldonado is a New York City model of Puerto Rican and Spanish descent, according to a 2000 profile in People magazine. The thought of his family crossed his mind, and he did not know how to face them after what he did. The article reported that Prime Minister Boris Johnson, when he was the foreign secretary in 2018, proposed . DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR, and we're speaking with New Yorker staff writer and chief Washington correspondent Jane Mayer. But there's a glitch in it, and that's what I came across in writing about Ginni Thomas. First of all, just explain what an amicus brief is. Her disappearance merited . MAYER: You know, I look at it, and like you, I say, you know, people - all kinds of things happen to people as they grow up, and, you know, you try to - try not to be too judgmental about people - at least I try not to be. And they brought this list to the White House and delivered it to Trump and said that basically these people need to be fired. Her latest article is about the conservative activism and influence of Ginni Thomas, the wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Nine is the owner of this masthead. Nina Proudman, the main character played by Asher Keddie, has had a very ordinary year. We also see Thomas lighting three candles in the chapel while reciting three names Jessica, Freya and Cathy. The movie comes to a close with Thomas on a boat with the gold, leaving the lighthouse he agreed to guard. I mean, the thing is that Ginni Thomas has ties to many of the organizers of the January 6 protests. Thomas got into music at an early age, teaching himself to play instruments by ear and singing choir at church and in school in Oklahoma. Little did Thomas and Jackie know that this unemployed, former childhood actor and dishonorably discharged Marine had another devious plan in mind: To lure the couple out to sea, force them to sign away their life . You write that a lot of Americans first became aware of her views on January 6, 2021. Thomas' fourth wife, Francis, passed away in 2004 after undergoing successful heart surgery, leaving her husband as the . Does she hire other lobbyists? And the way they get along with each other is by not making an issue of such things. It would allow James to take care of his family, and Donald and Thomas would also see a carefree life in their future. Ginni Thomas is on the advisory board of the National Association of Scholars, a conservative group that has filed an amicus brief in the Harvard case. The story of how a 150-year old house on an island off the Irish coast simply vanished has become the subject of international fascination, as the owner turned to the courts to find . DAVIES: I thought before we talk about Ginni Thomas' specific activities, we might talk a bit about what rules or standards should apply to this. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Amy Salit, Phyllis Myers, Sam Briger, Roberta Shorrock, Lauren Krenzel, Heidi Saman, Ann Marie Baldonado, Seth Kelley and Kayla Lattimore. You know, there's a certain amount of sort of gray area in there. One thing, as they always do, led to another, and Ridge was . Lets find out. $14,543,394 [2] The Vanishing is a 1993 American psychological thriller film directed by George Sluizer and starring Jeff Bridges, Kiefer Sutherland, Nancy Travis, and Sandra Bullock. DAVIES: And do we know of specific people that they targeted or that were removed or denied jobs? (SOUNDBITE OF DAN AUERBACH SONG, HEARTBROKEN, IN DISREPAIR). And that may come in front of the court. Do we know? The House Select Committee investigating the January 6 riot has in its possession more than two dozen text messages, 29 in total, between former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and . A previous version of this story incorrectly said that Fix the Court had reported that Ginni Thomas' salary had been omitted from Justice Thomas' financial disclosure statements. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. Kathy Ambush is Clarence Thomas's first wife and the mother of his one and only son. Critics have maintained that Justice Thomas should recuse himself from participating in cases that touch on issues his wife has publicly spoken about, even campaigned about. It is later revealed that Thomass wife and twin children died a few years ago. They were reportedly high school sweethearts who married in 1971. When James tells Donald that Thomas wife died, he expresses his condolences and even asks Thomas what happened. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Near the end, James locks Thomas in a room and begins to choke Donald. DAVIES: She meets Clarence Thomas. And what I found was just an astounding number of them have connections to Ginni Thomas. The Vanishing, a new film out today starring Gerard Butler, imagines what might have happened to them, weaving a dark tale of murder, betrayal and smugglers' gold. DAVIES: Well, Jane Mayer, thanks so much for speaking with us again. 10 Overlooked Thriller Movies From the 1990s That You Must See. James is seen reassuring him that he could have done nothing to protect his wife as she was ill. Understanding Jamess pain and agony, Thomas agrees to his dying wish and holds his head underwater. The bridge took 17 months to build. 1936New York City. James is in deep guilt after killing people and giving in to his greed. He also apparently entertained the thought for a while that he might be able to sort of court Clarence Thomas into retiring and then get yet another seat open, where he could appoint someone he wanted to the Supreme Court. Her latest article is about the conservative activism of Ginni Thomas, the wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Hardcover, 343 pages. DAVIES: We are speaking with Jane Mayer. The Hawks were thrilled when a young man named Skylar Deleon wanted to buy the boat for himself, his wife, and their two kids. And the two of them were very much welded together by it. This is a group that Ginni Thomas helped found a number of years ago. We'll continue our conversation in just a moment. The death of George Floyd, the Black man killed during a May arrest by Minneapolis police, has . We are puzzled as we did not get an explicit answer about how his children died. Many say there's a pressing need for clearer rules to govern the conduct of Supreme Court justices and their families. We are introduced to the friendly guard dog Jed when the three keepers arrive at the lighthouse for their six-week shift manning the tower. So in the end of 2018, former President Trump and his wife, Melania, had a sort of private dinner with Justice Thomas and with Justice Thomas' wife. This also enables him to devote 25 years to manning the lighthouse. Advertisement. Another interesting thing you note about Frank Gaffney, this person who heads this group, the Center for Security Policy - you report in 2019 it was reported that the White House had Ginni Thomas and Frank Gaffney and some associates to brief President Trump on some policy and personnel issues. Are there financial disclosures required of Supreme Court justices? But surprisingly, we dont see him in any of the fight scenes where he could have been useful. It shows what the human spirit is capable of in the face of deadly trauma and physical violence. And I think probably the effort is gaining in traction because of exactly this sort of thing. Thea Chaloner directed today's show. cries Theda Thomas, sliding toward the edge of her seat. He said it just makes a complete mockery of the idea that there's fairness on the Supreme Court, and he finds it incredibly disturbing. The wooden chest contains a lot of stuff, with gold bars immediately catching everyones attention. Her name before she got married was Virginia Lamp. Towards the end, Thomas sits and weeps in the chapel, asking for spiritual forgiveness as he thinks he let his wife die. Wow. News & Image Credit Click Here Maggie O'Farrell's novel The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, published in 2006, is the author's fourth novel and tackles the grim history of forced incarcerations of women and the devastating effects of family secrets. The interview was apparently an effort by Mrs. Thomas to deal with critical articles that have appeared recently in The New York Times and the New Yorker, describing her extensive conservative political activities. But James intentions were different, as his unhinged mind wanted the cruelty to stop. Magnum's daughter almost made her own television appearance decades later after Deadline reported in 2016 that ABC planned to launch a sequel to Magnum P.I. MAYER: Yes, there are. I saw this girl across the table and it turned out to be Gloria. But no one anticipated what would happen next. But all of those rules are optional for the Supreme Court judges, except for the most extreme cases where, for instance, if a Supreme Court justice - if his spouse was literally involved in a case in front of them, it would be clear that he'd have to step aside.
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