Jan. 6 committee likely to request Ginni Thomas testimony: report
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot is expected to request an interview with Virginia “Ginni” Thomas after it was revealed that the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas sent a series of texts pushing for the overturn of the 2020 presidential election result.
CNN reported Monday that the committee is likely to contact Thomas in the coming weeks, since she is one of many people the panel has been looking into as it explores ties between the riot and claims of election fraud by former President Donald Trump and his supporters.
On Friday, the outlet initially reported that some committee members have suggested either inviting Thomas to voluntarily appear or serving her with a subpoena.
The discussions come after reports last week revealed texts sent by Thomas, a conservative activist and former aide to Trump, to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election.
“Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!!” Thomas wrote in a Nov. 10, 2020, message. “You are the leader, with him, who is standing for America’s constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History.”
“Do not concede,” she reportedly wrote in another text dated Nov. 5, two days after Election Day.
“Biden crime family & ballot fraud co-conspirators (elected officials, bureaucrats, social media censorship mongers, fake stream media reporters, etc) are being arrested & detained for ballot fraud right now & over coming days, & will be living in barges off GITMO to face military tribunals for sedition,” she wrote in a separate message on the same day.
While Thomas never mentions her husband or the Supreme Court in the messages, they were included in more than 2,300 pages of documents turned over by Meadows to the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot, according to the Washington Post.
Earlier this month, it was revealed that Thomas attended the pro-Trump rally that took place shortly before the Capitol riot. She has insisted she “played no role” in the planning of the event.
Thomas and her husband have declined to answer questions regarding the matter, with the justice telling CNN, “No, thank you” when asked for an interview at his home Friday.
Since the messages were revealed, many have called on Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from hearing arguments in future cases involving the Capitol riot after he was the lone dissenter from an order rejecting Trump’s request to block documents from being handed over to the committee.
“Judges are obligated to recuse themselves when their participation in a case would create even the appearance of a conflict of interest. A person with an ounce of commonsense could see that bar is met here,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a statement Friday. “At the bare minimum, Justice Thomas needs to recuse himself from any case related to the January 6th investigation, and should Donald Trump run again, any case related to the 2024 election.”
