Jan. 6 Committee Reportedly Plans To Ask Ginni Thomas To Testify About 2020 Election Texts

Topline

The House January 6 Select Committee is expected to call in right-wing activist Ginni Thomas—the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas—to testify, the Washington Post reports, after text messages showing her pushing efforts to overturn the 2020 election have intensified pressure on the committee to speak with Thomas, despite previous hesitation within the committee to do so.

Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, moderates a pannel … [+] discussion during the Conservative Political Action Conference on February 23, 2017 in National Harbor, Maryland.

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Key Facts

The House committee will reach out to Thomas for an interview, the Post reports, citing an anonymous source, after CNN first reported Monday the committee was “likely” to pursue an interview “in the coming weeks,” adding a majority of the committee wants her to testify, including chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.).

The move would be a change of heart for the committee, which the New York Times reported Friday had “no plans” to call Thomas in, in part due to objections from Cheney.

The Times reports there was resistance within the committee to going after Ginni Thomas because it could hurt Clarence Thomas’ reputation—three of his former clerks have “major roles” in the investigation, the Times reports—and because committee members believed Ginni Thomas was “a distraction from more important targets.”

While Cheney initially didn’t want to do anything that could “unfairly target” Clarence Thomas, the Times reports that Cheney said Friday she now has “no objection” to calling Ginni Thomas to voluntarily testify.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), the sole other Republican on the committee, hasn’t ruled out Thomas testifying, saying on CBS’ Face the Nation Sunday the committee will “take a look at what the evidence is and we’ll make a decision” and will “call in whoever we need to call in.”

The House January 6 Committee has not yet responded to a request for comment, and the Supreme Court and Ginni Thomas have not yet commented on her text messages.

Crucial Quote

“As we’re seeing in Ukraine, people are willing to die for democracy. We at least have to be willing to put careers on the line for the same cause,” Kinzinger said Sunday when asked about whether the committee would call in Ginni Thomas, though he added any decision would be “not driven by a political motivation, it’s driven by facts.”

What We Don’t Know

How much more the January 6 Committee could learn from Thomas. Kinzinger acknowledged Sunday it’s likely there could be more text messages between her and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows than were initially disclosed—as Meadows stopped cooperating with the committee before he finished handing all his documents over—so there may be more messages that Thomas could disclose. Her testimony would also give a more complete picture of any efforts on her part to overturn the election—NBC News reported Friday she also pressured lawmakers to oppose the results—and how much she discussed it with her husband. The committee would likely ask Thomas to clarify who she was referring to in one of her text messages to Meadows that talked about “a conversation with my best friend” about overturning the election results—given that her and Clarence Thomas have referred to each other as their “best friends” in the past.

What To Watch For

It’s unclear when the committee could ask Thomas to testify, and the Guardian reports deliberations among committee members on the issue are likely to continue Monday on the House floor. If Thomas declines to be interviewed voluntarily, it also remains to be seen whether the committee would subpoena Thomas and force her to testify, as it has other Republicans, or if Cheney would object to doing so.

Chief Critic

While Ginni Thomas has not yet commented on the text messages, she told the Washington Free Beacon in a recent interview that she and her husband “have our own separate careers and our own ideas and opinions, too. Clarence doesn’t discuss his work with me, and I don’t involve him in my work.” Ginni Thomas also denied any involvement with planning the rally that preceded the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol building, though she said she briefly attended it.

Key Background

The House January 6 committee has 29 text messages between Ginni Thomas and Meadows after the 2020 election showing her repeatedly pushing him to pursue efforts to overturn the results, the Washington Post and CBS News first reported Thursday, the first evidence that Thomas had been directly involved with challenging the vote count. “Do not concede. It takes time for the army who is gathering for his back,” Thomas texted on November 4, before telling Meadows on November 19 to “release the Kraken and save us from the left taking America down,” referencing far-right attorney Sidney Powell’s nickname for her failed post-election legal strategy. The messages have intensified scrutiny on Thomas and her husband and whether she’s influenced his decision making on the court, particularly after he was the only justice to dissent in a ruling forcing the National Archives to turn over documents to the committee. (The text messages were provided separately by Meadows and were not part of that ruling.) A number of Democratic lawmakers and legal experts have called for Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from any election or January 6-related cases as a result—and some have even demanded his resignation.