Topline
Virginia Thomas sent 21 text messages urging Trump-era White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to contest the 2020 election results, the Washington Post and CBS reported Thursday, the latest indication that the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was sympathetic to a Trump-led push to reverse the election’s outcome.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas sits with his wife Virginia Thomas at the Heritage Foundation … [+]
Key Facts
The texts between Meadows and Thomas—a conservative activist—are part of a trove of records that Meadows handed over to the House committee investigating the January 6 riot at the Capitol building, according to CBS News and the Post.
In the weeks after former President Donald Trump’s election loss, Thomas reportedly echoed dubious claims about watermarked ballots, suggested making fringe attorney Sidney Powell “the lead and the face” of Trump’s post-election push and lamented that some Republicans showed insufficient loyalty to the outgoing president.
Four days after the Capitol riot, Thomas reportedly told Meadows she was “disgusted with” Vice President Mike Pence, who declined to interfere when Congress certified President Joe Biden’s win during a joint session on the day of the attack.
Meadows also sent at least eight texts back to Thomas, at one point promising to “fight until there is no fight left,” though he also said Powell—who has repeated false claims about vote-rigging—“doesn’t have anything” (Meadows’ attorney George Terwilliger didn’t comment on the texts to the Post but said they don’t present legal issues).
A spokesperson for the Capitol riot committee declined to comment on the text messages to Forbes, and Thomas, the Supreme Court and Terwilliger did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Forbes.
Key Background
The text exchanges between Thomas and Meadows came as Trump’s staffers and allies fought to overturn his election loss and repeated false voter fraud allegations. An activist and lobbyist, Thomas appeared to show an interest in Trump’s post-election efforts. She briefly attended a “peaceful” morning rally on January 6, she told the Washington Free Beacon earlier this month—though she said she was “disappointed and frustrated” by the violence that ensued later that day. The New York Times reported last month she played a “peacemaking role” between organizers of the January 6 rally, and revealed she sits on the board of an organization that circulated a plan to challenge election results (in an interview with the Free Beacon, she denied playing a mediating role among rally organizers or drafting the conservative organization’s post-election plan). Thomas’ activism has occasionally raised conflict-of-interest concerns involving Justice Clarence Thomas, though she claimed to the Free Beacon that she doesn’t discuss high court decisions with her husband until they’re public.
Tangent
Meadows handed the texts over to the House lawmakers shortly before he cut off cooperation with the January 6 committee, even though the panel subpoenaed him. Last year, the House voted to recommend contempt of Congress charges for Meadows, but it’s unclear whether the Department of Justice will seek an indictment.
Further Reading
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2022/03/24/virginia-thomas-wife-of-supreme-court-justice-reportedly-pushed-trumps-chief-of-staff-to-challenge-2020-election-loss/