Hearing Aides For America, Con't

Ginni Thomas, GOP activist (and apparently part-time conspirator) and wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, had a far more important role in the January 6th insurrection conspiracy than previously revealed.

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol has obtained email correspondence between Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and lawyer John Eastman, who played a key role in efforts to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to block the certification of Joe Biden’s victory, according to three people involved in the committee’s investigation.

The emails show that Thomas’s efforts to overturn the election were more extensive than previously known, two of the people said. The three declined to provide details and spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

The committee’s members and staffers are now discussing whether to spend time during their public hearings exploring Ginni Thomas’s role in the attempt to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election, the three people said. The Washington Post previously reported that the committee had not sought an interview with Thomas and was leaning against pursuing her cooperation with its investigation.

The two people said the emails were among documents obtained by the committee and reviewed recently. Last week, a federal judge ordered Eastman to turn more than 100 documents over to the committee. Eastman had tried to block the release of those and other documents by arguing that they were privileged communications and therefore should be protected.

Thomas also sent messages to President Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and to Arizona lawmakers, pressing them to help overturn the election, The Post has previously reported.

While Thomas has maintained that she and her husband operate in separate professional lanes, her activities as a conservative political activist have long distinguished her from other spouses of Supreme Court justices. Any new revelations about Thomas’s actions after the 2020 presidential election are likely to further intensify questions about whether Clarence Thomas should recuse himself from cases related to the election and attempts to subvert it.

 

The Committee isn't leaning against dealing publicly with Thomas, GOP Committee co-chair Liz Cheney is against doing so, yet another reason not to trust her going forward. Outside of Trump's conspiracy itself, Ginni and Clarence Thomas's involvement in the insurrection is arguably the most vile revelation of the entire mess here, especially since Justice Thomas continues to hear and decide cases directly involved with efforts to use alternate slates of electors to overturn elections and who gets the final say in sending those elector slates to Washington.

This is far more damaging that what Trump tried and failed at, because it would give the next GOP presidential candidate, Trump or otherwise, a way to maintain power permanently.

Luckily, Liz Cheney isn't in charge. Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson is.

 

What they’re saying: “We think it’s time that we, at some point, invite her to come talk to the committee,” Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) told Axios.Thompson said of the committee's reasoning,

"We have discovered in those Eastman [emails] some information that refers to Ginni Thomas," but declined to go into further detail about what she'll be asked.

Asked when the invite will go out, Thompson said, "Soon."

 

Get the popcorn for that one.