Ginni Thomas sticks to story in Jan. 6 panel interview
Conservative activist and justice’s wife repeats falsehood that election was stolen.
WASHINGTON — Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, stood by the false claim that the 2020 election was fraudulent during an interview Thursday with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, the panel’s chairman said.
“It’s a work in progress,” Rep. Bennie Thompson (DMiss.) told reporters after the more than four-hour interview. “At this point, we’re glad she came.”
The committee of seven Democrats and two Republicans has for months sought an interview with Thomas to learn about her role in trying to help former President Trump overturn his election defeat.
Thomas, a conservative activist, texted with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and contacted lawmakers in Arizona and Wisconsin in the weeks after the election.
As she answered some of congressional investigators’ questions Thursday, she sought to portray herself as one of many Americans who still believe the 2020 election was stolen, according to a person familiar with the investigation who was not authorized to discuss it publicly. But she did not provide any evidence or specific reasoning to back up her belief, the person said.
“As she has said from the outset, Mrs. Thomas had significant concerns about fraud and irregularities in the 2020 election,” Mark Paoletta, her attorney, said in a statement. “And, as she told the Committee, her minimal and mainstream activity focused on ensuring that reports of fraud and irregularities were investigated.
“Beyond that, she played no role in any events after the 2020 election results,” he added.
The interview with Thomas was one of the last remaining for the panel as it eyes the completion of its work. The panel has interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses and showed some of their video testimony in eight hearings this year.
The extent of Thomas’ involvement in the Capitol attack is unclear. In the days after the Associated Press and other news organizations called the presidential election for Democrat Joe Biden, she emailed two lawmakers in Arizona to urge them to choose “a clean slate of Electors” and “stand strong in the face of political and media pressure.” The AP obtained the emails earlier this year under the state’s open records law.
She has said in previous interviews that she attended the initial Trump rally the morning of Jan. 6 but left before he spoke and the crowds headed for the Capitol.
Thomas, who has long been active in conservative causes, has maintained that her political activities pose no conflict of interest with her husband’s work on the Supreme Court.
“Like so many married couples, we share many of the same ideals, principles, and aspirations for America. But we 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,” she told the Washington Free Beacon in an interview published in March.
Justice Thomas was the lone dissenting voice when the Supreme Court ruled in January to allow a congressional committee access to presidential diaries, visitor logs, speech drafts and handwritten notes relating to the events of Jan. 6.
Ginni Thomas has been openly critical of the Jan. 6 panel’s work, and signed on to a letter to House Republicans calling for the expulsion of Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois from the GOP conference for joining the committee.
Ginni Thomas’ ‘minimal ... activity focused on ensuring that reports of fraud and irregularities were investigated.’
— Mark Paoletta, Thomas’ lawyer