In messages obtained by The Washington Post and CBS News, Virginia Thomas, who goes by Ginni, sent 29 texts to then-White House chief of Staff Mark Meadows to overthrow the 2020 presidential election.
Thomas, who is a conservative activist and the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, pushed to keep former United States President Donald Trump in power. Her messages are among 2,320 messages that Meadows provided the House Select Committee that are now part of the investigation as part of the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol.
In the texts with Meadows, Thomas sought to influence Trump’s strategy to overturn the election results. She also lobbied for lawyer Sidney Powelll to be “the lead and the face” of Trump’s legal team.
“Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!!” she wrote to Meadows in a message on November 10, 2020. “‘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 [sic] attempting the greatest Heist of our History.”
Meadows did not respond to all of Thomas’s texts in November but he did say it was a “fight of good versus evil.”
“I will stand firm,” Meadows replied. “We will fight until there is no fight left. Our country is too precious to give up on. Thanks for all you do.”
Meadows also seemed to evoke some biblical references.
“Evil always looks like the victor until the King of Kings triumphs,” Meadows wrote. “Do not grow weary in well doing. The fight continues. I have staked my career on it. Well at least my time in DC on it.”
“Thank you!! Needed that! This plus a conversation with my best friend just now … I will try to keep holding on. America is worth it,” Thomas replied.
The text messages are now part of the bipartisan January 6 panel that is investigating the storming of the United States Capitol in 2021 by a pro-Trump mob and many anti-vaccination and mandate people. The revolt tried to stop the confirmation of current United States President Joe Biden’s electoral college win. The attack led to five deaths and over one hundred injured law enforcement members.
“Nothing about the text messages present any legal issues,” according to Thomas’s attorney.
Many, including Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn), are calling on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from any 2020 election cases amid the new text message revelations that are in relation to his wife.
The New York Times has called the Thomas rightwing political couple as “one being – an amalgam.”
“This is a textbook case,” Klobuchar said. “You cannot have a justice hearing cases related to this election, and, in fact, the ethics rules that apply to all the other federal judges says that if it involves a family member – appearance of impartiality – they have to recuse themselves.”
With the ethics rules applying to all other federal judges and not the nation’s highest court, Thomas has no obligation to recuse himself.
That said, Justices do sometimes recuse themselves. Justice Amy Coney Barrett refrained from arguments recently that involved a case that was being discussed before she was confirmed to the Supreme Court.
Thomas recused himself in 1995 from a case that involved a school that his son attended.
Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) said this is why there should be reform within the Supreme Court.
“I have a lot of frustrations with the Supreme Court as a whole that they have not taken better measures to police themselves,” Booker said. “There are ethics rules that they hold lower courts responsible for that they don’t put upon themselves. I think most of America doesn’t understand that I could be a justice and I could give a paid speech in front of a group that has either a direct matter in front of the Supreme Court or amicus briefs in front of the Supreme Court.”
The committee has already subpoenaed Former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino as well as other former Trump advisors in an effort to investigate the insurrection. An attorney for Trump though instructed them to not comply with the congressional investigators.
Meadows was one of the people who refused to cooperate with the committee, which led to the House voting to hold him in contempt of Congress in December.
Thomas recently confirmed that she had attended the “Stop the Steal” rally, which was near the January 6 insurrection at the United States Capitol. She did not participate in the assault, and she left the event before Trump urged the crowd to march on the Capitol.
The Washington Post reported that the January 6 committee will seek an interview with Thomas.
The Republican National Committee filed a lawsuit against the January 6 committee earlier this month in hopes of blocking the panel’s subpoena of data from Salesforce.
