The drip-drip-drip of revelations concerning Supreme Court spouse Virginia «Ginni» Thomas’ support of former President Donald Trump’s election reversal gambits have created an unrelenting ethics scandal around the court.
Thomas, a political activist, has long advocated for conservative causes that touch on cases before the court on which her husband, Justice Clarence Thomas, sits. But several episodes connecting her to the efforts to overturn President Joe Biden’s electoral win — including contacts she had with top Trump advisers about the push and her own role in a mass email campaign to pressure state legislators responsible for certifying Biden’s electors — have put questions about her husband’s participation in relevant legal cases at the forefront. (Supreme Court justices decide for themselves whether a personal connection creates an appearance of a conflict requiring their recusal from a case.)
Her conduct has now made her of interest to the House January 6 committee. Ginni Thomas has insisted in the past that her political activism is kept separate from her husband’s work as a justice.
«I can’t wait to clear up misconceptions. I look forward to talking to them», Ginni Thomas told the conservative outlet The Daily Caller in an interview published Thursday about the possibility of appearing before the House committee. Trump’s supporters brought several lawsuits to the Supreme Court in late 2020 seeking that the justices disturb Biden’s win. Those cases were roundly rejected by the court, but with no indications that Thomas declined to participate. In one case, Thomas wrote a February 2021 dissent expressing sympathy with Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud. Thomas was also the sole publicly dissenting vote in a January 2022 Supreme Court move to allow House January 6 investigations to obtain Trump White House documents the former President sought to keep secret. Here’s a look what we have learned about her connections to the effort to overturn Trump’s electoral defeat:
Support on Facebook of the rally that preceded the January 6 attack on the Capitol
In Facebook posts the morning of January 6 that were surfaced by Slate a day later, Ginni Thomas cheered on the protestors who were demonstrating in front of the White House in the rally that later turned into a violent assault on Congress’ certification of Biden’s victory.
«GOD BLESS EACH OF YOU STANDING UP or PRAYING», she posted on her Facebook, along with a link to the livestream of the rally. The posts were published before the protest turned into a riot. Later that week, she added a disclaimer, according to Slate, that said «[Note: written before violence in US Capitol].»
Apologies for sparring over 2020 election that broke out on listserv for Justice Thomas’ former clerks
Later that January, Thomas wrote an apology to members of listserv for Justice Thomas’ former clerk to defuse the sparring that erupted over the 2020 election. The listserv was typically used to share personal and professional milestones among the circle of ex-clerks, and Thomas, in her apology, offered a «pledge to not let politics divide THIS family, and learn to speak more gently and knowingly across the divide.»
Prior to the apology, Thomas had used the listserv to express her disappointment with Trump’s defeat, writing to the former clerks, «Many of us are hurting, after leaving it all on the field, to preserve the best of this country.»
«I feel I have failed my parents who did their best and taught me to work to preserve liberties», she wrote in the earlier email.
