January 6 panel sends request to Ginni Thomas after she says she looks ‘forward to talking’

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Thomas, a conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, appears willing to speak with the committee, telling conservative news outlet The Daily Caller that she “can’t wait to clear up any misconceptions”.

“I can’t wait to talk to them,” she said in the interview published Thursday.

The panel’s request follows revelations late Wednesday that the committee is in possession of email correspondence between Thomas and Conservative lawyer John Eastman, according to a source close to the committee.

The source who spoke with CNN did not provide details about the content of the emails or whether they were direct messages between the two or part of a larger group correspondence. A separate source said the emails were part of a slice of messages provided to the committee after a federal judge ruled Eastman’s correspondence was relevant to the committee’s work investigating former President Donald Trump. and efforts to cancel the 2020 presidential election in the months leading up to January 6, 2021.

Thomas has been criticized for her political activism and involvement in efforts to advance allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. She previously admitted she attended the rally ahead of the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, but that she left early. Some progressives and legal ethics experts view her activism as a conflict of interest for her husband, who sits on the nation’s highest court.

Previously leaked text messages between Thomas and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, obtained by the committee, showed that Thomas regularly tuned in to Meadows to encourage him to advance allegations of voter fraud and prevent the certification of elections.

Thomas has repeatedly said that her political activism had nothing to do with her husband’s work on the Supreme Court. Justice Thomas has participated in Supreme Court cases related to the 2020 election controversies and has declined to recuse himself from related cases.
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Eastman on Thursday “categorically” denied having any discussions with Thomas and her husband about “any matters pending or likely to come before the Court.” “We have never engaged in such discussions, we would not engage in such discussions and we have not done so in December 2020 or at any other time,” he wrote in part in a post on its Substack.
He suggested that a recently reported email he sent in December 2020, in which he said he understood there was “an uphill battle going on” at the Supreme Court, was prompted by a report from a media outlet called Vision Times.

Thompson on Thursday dismissed Justice Department complaints that the House committee would release all of its transcripts to help the department’s investigation, saying it would turn over the transcripts to the department “in a timely manner.”

“We’re not going to stop what we’re doing to share the information we’ve gotten so far with the Justice Department. We have to do our job,” he said.

When asked if the panel would do so by the end of the week, the congressman replied “No,” but added, “That doesn’t mean we won’t cooperate.”

Committee member Rep. Adam Schiff told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead” Thursday night that part of the problem is the scope of what the Justice Department is asking for.

“I’ve been involved in several high-profile investigations, I’ve never seen the Justice Department say, ‘Give us all your records,'” the California Democrat said. “I think the challenge is the scale of their demand, but we’re going to work on that and make sure they get what they need.”

“We are working with them to make sure they get what they need, consistent with our own investigative needs,” Schiff said. “We want them to succeed. We want them to bring anyone who has broken the law to justice, and we are confident that we can help them prosecute all of the offenders involved.”

This story was updated with new developments on Thursday.

CNN’s Manu Raju, Lauren Koenig, Morgan Rimmer and Annie Grayer contributed to this report.

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