WASHINGTON ( Associated Press) – Members of the House Committee investigating the Capitol riot said Sunday they can sue former Vice President Mike Pence and wait to hear from Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, about her role in the illegal conspiracy to overthrow the 2020 election.
Lawmakers have indicated they will release more evidence about Donald Trump’s alleged attempt to defraud supporters by raising funds from false claims of a stolen presidential election. They also undertook to provide relevant material to the Department of Justice by the end of the month for its criminal investigation. The department complained in a letter last week that the committee was complicating its investigation by not sharing transcripts of its 1,000 interviews.
“We are not taking anything off the table in terms of witnesses who have not yet testified,” Rep. Adam Schiff, who described a Pence subpoena as “definitely a possibility”.
“We would still, I think, want more high-profile people to come before our committee,” Schiff, D-Calif.
Virginia Thomas, wife of Co-Judge Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court, moderates a panel discussion entitled “When did World War III begin? Part A: Threats at home” during the Conservative Political Action Conference at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center 23 Presented in National Harbor, Maryland, February 2017. CPAC, hosted by the American Conservative Union, is an annual gathering of right-wing politicians, commentators and their supporters (Photo by Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)
For example, the committee was able to document most of Trump’s end of his call to Pence on the morning of the January 6, 2021 uprising, when the then president made his last plea for Pence to certify Joe Biden’s victory when Pence the score of the Electoral College in Congress. Members have not yet directly documented what Pence said in response.
The committee chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss, recently said the committee is still “involved” with Pence’s lawyers, while also suggesting that it may not be necessary for him to appear because of testimony from many of Pence’s neighbors. employees.
Committee members also hope to find out more about Ginni Thomas’ own attempt to keep Trump in office and the potential conflict of interest that will be placed on her husband as a result on January 6, cases coming before the Supreme Court.
Republican State Rep. Rusty Bowers, the Arizona House speaker, is scheduled to testify at the committee’s hearing Tuesday and focus on government officials who were contacted by Trump and the White House as Trump tried to reverse the results. Bowers will likely be asked about emails he received from Thomas requesting him and other government officials to set aside Biden’s 2020 victory and select their own set of voters.
“We have questions for her and we may also have questions for him,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif.
READ MORE: Rep Bennie Thompson says January 6 committee wants to hear from Ginni Thomas
Thomas has publicly stated that she “can not wait” to appear before the committee after receiving their request by letter last week.
Along with the email to Arizona officials, Thomas, who attended a rally that Trump attended just before the Capitol riot, also wrote to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in the weeks following the election, and encouraged him to work to reverse Biden’s victory. E-mails recently obtained by the committee also show that Thomas had e-mail communications with John Eastman, the lawyer who played a key role on behalf of Trump in attempts to pressure Pence to reverse the election.
“I think the committee will be interested, among other things, in whether this has been discussed with Judge Thomas, as he has ruled on matters that have an impact or we will get some of this information,” Schiff said.
This past January, Thomas was the only member of the court to support an attempt by Trump to withhold documents from the January 6 committee.
Lofgren said the committee would release additional evidence they had gathered about the “big rip off,” in which the committee claims Trump may have committed fraud by raising funds by making a false claim that the election was stolen.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., Said the public will eventually have a clear picture of a “failure of the oath” by Trump.
“I think what we offer to the American people will definitely rise to a level of criminal involvement by a president,” he said.
Kinzinger also said he and his family received threats because of his role on the committee. He spoke of his concern that “there is violence in the future. … And until we get a grip on telling people the truth, we can not expect otherwise. “
Schiff appeared on Nation World News’s “State of the Union,” Lofgren appeared on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” and Kinzinger spoke on ABC’s “This Week.”
