WASHINGTON ( Associated Press) – The House Committee investigating the January 6, 2021 uprising at the Capitol has asked Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, for an interview, the panel’s chairman said Thursday afternoon.
Thomas, a conservative activist, communicated with people in President Donald Trump’s orbit before the attack and also on the day of the uprising, when hundreds of Trump’s supporters violently stormed the Capitol and interrupted the certification of Joe Biden’s victory.
“We sent Ms. Thomas a letter asking her to come talk to the committee,” Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Democratic chairman of the panel, told reporters after a three-hour public hearing Thursday. He did not specify a time or date for an interview.
The chairperson said her name could also be mentioned at some point in the panel’s hearings held throughout June.
Thompson and Liz Cheney, vice chair of the committee, both said earlier in the day that it was time for her to come in voluntarily and testify to the nine-member panel after investigators discovered information referring to Thomas – known as Ginni – in communications they obtained relating to one of Trump’s attorneys, John Eastman.
In response to this, Thomas told the conservative news website Daily Caller on Thursday that she “can not wait to clear up misconceptions,” indicating that she will comply with a request to testify.
Eastman, who advised Trump in the weeks and days before the attack, was a key figure in the committee’s third public hearing Thursday. Lawmakers have laid out their case on the pressure campaign that Trump, with Eastman’s legal aid, waged against then-Vice President Mike Pence to try to get him to object on January 6 or delay Biden’s certification.
On his blog Thursday, Eastman posted a single email from Thomas on December 4, 2020, in which she asks Eastman for a status update for a group she describes as “ground-level state leaders.”
“OMG, Mrs. Thomas asked me to give her group an update on election litigation. Stop the press! ” the headline on the blog post reads.
Eastman also said he never “discussed any pending cases or is likely to go to court” with Thomas.
Thomas did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
This is not the first time members of the panel have said they want to speak to Thomas. In March, lawmakers on the committee said they were considering inviting her for a witness interview on text messages with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on the day of the attack. But she still did not speak to the panel.
She was critical of the January 6 committee and signed a letter with other Conservatives calling on House Republicans to rep. Expel Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois from the GOP conference for joining the panel.
Thomas also urged Republican lawmakers in Arizona to elect their own voters after the 2020 election, arguing that the results that give Joe Biden a victory in the state have been violated by fraud.
She admitted she attended the January 6 “Stop the Steal” rally on the Ellipse, but left before Trump spoke and his supporters later stormed the Capitol.
Judge Thomas was the only member of the Supreme Court to vote against the court’s order allowing the Jan. 6 committee to obtain Trump records held by the National Archives and Records Administration. The court voted in January to allow the committee to obtain the documents.
The court on Thursday did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the judiciary.
The emails between Eastman and Thomas were first reported by The Washington Post.
Associated Press author Mark Sherman contributed to this report.
For full coverage of the January 6 hearings, go to https://www.apnews.com/capitol-siege
