WASHINGTON — The House panel investigating last year’s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol is likely to seek an interview with Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, concerning her text messages with a top White House official about overturning the 2020 election, officials familiar with the matter said.
Committee chair Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, favors questioning the conservative activist. The panel’s Republican vice chair, Liz Cheney of Wyoming, doesn’t object and there is growing sentiment on the panel to bring Ginni Thomas in for a voluntary interview, two of the officials said.
The panel voted Monday evening to hold two former Trump aides in contempt for refusing to testify, but the topic of interviewing Thomas isn’t expected to be addressed, as of now.
Ginni Thomas has said publicly that she attended a rally on Jan. 6, 2021, but had no role in planning any events that day. The rally preceded the violence at the Capitol as a mob of former President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the building as Congress was certifying Electoral College votes and Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.
Some members of the panel had previously argued that interviewing Ginni Thomas about her actions surrounding Jan. 6 would distract from the committee’s other investigative pursuits and give Republicans another opportunity to charge that the probe is partisan, one of the officials said.
But Ginni Thomas, 65, has come under more scrutiny since The Washington Post and CBS News reported last week that she had texted Trump’s last chief of staff, Mark Meadows, to urge more be done to overturn Trump’s 2020 presidential election loss. Meadows had turned over text messages to the committee before refusing further cooperation.
The revelations prompted outside groups and some lawmakers to call for Thomas to recuse himself from any case involving the Jan. 6 probe. Thomas was the lone dissenter in a case this year on giving the panel access to some of Trump’s papers.
The committee is investigating the origins of the siege at the Capitol. The panel of five Democrats and two Republicans is trying to wrap up what has been more than 350 interviews with witnesses, most behind closed doors. Thompson has said the panel is aiming to hold public hearings by May and issue an interim report of its findings in the coming weeks.
On Monday, the committee voted to recommend that the House hold former White House deputy chief of staff for communications Dan Scavino and Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro in contempt because they are withholding information that a House committee considers “central” to its investigation.
If a House majority approves, criminal referrals would likely be sent to the Justice Department, which will decide whether to pursue prosecution.
