Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and who goes by the name “Ginni”, urged top Trump White House figures to continue insisting that the then-president in fact won the 2020 election, according to a newly released cache of 29 messages sent by Ms Thomas to then-chief of staff Mark Meadows.
The texts, which have been released to the 6 January inquiry in Congress, have put new pressure on Ms Thomas’s husband because of the implications that her closeness to the Trump circle could have for her husband’s judicial impartiality.
Some have pointed out that Mr Thomas, who has just been released from hospital after being admitted last week with an unspecified “infection”, did not recuse himself from cases involving false claims about the 2020 election or the events surrounding the Capitol riot. Asked about this, GOP House leader Kevin McCarthy declined to agree that Mr Thomas should recuse himself from such cases, instead saying the justice could and should decide for himself what to do.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump has sued Hillary Clinton and other Democrats, claiming that they tried to rig the 2016 election by tying the former president’s campaign to Russia.
