WASHINGTON — Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was on Capitol Hill Thursday to speak to the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Earlier this year, the committee revealed that Thomas was part of an effort to block the certification of President Joe Biden's 2020 election win. Among other things, Thomas showed up in text messages to Donald Trump's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and pressured Arizona lawmakers to use the power of the legislature to change the state's electoral votes from Joe Biden to Trump.
Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) said that Thomas still firmly believes that the 2020 election was stolen.
Speaking to Raw Story, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said that "Trump and his closest followers speak to you to propound the lie that he won the election and they're still promoting that lie."
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Raskin explained that while Thomas's testimony is important to know her piece in the attempt to overthrow the election, she's also just one of many of those who did the same thing.
"Remember we talked to more than 1,000 people the basic elements of this assault on American democracy are well known," Raskin said. "We know all of the different overtures that Trump made to state legislatures, to state election officials, to the vice president to orchestrate a political coup and we also know about the messages he sent out to domestic violent extremist groups and his followers to set the stage for a violent insurrection of the country. So all of that is there and what we're working toward in our final hearing is trying to supplement some of the missing details."
"So, I'm very interested in the private groups, in the self-proclaimed militia groups, and the threat that they pose not just to the U.S. Capitol but to state legislatures, to school boards, to election boards, institutions, and election officials in our country," Raskin continued.
He went on to say that he's concerned about the use of social media to promote conspiracy theories that ultimately lead to violence. QAnon conspiracies have flourished on Trump's personal site Truth Social and there have been two acts of violence from QAnon followers in the past several weeks.
"It can be used to fill their minds with propaganda and coordinate an assault on the U.S. government," Raskin said, in addition to the positive aspects like the Arab Spring. "So, what are we going to do about that?"
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) claimed that calling in Thomas to testify was just another tactic by Democrats to bring down the Supreme Court.
"I don't know what she's got to offer," said Cornyn. "But apparently she volunteered to come tell what — to answer their questions. So, good for her. I've never seen that before. Unfortunately, we've seen pretty much an all-out effort to delegitimize the Supreme Court by Democrats if they make decisions they don't like and I think that's irresponsible and it's led to threats of the lives of the justices themselves and their families, which is reckless. So, I'm concerned about how political it's gotten."
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called the whole Jan. 6 committee a "one-sided political affair and it's coming across as that. We're getting in kind of unusual land here."
Raskin said that there continues to be information coming in and that the fundamental elements have not changed its just more and more evidence that confirms the information they have.
Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) called Ginni Thomas "part of the web" of the conspiracy and noted that her husband appears to be part too. He went on to call it a conflict of interest that Clarence Thomas voted on a case that involved his wife.
Justice Thomas was the top of mind for Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) too, who said that there are a number of questions that she has about the conversations Thomas was having with his wife. When Raw Story noted that Republicans were miffed by the J6 committee bringing Thomas in for questions, Hirono said simply, "no one is above the law."
Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) called Ginni Thomas a "non-factor" but then noted, "she hasn't seen anything yet." When Raw Story asked him what he meant, he said simply, "It's going to be interesting."
The committee has been showing clips of videos of previous interviews when they have public hearings. It's unclear if Ginni Thomas refused to be filmed or taped as part of her interview or if she was happy to be public about her involvement.
Chairman Thompson hasn't released the date for the make-up hearing that was canceled due to Hurricane Ian hitting Florida this week.
