Supreme Court Justice’s Wife Agrees to Interview with Congressional Riot Panel

Conservative activist Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, has agreed to participate in a voluntary interview with the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, uprising.

Her lawyer Mark Paoletta said Mrs Thomas was “eager to answer the committee’s questions to clear up any misunderstandings about her work in relation to the 2020 election”.

The committee has been seeking an interview with Mrs Thomas for months to learn more about her role in helping former President Donald Trump overturn an electoral defeat. In the weeks after the election, she texted White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and reached out to lawmakers in Arizona and Wisconsin.

Mrs Thomas’ willingness to testify comes as the committee prepares to complete its work by the end of the year and is writing a final report on its findings into the US Capitol riots. The panel announced Wednesday that it will reconvene on Sept. 28 in what could be the last in a series of hearings that began this summer.

Mrs Thomas’ testimony – known as “Guiney” – is one of the group’s remaining projects as it looks at getting its work done. The team has interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses and presented some video testimony during eight hearings over the summer.

The extent of Mrs Thomas’ involvement before the Capitol attack is unclear.

In the days after the Associated Press and other news organizations announced that Joe Biden would hold a presidential election, Mrs. Thomas emailed two Arizona lawmakers, urging them to choose a “clean voter list” and “in the “Stay strong in the face of political and media pressure.” The Associated Press obtained the emails earlier this year under the state’s open records law.

She said in an interview that she attended the initial pro-Trump rally on the morning of Jan. 6, but left before Trump spoke and the crowd headed to the Capitol.

Mrs Thomas, a supporter of Mr Trump and a longtime active participant in conservative causes, has repeatedly maintained that her political activism has no conflict of interest with her husband’s work.

“Like many married couples, we share many of the same ideals, principles, and aspirations for America. But we have our own separate careers and our own ideas and perspectives. Clarence doesn’t discuss his work with me, nor do I Involve him in my work,” Thomas told the Washington Free Beacon in an interview published in March.

When the Supreme Court ruled in January to allow congressional committees to access presidential diaries, visitor logs, speeches and handwritten notes related to the events of January 6, Justice Thomas was the only dissenting voice.

Mrs. Thomas has been openly critical of the committee’s work, including signing a letter to House Republicans calling for the expulsion of Wyoming’s Liz Cheney and Illinois’ Adam Kinsinger from the GOP conference to join the Jan. 6 meeting. Congressional Committee.