Jan. 6 Committee May Subpoena Ginni Thomas, Cheney Says

Rep. Liz Cheney indicated that Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, may receive a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee if she refuses to appear voluntarily. Records show that Thomas communicated with Trump allies about the effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

“The committee is engaged with her counsel,” Cheney said during a Sunday appearance on CNN’s State of the Union. “We hope she’ll agree to come in voluntarily. The committee is fully prepared to contemplate a subpoena if she does not.”

Thomas, a conservative activist, texted with then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows about attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Email records also revealed she also corresponded with President Donald Trump’s election attorney, John Eastman. The committee has requested to meet with Thomas and asked her to provide to the panel any relevant documents in her possession. Additional emails show Thomas also encouraged Arizona Republicans in the state house and senate who were pushing a plan to submit fake electors. She pressed them to “stand strong in the face of political and media pressure” and said they had the “power to fight back against fraud” and “ensure that a clean slate of Electors is chosen.” She then asked to meet with the lawmakers “so I can learn more about what you are doing to ensure our state’s vote count is audited and our certification is clean.”

Thomas’s attorney responded to the committee’s request for testimony in a letter saying he “does not believe there is currently a sufficient basis to speak with” her.

“I am asking the Committee to provide a better justification for why Mrs. Thomas’s testimony is relevant to the Committee’s legislative purpose,” Thomas’s attorney, Mark Paoletta, wrote.

Cheney also signaled that the committee is considering a criminal referral of former president Donald Trump, saying it is “absolutely something we are looking at.”

“I think that Donald Trump, the violation of his oath of office, the violation of the Constitution that he engaged in, is the most serious misconduct of any president in the history of our nation,” she said. “I think that, as I said, the committee has not decided yet whether or not we’ll make criminal referrals. That’s something we take very seriously. And I would also say that the Department of Justice certainly is very focused based on what we see publicly on what is the largest criminal investigation in American history. But there’s no doubt in my mind that the president of the United States [Donald Trump] is unfit for further office.”

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