Ginny Thomas calls on Arizona lawmakers to help undo Biden’s victory, emails show

WASHINGTON (AP) – Virginia “Ginny” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and a conservative political activist, called on Arizona Republicans after the 2020 presidential election to choose their own constituency, arguing that the results of Joe Biden’s victory in the state were marred by fraud.

Revelations first published by The Washington Post Friday showed Thomas was more involved than previously known in efforts based on baseless allegations of fraud to undo Biden’s victory and keep then-President Donald Trump in office.

In the days after the Associated Press and other news outlets called the Biden presidential election, Thomas emailed two Arizona lawmakers urging them to choose a “clean voter list” and “stand strong political and media pressure.” The AP received the emails under the state’s Open Records Act.

Thomas had, too written to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in the weeks after the election, which encouraged him to work to undo Biden’s victory and keep Trump in office, according to text reports first published by the Post and CBS News.

Thomas was a staunch supporter of Trump who admitted to attending the Stop the Theft rally on January 6 at Ellipse, but left before Trump spoke to his later supporters stormed the Capitol.

She criticized Congress’ ongoing investigation into the January 6 violence, including signing a letter to Republicans in the House of Representatives calling for the expulsion of Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kensinger of Illinois from the January 6th GOP conference to join a congressional committee.

Judge Thomas, meanwhile, has participated in the court’s consideration of claims to challenge the election results. The court dismissed any challenge without a hearing, although Thomas was among three conservative judges who said Pennsylvania cases should be heard. In February 2021, Thomas called the cases an “ideal opportunity” to address the important question of whether state legislators or state courts have the final say in the way federal elections are conducted.

It was January the only member of the court who backed Trump’s proposal to withhold documents from the commission on Jan. 6. The documents were kept by the National Archives and Records Administration and included presidential diaries, visitor diaries, draft speeches and handwritten notes relating to Jan. 6 from Meadows’ files.

Thomas did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the court on Friday.

Democrats called on Thomas to step down from election-related cases, but he gave no indication that he intended to do so.

The latest revelation comes as Chief Justice John Roberts has ordered an internal investigation into the leak of a draft opinion revoking Rowe v. Wade in one of the court’s most famous cases in decades, and opinion polls show a loss of public confidence in the institution.

Thomas cited an expired opinion at a conference in Dallas last week when talking about court damages. “I wonder how long we will have these institutions at the speed with which we are undermining them.

Ginny Thomas said she and justice keep their work separate. “Like so many married couples, we share many of the same ideals, principles, and aspirations for America. But we have our own separate careers, as well as our own ideas and opinions. “Clarence doesn’t discuss his work with me, and I don’t include him in my work,” Thomas told the Washington Free Beacon in an interview published in March.

Thomas sent emails to Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers and MP Sean Bolick, who is running for secretary of state this year. That will make her the highest administrator in Arizona’s election.

She wrote them again on December 13, the day before voters met in state capitals across the country to officially vote for president.

“As state legislators, you have the constitutional power and authority to defend the integrity of our elections – and we need you to exercise that power now!” it says in the email. “Never before in the history of our nation have our elections been so threatened by fraud and unconstitutional proceedings.

Bowers rejected the idea of ​​changing voters in Arizona shortly after the election. The following year, Bolik introduced a bill that would allow the legislature to overturn all the results of the presidential election for whatever reason and replace voters.

Bolik said its legislation would make the process more bipartisan, requiring two-thirds of the vote, but the text of the proposal calls for a simple majority. In any case, Bowers essentially destroyed the legislation before it could even be voted on.