Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, admitted that she attended the Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the deadly Capitol insurrection — but only until she “got cold and left early,” Thomas told the Washington Free Beacon in a report published Monday.
Speaking to the Beacon, Thomas claimed that she was in the rally crowd for a “short time” the morning of Jan. 6, but went home before Trump took the stage at noon that day. Thomas, in her words, said her presence at the Ellipse that morning was the extent of her activity.
“I was disappointed and frustrated that there was violence that happened following a peaceful gathering of Trump supporters on the Ellipse on Jan. 6,” Thomas told the Beacon. “There are important and legitimate substantive questions about achieving goals like electoral integrity, racial equality, and political accountability that a democratic system like ours needs to be able to discuss and debate rationally in the political square. I fear we are losing that ability.”
Thomas said she did not help organize the rally, despite attending it briefly. It was previously known that Thomas had ties to the rally’s organizers and was, at least initially, supportive of the Trump supporters attending the rally before violence broke out — she posted a pro-MAGA message on Facebook that day.
In the interview, Thomas argued that her attendance at the rally has “no bearing” on her husband’s work.
Thomas’ conservative activism — which includes her involvement with Big Lie efforts leading up to, during and after the insurrection — has drawn scrutiny about potential conflicts of interest they could present to Justice Thomas’ role on the high court, as he hears cases related to Jan. 6 and efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
Thomas maintained that she and her husband keep their home and work lives separate, according to the Beacon.
“Like so many married couples, we share many of the same ideals, principles, and aspirations for America,” Thomas told the Beacon. “But we have our own separate careers, and our own ideas and opinions too. Clarence doesn’t discuss his work with me, and I don’t involve him in my work.”
Recent reports shed new light on her involvement with events that pushed the Big Lie. Last month, the New York Times Magazine detailed Thomas’ role in the scheme by Trump backers to act as supposed alternate electors for the then-President in 2020. Thomas was also reportedly involved in at least one group that organized the “Stop the Steal” rally. Dustin Stockton of Women for America First, the group that held the permit for the Jan. 6 Ellipse rally, told NYT Magazine that Thomas “played a peacemaking role between feuding factions of rally organizers.”
However, Thomas denied that report to the Beacon.
“I played no role with those who were planning and leading the Jan. 6 events,” Thomas told the Beacon. “There are stories in the press suggesting I paid or arranged for buses. I did not. There are other stories saying I mediated feuding factions of leaders for that day. I did not.”
NYT Magazine also reported that Thomas sits on the board of the political advocacy arm for the right-wing activist group Council for National Policy (CNP) — a group that sent out memos after the 2020 election urging members to help challenge election results in three key states: Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania. The group also asked members to encourage their state Republican elected officials to appoint alternate Trump electors in states President Biden had won.
Thomas also denied to the Beacon that she had a hand in crafting any of CNP’s memos, and claimed that she had never seen them nor disseminated them to members.
“As a member of their [501]c4 board, candidly, I must admit that I do not attend many of those separate meetings, nor do I attend many of their phone calls they have,” Thomas told the Beacon. “At CNP, I have moderated a session here and there. I delivered some remarks there once too.”
Thomas showed no signs of tamping down her conservative activism in her interview with the Beacon.
“If you are going to be true to yourself and your professional calling, you can never be intimidated, chilled, or censored by what the press or others say,” Thomas told the Beacon.
Thomas further defended her conservative activism by noting that she sought ethics guidance from Judge Laurence Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, who she claims green lit her involvement in politics as long as she deferred taking a position on a case before the Supreme Court.
“The legal lane is my husband’s—I never much enjoyed reading briefs and judicial opinions anyway and am quite happy to stay out of that lane,” Thomas told the Beacon. “We do not discuss cases until opinions are public—and even then, our discussions have always been very general and limited to public information.”
