Ginni Thomas pushed 'Stop the Steal' plans to Indiana Republican originally nominated to January 6 committee

On Friday, NBC News reported that, in addition to previous revelations that far-right activist Ginni Thomas was in close contact with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on overthrowing the 2020 presidential election, she was also in contact with the office of a top House Republican who had been nominated by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to investigate the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.

"Shortly after the 2020 election, Virginia 'Ginni' Thomas, the conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, sent an email to an aide to a prominent House conservative saying she would have nothing to do with his group until his members go 'out in the streets,' a congressional source familiar with the exchange told NBC News," reported Scott Wong. "Thomas told an aide to incoming Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Banks, R-Ind., that she was more aligned with the far-right House Freedom Caucus, whose leaders just two months later would lead the fight in Congress to overturn the results of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory."

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"Thomas wrote to the aide that Freedom Caucus members were tougher than RSC members, were in the fight and had then-President Donald Trump’s back, according to the source familiar with the email contents. Until she saw RSC members 'out in the streets' and in the fight, she said, she would not help the RSC, the largest caucus of conservatives on Capitol Hill," said the report. "Her November 2020 email came in response to a request from the RSC to offer policy recommendations as Banks was set to take the helm of the group in early 2021. But when Thomas portrayed the RSC as soft in its support for Trump and told its members to take to the streets, the aide thanked her for her suggestions and moved on."

Banks would ultimately be one of the Republicans McCarthy nominated for the House Select Committee investigating January 6. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) rejected his appointment, along with the appointment of Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), leading McCarthy to withdraw all his nominations and boycott the committee. Pelosi ultimately appointed two Republicans to the committee anyway, Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL).

There is no evidence that Justice Clarence Thomas was directly involved in his wife's planning to overturn the election. He was the sole justice to vote to block the transmission of communications records from the Trump White House to the committee, a move legal experts slammed as "mind-boggling," although it is unclear whether his wife's communications were part of that batch of records or, if so, whether he was aware of it.

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