First on CNN: January 6 committee has text messages between Ginni Thomas and Mark Meadows
By Ryan Nobles, Annie Grayer, Zachary Cohen and Jamie Gangel, CNN
The House Select Committee investigating the January 6 riot has in its possession more than two dozen text messages between former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, a conservative activist and the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, according to multiple sources familiar with the messages.
These text messages, according to sources, took place between early November 2020 and mid-January 2021. Thomas recently revealed that she attended the pro-Trump rally that preceded the US Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, but says she “played no role” in planning the events of that day.
The content of the text messages may be of interest to the committee’s investigation, because it asked Meadows in a subpoena to turn over “both documents and your deposition testimony regarding these and other matters that are within the scope of the committee’s activity.”
The revelation of text messages between Thomas and Meadows, both key allies of former President Donald Trump, comes as progressives and some legal ethics experts see her activism as a potential conflict of interest for Justice Thomas’ work on some Supreme Court cases.
Meadows turned over thousands of text messages before he stopped cooperating with the committee. The texts have proven to hold a treasure trove of information about what was going on in the White House in the days leading up to the insurrection, and what people in Trump’s orbit were thinking.
The text messages in the committee’s possession are only part of the tranche of documents that Meadows provided to the committee during the short period of time he was cooperating with their investigation. They do not necessarily represent the sum total of communication between Thomas and Meadows during that period of time.
There is also the possibility some messages were not turned over due to privilege claims.
Meadows and Thomas are longtime friends, both of whom have been active in conservative causes for decades.
While Thomas has been actively involved in politics, she says she has been careful to distance her activity from her husband.
“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,” she recently told the Free Beacon.
CNN reached out to both Meadows’ attorney and Thomas directly for comment and have yet to hear back.
A spokesperson for the committee declined to comment.
The-CNN-Wire
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