Ginni Thomas emailed with Trump lawyer trying to overturn election

Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, was in contact with lawyer John Eastman, who pushed the theory that Mike Pence, in his role as vice president, could block the certification of Joe Biden‘s victory.

The two exchanged emails, reported The Washington Post on Wednesday. The messages show that Thomas’ efforts to over turn the election results and keep Donald Trump in office were even more extensive than known.

She was also reported to be in contact with then Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows and dozens of Arizona state lawmakers about the 2020 election. 

Now the House committee investigating the January 6th insurrection is debating whether to spend part of the public hearings exploring Thomas’ role. 

The panel recently obtained the emails between Thomas and Eastman, the Post reported.

Last week, a federal judge ordered Eastman to turn more than a hundred documents over to the committee after the attorney tried to block their release. 

Eastman, who once served as clerk for Clarence Thomas at the Supreme Court, outlined scenarios for denying Biden the presidency in legal memos and in an Oval Office meeting on Jan. 4 with Trump and Pence, according to previous reports. 

Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, was in contact with lawyer John Eastman, who pushed the theory that Mike Pence, in his role as vice president, could block the certification of Joe Biden’s victory, new email messages show – above the Thomas couple at the September 2019 state dinner at the White House

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Attorney John Eastman, who once served as clerk for Clarence Thomas at the Supreme Court, outlined scenarios for denying Joe Biden the presidency

Reports of Ginni Thomas’ activism raised questions about whether Justce Thomas should have recused himself from any Supreme Court case involving the election. 

She exchanged at least 29 text messages with Meadows between November 2020 and mid-January 2021 as Trump allies worked frantically to keep him in office. 

And a report last week revealed she had emailed 29 Arizona state lawmakers, urging them to choose their own electors and disregard Joe Biden’s victory in that state.

Justice Thomas participated in at least nine rulings related to the 2020 election. He also has ruled on cases where Trump was fighting attempts by congressional investigators to obtain the former president’s records.

But Ginni Thomas said the two keep their work separate.

‘Clarence doesn’t discuss his work with me, and I don’t involve him in my work,’ she told the conservative publication Free Bacon in March. 

Meanwhile, Thursday’s hearing will focus on Trump’s efforts to pressure Pence to refuse to count and certify the electoral count. It is the ceremonial role of the vice president to oversee the formal certification of the presidential election. 

Greg Jacob, who served as counsel to Pence, and retired U.S. Appeals Court Judge J. Michael Luttig, who was an informal adviser, are scheduled to testify in person at the third of an expected six public hearings the committee has planned.

Committee aides told CNN that Thursday’s hearing will focus on how Trump had driven the pressure campaign against Pence despite being told by lawyers in the White House counsel’s office that Pence did not have the authority to unilaterally subvert the election results. 

The committee earlier this week teased the hearing, showing video testimony from former White House attorney Eric Herschmann saying that he had told Eastman on January 7 that he should ‘get a great effing criminal defense attorney.’

In the days leading up to the January 6th certification, Trump delivered a string of tweets demanding that Pence use his position to prevent Congress certifying his election defeat to Joe Biden.

Pence had already told the president he had no such power.

Eastman, however, wrote a memo arguing Pence could overthrow the election results when he oversaw the certification of the electoral college count on January 6th.

Eastman’s memo outlined a scenario in which Pence would disregard seven states’ Electoral College votes – thus ensuring no candidate received the 270 Electoral College votes required to be declared the winner. 

The election would then be decided by the House. 

Each state delegation would then have had one vote to cast for president, and since Republicans controlled 26 state delegations, a majority could have voted for Trump to win the election. 

Thursday’s hearing on January 6th insurrection will focus on Donald Trump’s pressure campaign on Mike Pence to overturn the election results

Constitutional scholars and Pence, himself, disagreed with Eastman’s interpretation of the vice president’s role in the largely ceremonial process.

Pence’s former chief of staff Marc Short told CNN on Wednesday that Pence did his duty by certifying the election results.

‘He knew it from the beginning, and I think he was clear with the president and so was our office clear about what we viewed his role as. I think that, you know, for any limited government conservative I don’t think he’d want the notion that our founders would have thought any one person would have been bestowed with that much authority to overturn election results. So I think the they he approached this was what does the constitution say,’ Short told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

‘He did his duty. He swore an oath to uphold the constitution. He swore an oath to god to uphold the constitution just as our men and women in uniform do,’ he said.