Conservative activist Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, has agreed to participate in a voluntary interview with a House panel investigating the insurgency on Jan. 6, her lawyer said Wednesday.
Attorney Mark Paoletta said Thomas “is eager to answer the committee’s questions to clear up any misconceptions about his work related to the 2020 election.”
The committee sought an interview with Thomas in an effort to learn more about his role in trying to help former President Donald Trump reverse his election loss. He texted with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and contacted lawmakers in Arizona and Wisconsin in the weeks after the election and before the uprising.
Thomas’ willingness to testify comes as the committee prepares to wrap up its work before the end of the year and write a final report outlining its findings about the U.S. Capitol uprising. The panel announced Wednesday that it will reconvene for a Sept. 28 hearing, likely the last of a series of hearings set to begin this summer.
Testimony from Thomas – known as Ginny – was one of the panel’s remaining items as it looks to finish her job. The panel has already interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses and shown some of that video testimony at its eight hearings over the summer.
The extent of Thomas’ involvement prior to the attack on the Capitol is unknown. He said in the interview that he attended the initial pro-Trump rally on the morning of Jan. 6 but left before Trump spoke and the crowd headed toward the Capitol.
Thomas, a longtime Trump supporter active in conservative causes, has repeatedly maintained that her political activities have not created a conflict of interest with her husband’s work. Justice Thomas was the lone dissenting voice when the Supreme Court in January allowed a congressional committee to access the president’s diaries, visitor logs, speech drafts and handwritten notes related to the January 6 incident.
It’s unclear whether next week’s hearing will provide a general overview of what the panel learned or if it will focus on new information and evidence, such as any evidence provided by Thomas. The committee conducted several interviews with Trump’s Cabinet secretaries in late July and August, some of whom invoked the 25th Amendment constitutional process to remove Trump from office after the uprising.
Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the committee’s Republican vice chairwoman, said at the panel’s most recent hearing in July that the committee “has a lot more evidence to share with the American people and a lot more to gather.”
