A lawyer for Virginia Thomas wrote in a letter to the Jan. 6 Home committee Tuesday that he needs "a greater justification for why Mrs. Thomas's testimony is related," earlier than he can advocate the conservative activist and spouse of Supreme Court docket Justice Clarence Thomas sit for an interview.
"Primarily based on my understanding of the communications that spurred the Committee's request, I don't perceive the necessity to communicate with Mrs. Thomas," the lawyer, Mark Paoletta, wrote to the committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol. Paoletta's eight-page letter, which was obtained by CBS Information, was first reported on by Politico.
Thomas, often known as "Ginni," garnered the committee's curiosity after it discovered she corresponded with John Eastman, a lawyer concerned within the marketing campaign to stress former Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify the election outcomes. Thomas additionally attended the rally that preceded the Capitol assault and urged former Trump chief of employees Mark Meadows to work on overturning the 2020 election outcomes.
Committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson mentioned on June 24 that he anticipated Thomas to seem earlier than the committee, however mentioned they hadn't but agreed on "the parameters" for her interview.
However Paoletta in his letter expressed "critical considerations" concerning the committee's effort to fulfill with Thomas, and claimed "the Thomases have been subjected to an avalanche of dying threats and different abuse." He claimed that he reviewed communications between Thomas and Eastman and located "not a single doc" displaying coordination between the 2.
"And additional, all of those emails have been exchanged on or earlier than December 9, earlier than the electors met and have been licensed by every of their states," Paoletta wrote.
Concerning Thomas' communications with Meadows, Paoletta wrote she "merely expressed considerations concerning the 2020 election."
"Importantly, Mrs. Thomas by no means claimed to have first-hand information about election fraud," Paoletta wrote.
The Jan. 6 committee in latest weeks has held a number of hearings to share info it has discovered with the general public. Meadows' former prime aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, was the star witness of Tuesday's shock listening to. Hutchinson testified that on Jan. 2, Meadows informed her "issues would possibly get actual, actual dangerous on Jan. 6."
The Jan. 6 Committee didn't instantly reply to a request for remark.