Washington — The Home choose committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol met in particular person Thursday with conservative activist Ginni Thomas, and through her interview, she advised the panel that she didn't focus on any of the authorized challenges to the 2020 presidential election together with her husband, Supreme Courtroom Justice Clarence Thomas.
As she arrived on the Capitol, Thomas was noticed by reporters at a Home workplace the place the panel's investigators have been gathering all through their probe. She advised these assembled, "Thanks for being right here."
A supply conversant in her look earlier than the committee advised CBS Information Thursday evening that Thomas had delivered a gap assertion, wherein she stated that she has "by no means" spoken to her husband about pending instances earlier than the Supreme Courtroom, calling it an "iron clad rule in our house."
She additionally advised the committee that her husband is "bored with politics," and stated in her assertion, "I usually don't focus on with him my day-to-day work in politics, the matters I'm engaged on, who I'm calling, emailing, texting or assembly."
Ginni Thomas additionally denied her husband knew of her texts with former President Trump's White Home chief of employees.
"I do know he was utterly unaware of my texts with Mark Meadows till this committee leaked them to the press whereas he was in a hospital mattress combating an an infection," Thomas stated in her assertion.
She characterised her post-2020 election actions as "minimal" and stated she was "sure" that she had by no means spoken with Justice Thomas "about any of the authorized challenges to the 2020 election, as I used to be not concerned with these challenges in any method."
The panel interviewed her for greater than 4 hours, interspersed with temporary breaks, and Rep. Bennie Thompson, the chair of the Home choose committee, advised reporters Thomas answered "some questions."
"It is a work in progress," he stated because the assembly got here to a conclusion. "At this level, we're glad she got here."
Thompson stated if Thomas offered committee investigators with "one thing of benefit," it will likely be included within the panel's subsequent public listening to. She additionally reiterated in the course of the interview that she nonetheless believes the 2020 presidential election was stolen, Thompson stated.
Committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin didn't go into specifics in regards to the assembly however advised reporters afterward that "Donald Trump and his closest followers proceed to propound absolutely the lie that he received the election, and so they're nonetheless selling the massive lie." He wouldn't say if Thomas match into that group.
Mark Paoletta, Thomas's lawyer, stated in a press release that she was "joyful to cooperate with the committee to clear up the misconceptions about her actions surrounding the 2020 elections" and answered "all" of the committee's questions.
"As she has stated from the outset, Mrs. Thomas had vital considerations about fraud and irregularities within the 2020 election. And, as she advised the Committee, her minimal and mainstream exercise targeted on making certain that experiences of fraud and irregularities had been investigated," he stated. "Past that, she performed no function in any occasions after the 2020 election outcomes. As she wrote in a textual content to Meadows on the time, she additionally condemned the violence on January 6, as she abhors violence on any aspect of the aisle."
The committee requested Thomas to seem voluntarily earlier than the panel after it discovered that she had corresponded with John Eastman, a conservative lawyer who helped give you the authorized technique to stress former Vice President Mike Pence to unilaterally toss out state electoral votes.
Thomas additionally despatched emails to at the very least two Wisconsin Republican legislators days after the presidential election, pushing them to call an alternate slate of presidential electors to again former President Donald Trump. And Thomas corresponded through textual content message with Meadows within the days following the 2020 election, urging him to overturn the election outcomes.
Paoletta confirmed a few week in the past that she would take part in a "voluntary assembly" with the committee, saying in a press release that Thomas was "desirous to reply the Committee's inquiries to clear up any misconceptions about her work regarding the 2020 election."
The choose committee was scheduled to carry a listening to a day in the past, on Wednesday, however postponed, because of Hurricane Ian. A brand new date has not but been set, in line with Thompson, and the Home is predicted to enter recess on the finish of the week.
Thompson stated earlier this month that the committee plans to place collectively an interim report in mid-October, and can finalize the report earlier than the tip of the 12 months, after the November midterm elections. The committee's two Republicans, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, are each leaving Congress in January. Cheney misplaced her major in Wyoming to a Trump-backed challenger, and Kinzinger opted to not run for reelection. One other member, Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria, is going through a tricky reelection battle towards Republican state Sen. Jen Kiggans.
Zak Hudak contributed to this report.