Longtime conservative activist Ginni Thomas—also the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas—admitted publicly Monday that she attended the “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 that falsely promoted ex-President Donald Trump’s lie that he won the 2020 election.
But as she insists in a new exclusive interview with right-leaning news outlet The Washington Free Beacon, she had zero part in organizing the event and left long before Trump went on stage because she was cold.
“I played no role with those who were planning and leading the Jan. 6 events. There are stories in the press suggesting I paid or arranged for buses. I did not. There are other stories saying I mediated feuding factions of leaders for that day. I did not,” she said.
Reporting in both The New York Times and The New Yorker has tied Thomas to organizers of the Jan. 6 rally. The reports have noted the critical advisory role she played in the world of Washington politics and lobbying.
Thomas sat on the board of conservative pro-Trump outfits like the nonprofit student network Turning Point USA and has also served as director to the conservative dark money group the Council for National Policy, or CNP.
Importantly, after Trump lost the 2020 election, it was CNP’s offshoot, CNP Action, that disseminated a document that November urging Republican lawmakers to take “action steps” to challenge election results and assign alternate electors.
Thomas told the Free Beacon Monday she had no recollection of the group sharing any such materials, including a newsletter CNP sent out entitled “Five States and the Election Irregularities and Issues.”
“I must admit that I do not attend many of those separate meetings nor do I attend many of their phone calls they have. At CNP I have moderated a session here or there. I have delivered some remarks there once, too,” Thomas said Monday.
Separately, while rumors have abounded, no concrete evidence has emerged yet tying her to the funding of buses dispatched to D.C. by Turning Point USA on Jan. 6.
But her disdain for the select committee investigating the attack—or at least, for two of its Republican members—has been documented.
In December 2021, Thomas signed her name to a letter from a conservative action group that called for the total ouster from the GOP of Jan. 6 investigators Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.
And long before that, on the morning of the assault, she posted to her Facebook page: “Love MAGA people!!! God Bless each of you standing up or praying.”
She later ended up adding a disclaimer to her posts emphasizing that they were written before the violence unfolded.
Her politicking also extended to Justice Thomas’ former law clerks. Less than a month after the Capitol attack and as fallout was still raining down in D.C., The Washington Post revealed that Thomas had an active pro-Trump presence on a private listserv for Justice Thomas’ former law clerks.
One clerk who wasn’t keen on her pro-Trump message exposed her conduct to the Post.
“I owe you all an apology. I have likely imposed on you my lifetime passion,” Thomas later wrote in a private email to the listserv members. “My passions and beliefs are likely shared with the bulk of you, but certainly not all. And sometimes the smallest matters can divide loved ones for too long. Let’s pledge to not let politics divide THIS family, and learn to speak more gently and knowingly across the divide.”
Thomas has defended her conduct and dismissed accusations that her activism has a direct impact on her husband’s work.
Related: Here’s a picture of Clarence Thomas’s wife giving an award to James O’Keefe in Trump’s hotel today
As a married couple, Thomas said, she and the justice “share many of the same ideals, principles, and aspirations for America.”
”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 said.
