Don’t hold your breath waiting for an appearance by Ginni Thomas before the Jan. 6 committee. Once the public hearings finally get underway next month, viewers may see witnesses hauled in from some of the highest-ranking offices in the White House and Department of Justice.
The Republican activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has come into sharp relief as her efforts behind the scenes to overturn the results of the 2020 election have been exposed. Just last week, Thomas made headlines—again— after The Washington Post obtained emails she sent to two Arizona legislators urging them to throw out the popular vote for Joe Biden and give the defeated and outgoing President Donald Trump a “clean slate of electors.”
On Friday, the Post, citing sources familiar with the probe’s inner workings, reported that Thomas is unlikely to appear for questions publicly and that investigators have put plans to interview her privately “on ice” for now. Trump and the direct role he played in the weeks leading up to the insurrection are to take center stage and according to the Post, the committee doesn’t want anyone trumping Trump.
Further, the actual evidence amassed so far involving Thomas hasn’t “warranted” an interview:
“The committee isn’t prioritizing engagement with witnesses based on political considerations. These decisions are about what best advances the investigation as we prepare for hearings and develop our findings and recommendations,” a person familiar with the investigation said.
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The final witness list for the committee's public hearings has yet to be released, and it isn’t quite clear who will show. One of former Vice President Mike Pence’s aides is expected to testify, the Post reported Friday, and that has been something circulating in the air for months as the committee has readied itself to present its findings. Many of Pence’s senior aides and advisers cooperated with the committee.
In fact, it was Pence’s National Security Adviser Keith Kellogg who, by meeting with the probe, helped corroborate public reporting about Trump’s conduct in the White House as the insurrection was unfolding. Kellogg told investigators Trump was unresponsive to multiple pleas for help as the mob stormed the Capitol, including those that came from Trump’s then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, then-Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, and others.
Kellogg also told the probe that Trump was irate with Pence and complained that his vice president wasn’t “tough enough” to go along with a plan to overturn the will of more than 80 million voters.
Greg Jacob, Pence’s legal counsel, also met with investigators months ago and that cooperation was crucial.
Jacob, court records have also revealed, pushed hard against proposals from Trump’s legal advisers like John Eastman, who emphatically argued that Pence had the constitutional authority to stop the count of Electoral College votes by Congress on Jan. 6.
Pence did not.
Marc Short, Pence’s former chief of staff who accompanied him to the Capitol on Jan. 6, also cooperated with the committee after he was subpoenaed. Short, like Jacob, engaged with Eastman too.
As for the former vice president himself, it is very unlikely that he would appear for testimony during the public hearings.
A spokesperson for Pence did not immediately return a request for comment Friday.
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Texts between Ginni Thomas, Mark Meadows reveal an extraordinary effort to destroy democracy
