The congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection discovered in the roughly 9,000 pages of documents submitted by former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife sent Meadows a flood of texts urging him to overturn the 2020 presidential election. CBS News chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa and Bob Woodward of The Washington Post acquired the copies of the messages, CBS News reports.
There were 29 messages exchanged between Virginia Thomas and Meadows in total, according to The Washington Post.
On Nov. 10, when numerous news outlets announced Joe Biden as the president-elect, Virginia texted Meadows, “Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!!…You are the leader, with him, who is standing for America’s constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History,” The Washington Post reports.
Two weeks later, Meadows wrote Virginia and referenced God as a reason to revoke the election.
“This is a fight of good versus evil,” he wrote, according to The Washington Post. “Evil always looks like the victor until the King of Kings triumphs. Do not grow weary in well doing. The fight continues. I have staked my career on it. Well at least my time in DC on it.”
Virginia answered saying “Thank you!! Needed that!”
“This plus a conversation with my best friend just now… I will try to keep holding on. America is worth it!” she continued.
In another set of messages days after the election, Virginia pressed Meadows to “release the Kraken and save us from the left taking America down,” according to the Post.
The Supreme Court justice’s wife’s message referenced several conspiracy theories that Trump supporters believed would overturn the election, according to The New York Times.
Meadows’ attorney, George Terwilliger III, acknowledged the 29 messages between Meadow and Virginia, but said, “nothing about the text messages presents any legal issues,” The Washington Post reports.
Stephen Gillers, a law professor and judicial ethics expert at New York University, said that Virginia has the privilege to exercise her First Amendment rights, but also discussed potential ramifications.
“The consequences of what she’s done is that I don’t think that Clarence Thomas can sit on any case involving, even remotely, the conduct of the election, the vote of Congress on January 6, or any cases involving the January 6 committee’s attempts to get information, including the committee’s efforts to get Eastman’s emails,” Gillers said, The New York Times reports. “He must recuse himself, and should have recused himself in the cases that have been heard up to now.”
Virginia has not responded publicly about the scrutiny of her text messages. Justice Thomas, who was hospitalized for an infection during the past week, was discharged Friday morning, the Supreme Court said, according to the Times.
