Jeannie Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, said in an interview released Monday that she attended a January 6, 2021 rally at the Ellipse in Washington. The interview appeared in The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative publication, and followed an article in New York Times Magazine last month that examined the political and personal history of Ms. Thomas and her husband, including her role in trying to cancel the presidential election.
Ms Thomas did not answer detailed questions from The Times about her findings. Her comments on The Free Beacon were her first comments about participating in the rally. She said she attended the rally in the morning but left before President Donald Trump addressed the crowd.
“I was disappointed and upset that the violence took place after a peaceful gathering of Trump supporters at the Ellipse on Jan. 6,” she said. “There are important and legitimate substantive questions about achieving goals like electoral integrity, racial equality and political accountability that a democratic system like ours should be able to rationally debate and debate on the political arena. I’m afraid we’re losing that ability.”
Ms Thomas had previously opposed the ongoing congressional investigation into what happened that day. In December, she signed a letter calling on Republicans in the House of Representatives to remove Representatives Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois from their conference for joining a congressional committee to investigate terrorist attacks. Ms Thomas and her co-authors said the investigation “shows disrespect for the rule of law in our country” and “legal prosecutions of individuals who have done nothing wrong”, adding that they will start “a nationwide movement to add citizens’ voices to this an effort”.
Ms. Thomas sits on the nine-member board of directors of CNP Action, a conservative group that helped advance the Stop Theft movement that tried to keep Trump in office. The group instructed members to pressure Republican lawmakers to challenge the election results and appoint alternative electoral slates. The Times also reported that in December 2020 it circulated a newsletter containing a report focusing on the five swing states in which Trump and his allies pushed for a trial, with a warning that it was time for the courts to “declare the election null and void” expires.
Ms. Thomas downplayed her role in the group in her latest comments.
“As a member of their 501(c)(4) board, I must frankly admit that I don’t attend many of these individual meetings and I don’t attend many of their phone calls,” she said. “At CNP, I moderated sessions here and there. I once made some remarks there too.”
Dustin Stockton, one of the organizers of the January 6 rally, told The Times that Ms Thomas played a peacekeeping role between the warring factions of the rally organizers “so that there were no differences.” Ms Thomas disputed this, stating that there were “stories that said that I was the go-between for warring factions of leaders that day. I do not.”
Capitol Riot Aftermath: Key Events
She also said that she “played no role with those who planned and directed the events of 6 January.”
The work of the commission to investigate the January 6 terrorist attack continues. She laid out her theory of potential criminal charges against Trump last week, saying before a federal judge that he and conservative attorney John C. Eastman, a friend of the Thomases and a former clerk to Judge Thomas, were involved in a conspiracy to defraud the American public as part of a plan canceling the 2020 elections.