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Conservative activist Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, repeatedly urged President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows to press his efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election, according to copies of text messages seen by the Washington Post and CBS News.
The 29 text messages — 21 from Thomas, eight replies from Meadows — were among data Meadows turned over to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol siege, and were confirmed by five people who have seen the committee’s documents, the Post said in a report Thursday.
On Nov. 10, 2020, after news organizations had called the race for Biden, Virginia Thomas — who goes by Ginni — reportedly 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.”
In a Nov. 24 text to Thomas, Meadows reportedly put Trump supporters’ efforts in biblical terms: “This is a fight of good versus evil. 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.”
At the time, Thomas was reportedly urging Meadows to put attorney Sidney Powell at the front of the effort to overturn the election. A number of lawsuits were filed by Powell and others, and all were rejected by courts. In December 2021, Powell and eight other Trump lawyers were sanctioned by a Michigan court for filing a sham lawsuit, and state officials said they would seek to have Powell and three other attorneys disbarred.
The text messages reportedly do not mention Clarence Thomas, who was the lone dissenting vote in an 8-1 Supreme Court decision in January ordering the release of White House records related to the Jan. 6 insurrection. In previous interviews, she has said she and her husband keep their business separate and denied he has any conflict of interest.
Related: Jan. 6 committee sets contempt vote for 2 former Trump aides
Virginia Thomas’ right-wing connections have been the subject of controversy. In 2018, she spread false news on social media about the so-called migrant caravan, and earlier this year a New York Times report about her playing a key role in trying to keep Trump in the White House drew calls to investigate or impeach her husband.
Virginia Thomas has admitted attending Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally in front of the White House on Jan. 6, but has said she left early and had no role in planning the event.
Many of the text messages from Virginia Thomas mentioned false claims and right-wing and QAnon conspiracy theories.
According to the Post, one text on Nov. 5 quoted a false claim that had spread on right-wing websites, that the Biden family would face a military tribunal at Guantanamo: “Biden crime family & ballot fraud co-conspirators (elected officials, bureaucrats, social media censorship mongers, fake stream media reporters, etc) are being arrested & detained for ballot fraud right now & over coming days, & will be living in barges off GITMO to face military tribunals for sedition.”
In a text the next day, she wrote to Meadows, “Do not concede.”
Clarence Thomas, 73, who joined the Supreme Court in 1991, was hospitalized last week with “flu-like symptoms.” Thomas missed oral arguments in front of the court this week, and the Supreme Court has been silent as to the condition of his health. As of late Thursday, it was unclear if he was still in the hospital.
Meadows, meanwhile, is under investigation in North Carolina over questions of false voter registration.
