Ginni Thomas Told Wisconsin Lawmakers to Overturn 2020 Presidential Result

Conservative activist Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, who is also the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, sent messages to state lawmakers in Wisconsin urging them to overturn the 2020 presidential election results and assign its Electoral College votes to former President Donald Trump, who had lost in the state election.

Thomas sent the messages on November 9, the same day she sent similar messages to dozens of Republican lawmakers in another state asking them to do the same thing — to overturn Joe Biden’s presidential win in the state and to give their electors to Trump, against the wishes of voters in that election.

The Wisconsin emails were sent by state senator Kathy Bernier (R), chair of the Senate elections panel at the time, to state rep. Gary Tauchen (R). They were obtained by separate open records requestsBy The Washington Post Documented is the watchdog organization.

“Please stand strong in the face of media and political pressure. Please take time to reflect on the incredible authority you have under our Constitution. And then please take action to ensure that a clean slate of Electors is chosen for our state,” Thomas said in the emails.

Thomas, like many Trump-aligned conservatives at the time, was pushing for state legislatures to take an action they couldn’t legally take. The federal Constitution permits states to to determine the manner in which they select their electors, it does not empower them to rescind an election result and to decide for themselves who should “win” if they don’t like a certain outcome.

Wisconsin is now the second state where it’s known that Thomas urged state lawmakers to overturn election results. It was already established. She had done it in Arizona.Also, you can send requests to dozens more Republicans using the exact same language.

Thomas also sent text messages directly to Trump’s chief of staff at the time, Mark Meadows, in November and December, telling him to “stand firm” against the legitimate outcome of the election, and calling him a leader who, with Trump, “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,” she insisted, wrongly attributing Trump’s loss to election fraud, a baseless claim that’s come to be known as “The Big Lie.”

Thomas’s advocacy to overturn the election is startling on its own, but made all the more alarming by the fact that her husband is a sitting Supreme Court justice. Many times while on the bench, Justice Thomas has refused to recuse himself from cases that involved his wife’s work — and earlier this year, he was the sole dissenter in a case that involved sharing Mark Meadows’s text messages with the January 6 committee. That case likely included Ginni Thomas’s messages, presenting a clear conflict of interest for Clarence Thomas.

More than 1.2 million individuals have signed a petitionCalling for Thomas’ resignation from the Supreme Court or, failing that, for him to face impeachment by Congress The petition outlines the reasons for this.He has failed to recuse himself in cases involving his wife.

A message for our readers

Friends, you may know that we’ve been fundraising tirelessly for the last few months, and you might be wondering why. The truth is that we’ve continued to face blatant censorship from big tech companies – Facebook and Google. These companies have made algorithmic changes that have forced TruthoutTo the bottom of social media searches and feeds, prefer corporate media companies. This is an unprecedented attack on independent journalism, and it’s not going away anytime soon.

These changes have had a detrimental effect on our budget over the years. Sadly, TruthoutYou cannot rely solely upon the web traffic and one-time donations from visitors. After over two decades of publishing, we now face an existential danger and must act to address this.

As we’ve looked for a new way to be sustainable, we’ve determined that we must increase (in fact, double) our number of monthly donors. We’re making progress, but we still need 33 people to become sustainers by the end of today. When our readers give monthly, we can continue our unapologetic journalism knowing that we’re answerable to our readers, not corporate sponsors or ad salespeople. By giving monthly, you become part of a progressive group of people who care deeply about truthful and honest news.

Start your tax-deductible monthly donation Truthout today.

Donate Now