Politics & Government

A crowd-erected gallows stands near the United States Capitol during the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol

'An attempted coup': The Jan. 6th Committee hearings

After nearly a year of investigation, interviewing more than 1,000 witnesses and reviewing more than 125,000 records, the House Select Committee on the Jan. 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol is conducting a series of public hearings to present its findings to the American people.JPR has gathered related NPR stories, and video of the hearings, on this page as a resource on this extraordinary event in American history, and on the ongoing threat to our democracy.

Jan. 6 committee asks Ginni Thomas, wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, to testify

By NPR Washington Desk

Published June 16, 2022 at 2:13 PM PDT

Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, in 2017.

Updated June 16, 2022 at 4:29 PM ET

The House Jan. 6 committee sent a letter to Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, asking for her to speak to the committee in the wake of reporting by the Washington Post that the committee has evidence of Thomas communicating with lawyer John Eastman.

Committee Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., told reporters after the committee's Thursday hearing that it had made the request of Ginni Thomas, but did not say when the letter had been sent.

Eastman was central to a pressure campaign against then-Vice President Pence to reject the election results when Congress convened on Jan. 6 to count the Electoral College vote, Thompson and Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., say. Thompson told this to reporters on Capitol Hill and Cheney's view was confirmed to NPR's Deirdre Walsh by an aide.

Ginni Thomas told the right-wing news site The Daily Caller in a story published after the start of Thursday's hearing that she would "look forward" to speaking with the committee.

"I can't wait to clear up misconceptions. I look forward to talking to them," The Daily Caller reported. Thomas has worked with the Daily Caller in the past, including producing an interview with her husband.

Asked about Ginni Thomas' offer to speak to the committee, Thompson replied "If she responded while the hearing was going on that she wants to come, we look forward to her coming."

Ginni Thomas was previously revealed to have been in touch with Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows via text message between the election and Jan. 6. At the time of those revelations, Thompson had said he would recommend the committee ask Thomas to appear before them, but it didn't make a request. Some members of the committee have said that Thomas didn't play a significant role ahead of Jan. 6 before the latest reports emerged Wednesday night.

The Supreme Court rejected an 11th-hour effort by Trump allies to have it step in during the legal fight over the election results, during which dozens of lower court cases were almost all decided against Trump. However, Justice Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito disagreed with that decision. Thomas was also the lone dissenter when the Supreme Court ruled against Trump as he sought to have his White House records shielded from the Jan. 6 committee investigation.