John Cornyn objects to scrutiny of Ginni Thomas' Jan. 6 involvement

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) is defending Ginni Thomas, the conservative political operative and wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, as she comes under fire for her role in attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

On Monday, Cornyn told The Hill that the decision should be up to Thomas as to whether he should recuse himself from cases that could relate to his wife’s efforts to cancel President Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump.

“I just think this is a bad development where now public officials’ families are now the target of all this press,” the Texas Republican told the outlet, adding that government officials “don’t volunteer to have our families dragged through the mud.”

Last week, news outlets reported that Ginni Thomas had sent text messages to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows after the November 2020 election falsely claiming that the result was an “obvious fraud” and suggesting strategies to overturn it. She also attended the Jan. 6, 2021, “Stop the Steal” rally that evolved into the deadly U.S. Capitol insurrection.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin and other Democrats have called on Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from any cases that relate to the January 6 attacks or the 2020 election in light of the revelations.

“To think that he would consider a case where his wife is frequently contacting the chief of staff for the president and giving advice on matters that are going to be ultimately litigated by the court,” Durbin told reporters on Monday. “For the good of the court, I think he should recuse himself from those cases.”

Cornyn’s suggestion that Ginni Thomas is only facing this scrutiny because of her husband ignores the fact that she is an established political operative in her own right. She owns the conservative lobbying firm Liberty Consulting. She helped campaign for Trump in 2020. Trump appointed her to the Library of Congress Trust Fund board. She has worked with the far-right group Turning Point USA. She has been a prominent leader in the tea party political movement that started more than a decade ago. And she has worked as a “special correspondent” for the Daily Caller, the right-wing news blog.

“For over 35 years, Ginni Thomas has battled for conservative principles in Washington. She has served in top executive positions at the Heritage Foundation, Hillsdale College, Capitol Hill, the Department of Labor, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,” she writes on her website. “She strives to help the conservative movement come together, forming new coalitions on policy initiatives to achieve common goals.”

And while Cornyn is now objecting to a public official’s family member being dragged “through the mud,” he has been an outspoken critic of Biden’s son Hunter, who has no role in any policy matters. In January 2020, Cornyn even suggested that Republican lawmakers should call Biden’s son as a witness in Trump’s impeachment proceedings.

“Although we won’t vote on additional witnesses in impeachment trial until Friday, House managers need to know that both sides will have [the] same chance to identify potential witnesses to call,” he tweeted in January 2020. “Obvious choices are [House Intelligence Committee Chair] Adam Schiff, Joe Biden and Hunter Biden for starters.”

A Cornyn spokesperson did not respond to an inquiry for this story.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.