WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The congressional panel investigating the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol will seek an interview with Virginia Thomas, a Republican activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, the Washington Post reported on Monday.
The report came ahead of the U.S. House committee’s scheduled meeting later on Monday as part of its investigation into the attack on the Capitol last year by supporters of former President Donald Trump as lawmakers were poised to certify the 2020 election.
CNN also reported that the panel was interested in interviewing Virginia Thomas.
Thomas’ texts with Trump’s then-chief of staff, Mark Meadows, were made public last week in a separate Washington Post/CBS report. Thomas, who goes by Ginni, is active in conservative circles and earlier this month said in a separate media interview that she had attended Trump’s rally hours before the Capitol riot.
In a series of 29 messages to Meadows following Trump’s loss, Thomas repeatedly asked Meadows to work to overturn the election results.
Representatives for the panel could not immediately be reached to confirm the reported request for an interview. Its members are schedule to meet at 7:30 p.m. In a report released on Sunday night, lawmakers also said they would seek to hold Trump’s former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro and his former White House deputy chief of staff Daniel Scavino in contempt for not complying with subpoenas.
Representatives for Ginni Thomas could not immediately be reached. Representatives for Clarence Thomas and the Supreme Court also could not immediately be reached.
Thomas, who the court said was hospitalized last week for an infection, was the lone dissenting voice in January when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Trump’s request to block the release of White House records sought by the congressional panel.
(Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
