OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
In what is a nightmare scenario for Democrats the appeal made by former President Donald Trump to the Supreme Court is being handled by conservative Justice Clarence Thomas.
The same Justice Thomas whose wife, Ginni Thomas, was dragged before the January 6 Committee by the Democrats, and two anti-Trump Republicans, on it.
And Justice Thomas is not playing with the Department of Justice as he set a deadline of of next Tuesday at 5 p.m. for the Department of Justice to respond, the Washington Examiner reported.
The deadline was set hours after lawyers for Trump requested the Supreme Court vacate the partial stay order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit that allowed the DOJ to continue to look through the roughly 100 allegedly classified documents the FBI seized from Trump’s Florida resort in August.
The ruling from the appeals court reversed a decision by Judge Aileen Cannon, who ruled that the DOJ would have to provide seized documents with classified markings to special master Judge Raymond Dearie for independent review seeking privileged materials.
The appearance by Gianni Thomas came after she agreed to be interviewed by the committee, her attorney said, CNN reported.
“As she has said from the outset, Mrs. Thomas is eager to answer the Committee’s questions to clear up any misconceptions about her work relating to the 2020 election. She looks forward to that opportunity,” her attorney, Mark Paoletta, said.
In June her attorney said he did not see a reason that the committee would need to hear from her.
“I am asking the Committee to provide a better justification for why Mrs. Thomas’s testimony is relevant to the Committee’s legislative purpose,” he said.
He said that she was “willing to appear” and “eager to clear her name,” but he was concerned that if she was asked to be interviewed it would serve “to continue the baseless harassment she has been subjected to since January 6.”
He said that his client was at the US Capitol on January 6 “but left well before the President began to speak, and well before any individuals began marching on the Capitol.”
“She held no official or unofficial role in the White House, nor in President Trump’s reelection campaign,” he said.
But in July Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, who was defeated in her primary and is no longer going to be a member of Congress after January 2023, threated to subpoena her.
“The committee is engaged with her counsel. We certainly hope that she will agree to come in voluntarily. But the committee is fully prepared to contemplate a subpoena if she does not. I hope it doesn’t get to that,” she said.
“I hope she will come in voluntarily. We have certainly spoken with numbers of people who are similarly situated in terms of the discussions that she was having that you mentioned. So it’s very important for us to speak with her. And, as I said, I hope she will agree to do so voluntarily. But I’m sure we will contemplate a subpoena if she won’t,” she said.
"The committee is fully prepared to contemplate a subpoena."@RepLizCheney says Jan. 6 committee will consider subpoenaing Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, because of messages sent to Mark Meadows about 2020 election results. @CNNSotu #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/uVsVDAvXtv
— CNN (@CNN) July 24, 2022
In March, Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined a chorus of other left-wing Democrats and pundits in calling for Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to either resign his post or face impeachment proceedings.
“Clarence Thomas should resign,” the New York Democratic representative tweeted on Tuesday. “If not, his failure to disclose income from right-wing organizations, recuse himself from matters involving his wife, and his vote to block the Jan 6th commission from key information must be investigated and could serve as grounds for impeachment.”
The Washington Examiner added:
Ocasio-Cortez echoed what numerous other Democratic colleagues, including Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, have said in regards to the most senior justice’s spouse Ginni Thomas. The justice’s wife is a longtime conservative advocate and most recently had a trove of messages revealed by the House Jan. 6 Committee investigating the riot on the U.S. Capitol. The messages depicted Thomas encouraging former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to keep fighting in an effort to overturn the 2020 election results in favor of the former president.
The progressive Democrat also questioned Clarence Thomas’s refusal to recuse himself from several election-related cases before the Supreme Court, including at least 10 rulings concerning the 2020 presidential election.
The Reagan appointee has come under fire from the left regarding a January case when he was the lone justice dissenting in an 8-1 ruling that put the House Select Committee on Jan. 6, which is investigating the Capitol riot, on course to obtain records from the Trump White House.
