Ginni Thomas to speak to House Jan. 6 committee this week

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol will speak to conservative activist Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, this week, committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson said Wednesday.

Thompson did not say whether the committee will be speaking to Thomas on Thursday or Friday. 

The committee asked Thomas to appear voluntarily before the panel after it learned that she had corresponded with John Eastman, a conservative lawyer who helped come up with the legal strategy to pressure former Vice President Mike Pence to unilaterally toss out state electoral votes.   

Thomas also sent emails to at least two Wisconsin Republican legislators days after the presidential election, pushing them to name an alternate slate of presidential electors to back former President Donald Trump. Additionally, Thomas corresponded via text message with former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows in the days following the 2020 election, urging him to overturn the election results.   

Thomas' lawyer confirmed last week that she would participate in a "voluntary meeting" with the committee. "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," Thomas' lawyer Mark Paoletta said in a statement on Sept. 22. "She looks forward to that opportunity."

The news comes as the committee was forced to postpone a hearing that was planned for Wednesday due to Hurricane Ian. Thompson said Wednesday that a new date had not yet been set, and that committee members are examining their schedules. The House is set to go into recess at the end of the week. 

Thompson said earlier this month that the committee plans to put together an interim report in mid-October, and will finalize the report before the end of the year. 

That would take the committee past the November midterm elections. The committee's two Republicans, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, are both leaving Congress in January. Cheney lost the Republican primary in Wyoming to a Trump-backed challenger; Kinzinger decided not to run for reelection. Another member, Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria, is facing a tough reelection battle against Republican state Sen. Jen Kiggans.

Zak Hudak contributed to this report.