The conservative editorial page of the Wall Street Journal is coming to the defense of Ginni Thomas, wife of the Supreme Court's Clarence Thomas. This week, the Washington Post and others reported on newly revealed texts showing that Ginni Thomas urged Mark Meadows, then chief of staff to President Trump, to work to overturn the election results. The texts "certainly aren’t flattering" to Ginni Thomas, write the editors, showing that she embraced "some of the nuttier election-fraud theories" in circulation. But she's a private citizen, after all, and she "can believe all the crank theories she wants, and she has the right to participate in politics even as the spouse of a Justice."
So why were the texts leaked to the media? The Journal suspects a big reason is to damage the reputation of Clarence Thomas. "And sure enough, the served-up Woodward scoop was followed by demands that Justice Thomas resign, or at least recuse himself from cases involving the election," notes the editorial. The editors, however, say there is no reason for him to do either of those things. For a counterpoint, see this New Yorker story in which Jane Mayer interviews legal scholars who feel differently. Among other things, they point to a federal statute requiring justices to recuse themselves from a case if a spouse has an "interest" in its outcome. Related:
- Another figure: Politico says the Ginni Thomas story raises questions about another staunch ally of Donald Trump: attorney John Eastman, at the center of Trump's efforts to overturn the election. Eastman had spoken of believing that two Supreme Court justices would back him up, and the Thomas texts raise the question of whether he wasn't just speculating about that.
- More details: The New York Times is out with another story about Ginni Thomas. "Now, an examination of her texts, woven together with recent revelations of the depth of her efforts to overturn the election, shows how firmly she was embedded in the conspiratorial fringe of right-wing politics, even as that fringe was drawing ever closer to the center of Republican power."
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