Explained: Who is Ginni Thomas, at the centre of a text message controversy on 2020 US presidential polls?

One such message sent by Ginni to Meadows said: “Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!! … You are the leader, with him, who is standing for America’s constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History.”

How did Ginni’s text messages come to light?

The text messages were first received by a House Committee that was investigating the Capitol Hill siege that took place on January 6, 2021. The 29 messages are a part of more than 2,300 messages that Meadows handed over to the committee investigating the riot.

At the time, Trump, then president, was relentlessly trying to reverse the results of the 2020 election.

On January 6, an armed and angry mob of his supporters stormed Capitol Hill and clashed with the police just as Congress was convening to validate Biden’s presidential win.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (AP Photo/John Amis, File)

Who is Justice Clarence Thomas?

Justice Thomas is the only Black male justice sitting on the nine-judge bench of the US Supreme Court right now, and is known for his conservative opinions. Ketanji Brown Jackson, who is set to become the first Black female justice of the country’s court, will become the third Black justice after she is formally approved.

Justice Thomas is the longest-serving on the nine-judge bench of the US Supreme Court and was appointed by Republican president George Bush in 1991. After Justice Stephen Breyer’s retirement later this year, Justice Thomas will become the oldest on the bench at 73 years. Earlier this week, Justice Thomas was reportedly hospitalised for over a week after reporting flu-like symptoms. He was discharged Friday.

Justice Thomas was 43-years-old when Bush appointed him, with only a year of experience in the judiciary. Before his appointment could be finalised, he was accused of sexual harassment by a former employee of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, of which he was the chairman. The claim was investigated by the FBI who presented an inconclusive report. He denied the allegations, and in October 1991, his appointment was confirmed by the Senate.

Apart from his conservatism, Justice Thomas is also known for his lack of questions during oral arguments. According to Oyez, which is a free law project managed by Cornell’s Legal Information Institute (LII), Justia, and Chicago-Kent College of Law, “While many justices use questions to show their opinion on an issue or communicate with the other justices as to their feelings on a case, Thomas remains silent…”.

Ginni Thomas and her politics

According to the BBC, Ginni is a well-known Republican fundraiser and was associated with the hard-line conservative movement of the party called the Tea Party wing, with which Meadows was also briefly associated with.

Ginni has admitted that she attended the protests against Biden’s election on January 6, but claims she left before Trump addressed the protestors and the riot broke out.

Clarence and Ginni have been married for over 35 years. Earlier this month, Ginni defended claims that some of her work and activism on behalf of Trump did not interfere with that of her husband. “We have our own separate careers, and our own ideas and opinions too. Clarence doesn’t discuss his work with me, and I don’t involve him in my work,” she told The Washington Free Beacon in an interview published recently.

In early 2021, Justice Thomas dissented when the court rejected Trump’s challenging of the election results.

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