Why Ginni Thomas' texts with Mark Meadows could be "a tricky area" for congressional investigators
There could be more text messages between Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' wife, Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, and Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, CBS News chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa told "CBS Mornings."
"There might very well be texts we have not seen. Twenty-nine were provided to the committee. Twenty-one from Ginni Thomas to Meadows. Eight from Meadows to Ginni Thomas. These were part of a collection of over 2,300 text messages Meadows provided to the committee," said Costa. "But there are gaps. The last text in what we've reported comes in late November 2020. Then there is a stray one about Vice President Pence and the end of America in January of 2021, days after the insurrection. So, this is a story that is beginning, not ending."
Copies of messages where Ginni Thomas, a longtime conservative activist, repeatedly encouraged Meadows to help overturn the 2020 presidential election were obtained by Costa and Bob Woodward of The Washington Post. They joined "CBS Mornings" to discuss the revelations they uncovered.
Meadows provided the text messages to the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Neither Justice Thomas nor the Supreme Court were mentioned in the messages. It is not known whether Justice Thomas was aware of the messages.
"That's a question for the January 6 committee, and the question I have as a reporter, and Woodward and I have discussed this, is will this committee now issue a subpoena for Ginni Thomas? Will it perhaps even consider asking the justice himself, Clarence Thomas, to come in and talk to the committee? This is a tricky area for Congress," said Costa.
"In these texts, we also see discussion of the legislative branch. A map of Trump relationships and this mission to overturn the election stretching across the entire U.S. government," Costa added.
Woodward said it was the tone of the texts that really struck him.
"What Ginni Thomas has done here, what Mark Meadows, they've just turned up the heat and the division in the country in a way that leads us to the — let's be direct about it — the political catastrophe we are living through," said Woodward.
Ginni Thomas and Justice Clarence Thomas did not respond to CBS News' requests for comment.
Ginni Thomas has publicly denied that any conflict of interest exists between her marriage to a Supreme Court justice and her work as a political activist.
Meadows' lawyer has said the text exchanges do not present any legal issues.