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Jan. 6 committee chairman to recommend inviting Ginni Thomas to appear

Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas.

The chairman of the Democratic-led House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol will recommend that it invites Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, to appear.

"It appears that Mrs. Thomas has information relevant to our investigation. It's important that we hear from all witnesses who can help us get answers for the American people about the violence of January 6th and its causes, and that includes Mrs. Thomas," the panel said, according to a statement shared in the email.

As the panel investigates people closer and closer to Trump, his son-in-law and trusted adviser Jared Kushner is expected to appear on Thursday, according to two sources familiar with the committee's discussions.

The panel was already slated to meet Monday evening when it voted unanimously to recommend contempt of Congress charges for former Trump White House advisers Dan Scavino Jr. and Peter Navarro for a vote by the House.

The committee was expected to meet in private, when Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., was to recommend that they ask Ginni Thomas to cooperate with the committee, according to an email obtained by NPR.

CBS and The Washington Post reported last week that Thomas exchanged 29 text messages over several weeks between the election and Jan. 6 with Mark Meadows, who was the White House chief of staff at the time.

The text messages were among those turned over by Meadows to the Jan. 6 committee. He later stopped cooperating with the panel.

There are suggestions in these messages that Ginni Thomas may have had contacts with others in the White House and on Trump's legal team.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Claudia Grisales is a congressional reporter assigned to NPR's Washington Desk.