Jan. 6 Panel to Seek Interview With Ginni Thomas

WASHINGTON — The Home committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol is prone to attain out quickly to Virginia Thomas, the spouse of Justice Clarence Thomas, to request that she sit for an interview, based on two individuals aware of the matter.

The choice — which ends intense inner debate concerning the matter — got here after the revelation final week of Ms. Thomas’s textual content messages to Mark Meadows, the previous White Home chief of workers, by which she relentlessly urged him to pursue a plan to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Though the committee has been in possession of Ms. Thomas’s textual content messages for months, not everybody on the panel had seen the paperwork earlier than they have been printed in information reviews. That prompted debate among the many committee’s members, a number of of whom urged the panel to attempt to interview her.

An individual aware of the discussions stated the panel concluded that Ms. Thomas had related data, and that it was essential for investigators to listen to from her. CNN earlier reported the committee’s resolution.

An adviser to Ms. Thomas didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

For at the very least a number of weeks, the committee’s senior investigators have mentioned whether or not to name Ms. Thomas, who is called Ginni, to testify. They’ve additionally mentioned whether or not to subject subpoenas for every other communications she might have had with the White Home or the President Donald J. Trump’s authorized workforce concerning the election, together with a message that she instructed Mr. Meadows she had despatched to Jared Kushner, a former adviser to Mr. Trump, based on individuals with information of the investigation.

Some high investigators had initially argued in opposition to sending a subpoena to Ms. Thomas, as a result of they considered her as a minor participant within the makes an attempt to subvert the election. However the disclosure of the textual content messages, first by The Washington Submit and CBS Information, and public stress renewed these discussions.

A New York Occasions Journal investigation final month examined the political and private historical past of Ms. Thomas and her husband. That included her function in efforts to overturn the election from her perch on the nine-member board of C.N.P. Motion, a conservative group that helped advance the “Cease the Steal” motion, and in mediating between feuding factions of organizers “in order that there wouldn’t be any division round Jan. 6,” as one organizer put it.

Ms. Thomas acknowledged that she had attended the rally that preceded the violence in an interview with a conservative information outlet this month, however she has in any other case downplayed her function. Then got here disclosure of the texts to Mr. Meadows.

Within the messages, she referred to as the 2020 election a “heist” and even steered the lawyer who needs to be put in control of that effort.

There are many results in pursue. The committee may recall Dustin Stockton, a rally organizer who instructed The Occasions a few dialog he had with Caroline Wren, a Republican who helped elevate cash for the “March for America” on Jan. 6, by which she described Ms. Thomas’s peacemaking function. They may additionally recall Amy Kremer and Jenny Beth Martin, rally organizers near Ms. Thomas, to ask about her postelection communications with them.

The panel may subpoena data from not solely Ms. Thomas, but additionally C.N.P. Motion, which was deeply concerned within the effort to unfold falsehoods concerning the election. Investigators may ask the identify of the buddy Ms. Thomas was referring to when she wrote again to thank Mr. Meadows, saying: “Wanted that! This plus a dialog with my greatest buddy simply now … I’ll attempt to maintain holding on.” (Ms. Thomas and her husband have publicly referred to one another as their greatest buddies.)

In the end, the committee may ask her whether or not she had mentioned along with her husband Mr. Trump’s battle to overturn the election.

Maggie Haberman contributed reporting.