by Liz Cheney, the Republican vice chairwoman of the House Committee on January 6, did “everything she could” to block the rightwing supreme court judge Clarence Thomas and his wife, the political activist Ginni Thomas, from an in-depth investigation of involvement Ginny. in an attempt to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election, says a new book.
In Stench: The Making of the Thomas Court and the Unmaking of America, reporter and Democratic operative David Brock writes that “two Capitol Hill sources with personal knowledge” revealed “a dramatic truth, which may even surprise make some Washington veterans not easily surprised. through noisy examples of power protection power.
“Liz Cheney herself, the star of the hearings, in her turn as a maverick independent Republican, did everything she could behind the scenes to protect Ginni and Clarence Thomas and blocked the measure to further investigate the implications of Ginni Thomas’s texts to. [Mark] Meadows”, Trump’s last chief of staff in the White House.
Thomas and Meadows exchanged extensive messages about efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory. The texts, including indications Thomas discussed with her husband, were shown to CNN in April 2022, as the January 6 committee continued its work.
The leak was deeply disturbing, prompting Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, to call it a “huge scandal”. As Ornstein described it, the texts revealed that “the wife of a supreme court judge is a radical insurrectionist. [but] her husband refused to recuse himself from any of the cases in which she was deeply and actively involved.”
In his book, Brock argues that Clarence Thomas helped shape a far-right court that was decidedly out of step with public opinion since his controversial confirmation in 1991. Echoing prominent Democrats including New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Brock says Thomas should be impeached and removed from office.
In making his case, Brock outlines eight counts, ranging from perjury in confirmation hearings, related to Thomas’ alleged sexual harassment of Anita Hill, and Thomas’ refusal to recuse himself from cases involving his wife and election retaliation Trump. The only judge among such cases was one that requested the release of records related to January 6, and Thomas was the only judge to say that the records in shadow.
In Brock’s words, the January 6 committee issued “no publication to Ginni Thomas, much less her husband” and requested “no public testimony, only an informational interview that she was not under oath.”
Brock also reports that Denver Riggleman, a Republican congressman, turned in a January 6 staff member who left the committee at the time of the leaked text messages and wrote his own book on the subject, which the “entire committee” says worked to hinder a thorough investigation of Ginni Thomas. . But Brock’s allegation that Cheney worked to protect the Thomases could still be explosive, especially as former Wyoming congresswoman Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democratic opponent in this year’s presidential election, recently endorsed her.
In Brock’s view, Cheney’s motivation to protect the Thomases was “in line with her own ambitions”, as she considered a presidential bid. Noting the documented friendship between the Thomases and Cheney’s parents – her father is former vice president Dick Cheney, who Harris recently endorsed – Brock says Liz Cheney deployed a “naked power move” involving “raw political math”.
“No Republican candidate could survive coming out against the rightwing court-packing project,” Brock wrote, referring to Clarence Thomas’ position as the most senior rightwinger on a 6-3 conservative-led court, after the installation of three hardliners under Trump. .
Cheney did not run for president. But as Brock notes, Ginni Thomas avoided scrutiny at the January 6 committee. In her 845 page report, her name does not appear even once. The committee released a transcript of Thomas’ interview, in which she said she regretted emailing Meadows and said: “You know, it was an emotional time. I’m sorry these texts exist.”
Cheney’s own book, Oath and Honor , was published last year. It includes an article on the leak of Meadows’ texts, which Cheney calls “unethical – and counterproductive to our investigation”.
She also describes the anonymous team’s “extremely aggressive bid… to hide all of Justice Thomas’ private communications in multiple forms of media”, based on a misidentified email address.
“This could be a terrible mistake,” Cheney wrote. “We were lucky we were careful.”
Cheney writes that she has known Ginni Thomas “for years” but that she “deeply doubted that she was the mastermind” of Trump’s election efforts. Noting Thomas’ public statements critical of her work for the committee on Jan. 6, Cheney says she was “pleased when liberals in the media or social media imputed favoritism to Ginni,” adding : “I thought Ginni should be treated the same. in the manner of every other witness who was engaged in similar conduct.”
When asked about Brock’s reporting, a source close to Cheney said: “Liz is still very concerned about Ginni Thomas’ apparent refusal to respect the rulings of our courts.”
Brock began as a reporter for right-wing outlets, making his name with The Real Anita Hill, a book-length attack on accused Clarence Thomas. But his other books include Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative, in which he details a political conversion that included forming political action committees and advising Hillary Clinton.
Related: Oath and Honor Review: Liz Cheney acknowledges the threat from Trump
Speaking to the Guardian about his new book, which will be published in the US on Tuesday, Brock acknowledged Cheney’s decision to oppose Trump and how costly it was.
“Liz Cheney is obviously a hero for many reasons,” he said. “But in this particular case, I think her judgment was probably clouded by political and family loyalties.
“The committee definitely tried to go further with the Ginni investigation. Obviously she could be subpoenaed. Clarence Thomas could be subpoenaed. But they didn’t go down that way, largely because Liz Cheney was shielding the Thomases from that kind of scrutiny.”
