Ginni Thomas.Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty
The Washington Postreports that the committee has obtained email correspondence between Thomas and Eastman, a former professor at Chapman University, who had written a detailed plan to attempt to persuade then-Vice PresidentMike Penceto throw out the 2020 election results on Jan. 6.
Pence did not, insteadreleasing a statementhours before Congress met to certify the election for Joe Biden informing both the president and the public that he didn’t have the constitutional power — or any intention — to intervene with the country’s vote.
The content of the emails — or whether they were between only Eastman and Thomas or part of a larger group — have not yet been made public, but thePostnotes that their existence sheds more light on Thomas' efforts to have the election overturned in Trump’s favor.
ThePostreported earlier this week that Thomas “pressed 29 Republican state lawmakers in Arizona … to set aside Joe Biden’s popular vote victory and ‘choose’ presidential electors.”
Three days after the election, on Nov. 6, Thomas wrote Meadows: “Do not concede. It takes time for the army who is gathering for his back.”
Thomas has also previously acknowledged that she attended the rally that preceded the Capitol riots on Jan. 6, though she toldThe Washington Free Beaconthat she left before then-President Trump addressed the crowd.
Thomas also insisted she “played no role with those who were planningand leading the Jan. 6 events.”
Thomas' attempts to persuade lawmakers not to certify Biden’s election — and her contacts with those close to the former president — have intensified questions about whether it poses a conflict of interest for her husband, and if he should recuse himself from Supreme Court cases related to the 2020 presidential election.
Eastman, meanwhile, remains a key figure in the committee’s investigation into the riots and the events leading up to them.
In March, a federal judge said Trumplikely broke the lawwhen he and Eastman enacted a plan to overturn the election, and justified that plan with allegations of election fraud.
John Eastman.Susan Walsh/AP/Shutterstock
“But President Trump likely knew the justification was baseless, and therefore that the entire plan was unlawful,” Judge David Carter wrote.
Elsewhere in the ruling, Carter wrote that Eastman and Trump “launched a campaign to overturn a democratic election, an action unprecedented in American history. Their campaign was not confined to the ivory tower — it was a coup in search of a legal theory. The plan spurred violent attacks on the seat of our nation’s government, led to the deaths of several law enforcement officers, and deepened public distrust in our political process.”
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In a statement issued that month, Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson said he believes “Eastman’s emails may show that he helped Donald Trump advance a corrupt scheme to obstruct the counting of electoral college ballots and a conspiracy to impede the transfer of power.”
Thompson noted, however, that the select committee “is not conducting a criminal investigation.”
source: people.com
