Liz Cheney says Jan. 6 committee could “contemplate a subpoena” for Ginni Thomas

Rep. Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, said Sunday that the panel is “fully prepared to contemplate a subpoena” for Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

“I hope it doesn’t come to that,” Cheney said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Cheney said Thomas is currently “engaging” with the committee through her counsel, and she hopes Thomas will agree to come in voluntarily.

The committee has been interested in Thomas, who is known as “Ginni,” since it learned she corresponded via email with conservative attorney John Eastman, who was involved in the campaign to pressure former Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify the election results. Thomas also attended the rally that preceded the Capitol attack and urged Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, to work on overturning the 2020 election results.

A lawyer for Thomas sent a letter to the committee last month saying he wants “a better justification for why Mrs. Thomas’s testimony is relevant.” 

Cheney’s appearance Sunday came on the heels of the committee holding its last public hearing of the summer on Thursday night. The blockbuster public hearings have sought to show what former President Trump was doing amid the riot and directly tie him to the mobilization of the mob at the Capitol. The public hearings have also detailed some of Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, including a scheme to replace Biden electors with alternate ones who supported Trump and a series of pressure campaigns on Pence, the Justice Department, state lawmakers and local elections officials. 

Cheney, who is in the fight of her political life in a Republican primary in Wyoming, said Sunday that her work on the committee “is the single most important thing I’ve ever done professionally” even if she loses her seat over it.

“I will also say this, I’m not going to lie. I’m not going to say things that aren’t true about the election,” she said. “My opponents are doing that certainly simply for the purpose of getting elected … if I have to choose between maintaining a seat in the House of Representatives, or protecting the constitutional republic and ensuring the American people know the truth about Donald Trump, I’m going to choose the Constitution and the truth every single day.”