Thursday, March 28

Wyden: Justice Thomas should recuse himself from Jan. 6 and 2024 election cases


Sen. Ron WydenRonald (Ron) Lee WydenConservative group urges GOP to couple Russian energy ban with reversing Biden policies GOP senator prevents quick passage of House bill limiting Russian trade IRS probe finds nearly billion in coronavirus stimulus-related fraud MORE (D-Ore.) on Friday said Supreme Court Justice Clarence ThomasClarence ThomasGinni Thomas sent Mark Meadows texts urging efforts to overturn election: report Supreme Court allows religious touch in execution chamber  Supreme Court silent on Thomas health status  MORE should recuse himself from any cases involving the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and, if former President TrumpDonald TrumpDefense & National Security — Biden huddles with allies in Europe Ginni Thomas sent Mark Meadows texts urging efforts to overturn election: report The Defense Production Act won’t bring us supply-chain security MORE runs again, cases related to the 2024 election. 

Thomas is facing growing ethics questions amid reports that this wife, Ginni Thomas, urged then-White House chief of staff Mark MeadowsMark MeadowsDefense & National Security — Biden huddles with allies in Europe Ginni Thomas sent Mark Meadows texts urging efforts to overturn election: report Jan. 6 panel seeking contempt for Scavino, Navarro MORE to make an aggressive effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election. 

Wyden said Clarence Thomas’s “conduct on the Supreme Court looks increasingly corrupt” in the wake of the new reporting. 

“At the bare minimum, Justice Thomas needs to recuse himself from any case related to the January 6th investigation, and should Donald Trump run again, any case related to the 2024 election,” Wyden added. 

Also Read  A day of punishment for Putin

Wyden is one of the first Democratic senators to call on Thomas to recuse himself since news broke Thursday of Ginni Thomas’s outreach to top members of Trump’s orbit. But critics have been raising concerns that Ginni Thomas’s political activity poses an ethically troubling overlap with her husband’s judicial position. 

The 29 text messages between Ginni Thomas and Meadows were part of the total of 2,320 text messages he sent or received that Meadows handed over to the House committee investigating the attack on the Capitol.

The new reports have also revived scrutiny over a January court ruling in which the Supreme Court blocked Trump’s bid to block administration records from being handed to the Jan. 6 House committee. The decision was 8-1 with Thomas as the lone dissent. It’s unclear if Ginni Thomas’s messages would have been in the White House records being disputed in court. 

Thomas also dissented in a February 2021 decision by the Supreme Court to turn away a challenge to Pennsylvania’s election results. Thomas wrote that the decision was “baffling” and “befuddling.”  

Wyden said judges should recuse themselves from participating in a case if there is “even the appearance of a conflict of interest” and that “a person with an ounce of commonsense could see that bar is met here.”

“Justice Thomas participated in cases related to Donald Trump’s efforts to rig and then overturn the 2020 election, while his wife was pushing to do the same. He was the lone dissent in a case that could have denied the January 6th Committee records pertaining to the same plot his wife supported,” he said. 

Also Read  Foo Fighters’ Biggest Billboard Chart Hits: ‘Learn to Fly,’ ‘Best of You’ & More



Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *