Responding to allegations in The New Yorker and New York Times Magazine about her role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' wife, Ginni, defended herself in an interview published on Monday in The Washington Free Beacon.
She said she did not help organize the White House rally that came before the riot and that although she did attend the rally, she got cold and returned home before then-President Donald Trump took the stage
Ginni Thomas insisted that her involvement with the event has no influence on her husband's work and discounted critics who have said for decades that her political activity creates a conflict of interest for her husband.
"Like so many married couples, we share many of the same ideals, principles, and aspirations for America," Ginni Thomas told the Free Beacon. "But we have our own separate careers, and our own ideas and opinions too. Clarence doesn't discuss his work with me, and I don't involve him in my work."
She stressed that she discounts the attacks against her, because ''if you are going to be true to yourself and your professional calling, you can never be intimidated, chilled, or censored by what the press or others say.''
She also said: "I played no role with those who were planning and leading the January 6 events. There are stories in the press suggesting I paid or arranged for buses. I did not. There are other stories saying I mediated feuding factions of leaders for that day. I did not."
She said that she was ''disappointed and frustrated that there was violence that happened following a peaceful gathering of Trump supporters on the Ellipse on January 6,"
Ginni Thomas insisted that "there are important and legitimate substantive questions about achieving goals like electoral integrity, racial equality and political accountability that a democratic system like ours needs to be able to discuss and debate rationally in the political square. I fear we are losing that ability."
Thomas said she has sought ethics guidance from Judge Laurence Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, who said it was fine to be openly involved in politics, so long as she took no position on a specific case before the Supreme Court.
Silberman also noted in a Free Beacon interview that judicial spouses are often active in politics and law practice, saying that ''if you did a study of all federal judges today to find out whether spouses are involved in politics — either as political figures of their own or active in some way — you'd find a plethora."
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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