TRUMP’S COUP D’ ETAT | MADISON, Wis. – Ginni Thomas pressured Wisconsin lawmakers to change 2020 election result, emails show.
Ginni Thomas and husband Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas – photo.
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MADISON, Wis. – In the days following former President Donald Trump’s loss in 2020, at least two Wisconsin lawmakers received an email from longtime conservative activist and wife to a U.S. Supreme Court justice Ginni Thomas urging the legislators to change the outcome of Wisconsin’s presidential election, according to a new report.
Thomas, using an email program that allowed her to communicate with lawmakers on a mass scale, sent messages to Senate Elections Committee chairwoman Kathy Bernier and state Rep. Gary Tauchen, R-Bonduel, on Nov. 9, 2020, asking both to “take action to ensure that a clean slate of Electors is chosen for our state,” according to The Washington Post and emails obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel under the state’s public records law.
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The Washington Post, which first reported the emails to Wisconsin lawmakers, also obtained messages from Thomas to lawmakers in Arizona, another battleground state, urging similar actions.
Bernier told the Journal Sentinel it’s possible Thomas sent emails to all Wisconsin lawmakers but she and Tauchen were the only ones to keep them. State law allows legislators to delete any email that has not yet been requested by the public.
“It’s not like she sat down and typed out an email to me and Gary Tauchen,” Bernier said in an interview.
The Journal Sentinel in June requested any email correspondence from Thomas to Assembly Speaker Robin Vos since July 2020. Vos’ aides said the office had no records responsive to the request.
On the same day Thomas emailed Bernier and Tauchen, Thomas sent similar messages to Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers and 26 other Republican lawmakers, according to the Post.
Who is Ginni Thomas: What to know about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife
Bernier, a Republican from Chippewa Falls and a former Chippewa County Clerk, has long criticized her Republican colleagues for embracing Trump’s false claims of voter fraud but she said Thomas’ email came at a time when Trump’s claims were first ramping up and it was more difficult to ascertain whether problems occurred.
“You have to look at the timeframe when that email went out,” she said.
“Would it be logical and possible for the Legislature to say ‘hold the phone,’ we are going to decertify the election, we are going to have a recount, or a do-over, or whatever — that was probably potentially realistic, so I don’t think it’s outlandish in any way shape or form,” Bernier said about the timeframe of the email. “But after, approaching Jan. 6 (2021), now it becomes outlandish.”
The emails to Wisconsin lawmakers came at a time when Trump and his supporters were filing lawsuits over the outcome of the election and launching recounts in the Democratic counties of Dane and Milwaukee, during which Trump sought to throw out hundreds of thousands of ballots.
Thomas’ decision to send messages to lawmakers in battleground states to overturn President Joe Biden’s victories has raised questions about whether her husband, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, should recuse himself from cases involving the 2020 presidential election.
Bernier said Ginni Thomas’ actions should not reflect on her husband.
“No matter what your spouse does, your kids, your family members, whatever they’re involved in, you still have your First Amendment rights. I’m sure if she felt it would adversely impact Justice Thomas, she may not have decided to do it but the fact of the matter is it was probably her own opinion.”
“I do feel sorry for the poor lady,” Bernier said.
Contact Molly Beck at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @MollyBeck.
Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Ginni Thomas pressured Wisconsin lawmakers to change 2020 election
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