There was a telling exchange today on CBS’ Face the Nation when host Margaret Brennan asked J6 Committee member Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) about issuing a subpoena of Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. I have previously written how the calls for Justice Thomas to resign or be impeached are wildly out of line with ethical and constitutional standards. What was interesting, however, was how Schiff justified such an unprecedented subpoena: to question her about one of Thomas’ opinions dealing with the authority of Congress to investigate what occurred on that day.
The House was previously given the messages by Ginni Thomas, including 29 messages from November 2020 to mid-January 2021. They were part of over 2300 text messages sent to the Committee by White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. That turning over of the messages was the subject of press coverage in December 2021 before the January 19, 2022 opinion with the sole dissent of Thomas.
Here is the exchange:
MARGARET BRENNAN: Your colleague Liz Cheney was on two other networks this morning, and she said that you all are discussing a potential subpoena for Ginni Thomas, who is married to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Are there lines that shouldn’t be crossed here when it comes to the Supreme Court? Because one of the objections to the premise of a subpoena here is that it- it sets a dangerous precedent by putting the spouse of a justice in this political forum.
REP. SCHIFF: There are lines that shouldn’t be crossed, but those lines involve sitting Supreme Court justices, not presiding or appearing or taking action in cases in which their spouse may be implicated. And in this case, for Clarence Thomas to issue a decision, in a case, a dissent in a case where Congress is trying to get documents, and those documents might involve his own wife, that’s the line that’s been crossed. And I think, for Congress to be looking into these issues, looking into conflict of interest issues. But here, looking into issues, whether it involves the wife of a Supreme Court justice or anyone else, if they have information or role in an effort to overturn an election. Yes, they’re not excluded from examination.
MARGARET BRENNAN: It sounds like you’re saying you favor that subpoena?
REP. SCHIFF: Well, if she has relevant information or investigation, we hope she comes in voluntarily. But if she doesn’t, then we should give that a serious consideration. And, yes, I think those that we decided have important enough information should be subpoenaed.
Schiff clearly states that the interest of the Committee is to use Thomas’ spouse to explore a prior opinion in an election-related case. Rep. Liz Cheney (R., Wy) has also stated that the Committee might subpoena Ginni Thomas.
Various politicians and pundits have suggested that Thomas could be impeached for violating the Judicial Code of Ethics because he voted on a challenge to the Commission obtaining White House messages and emails. (For the record, I publicly stated that the Commission should prevail on those demands). In January, the House won an 8-1 victory before the Supreme Court, which rejected Trump’s privilege objections to the release of White House materials. There was only one dissenting vote: Thomas.
However, the justices have long insisted that they are not compelled to follow the Code of Judicial Conduct. I have long disagreed with that view and have called for Congress to mandate the application of the code to the Court. Yet, the Court has maintained that such conflict rules are not mandatory and many have refused to recuse themselves in circumstances that were flagged as possible violations.
Yet, Schiff stripped away the pretense of subpoenaing Ginni Thomas about her messages to the White House. This is about her husband, not her support for the election challenges or what occurred on January 6th.
A well-known Republican activist and Trump supporter, Thomas encouraged then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to pursue legal and legislative challenges to what she viewed as a stolen election.
The reason that Ginni Thomas’ messages were seized is not because she was a key figure in the investigation but that the Commission has demanded any messages that deal with such challenges or the rally — a scope that has been criticized as overbroad. Congress then leaked the messages and the media did the rest.
There is no evidence that Ginni Thomas ever encouraged violence or was even present at the Capitol during the riot. Thomas said that she attended the Ellipse rally on Jan. 6 but left early, before Trump spoke, and never went to the Capitol.
On a committee that was tasked with uncovering what occurred on January 6th, Schiff is now saying that the committee’s jurisdiction would extend to what the Supreme Court did a year later. That is more than a case of “mission creep.” It is a radical departure from past practices and long-standing interbranch comity. It could create dangerous precedent as members use such committees to investigate jurists on the motivations or communications leading to their opinions.
Once again, members like Schiff appear to be tossing caution to the wind to appeal to core constituencies. How exactly will Schiff and the Committee investigate Justice Thomas’ motivations and actions? It would have to demand disclosures of his spousal communications. It would also threaten perjury or contempt charges if Ginni Thomas is not accurate in her details.
The use of the J6 Committee in this way would reaffirm the criticism of the committee as a partisan exercise. The fact that Cheney has joined in such calls only highlights the absence of even a modicum of balance on the committee. It would also constitute one of the most intrusive acts ever taken against the Court outside of a formal impeachment proceeding.
It is a threat that should be universally condemned and immediately withdrawn.
No one may be compelled to testify against their spouse. Tell them to pound sand.
OT: Ashli Babbitt was “murdered … under the color of authority,”
Stan Kephart reviewed the films of her death. He is an expert witness testifying on policing issues greater than 350 times.
He states: “She was shot and killed under color of authority by an officer who violated not only the law but his oath and committed an arrestable offense.”
“In order for lethal force to be authorized, the officer has to be able to articulate that he or she was in fear of losing his life, was about to be killed, or grievously injured
There is nothing I saw in that film that would indicate that was possible or probable from what unfolded.”
It’s sad to see a once great Democratic Party lose their scruples. We need good debate in this country. Perhaps they’ve forgotten regular hard working Americans in favor of an aggressive DOJ and the lust for a power in need of an exorcism. St Michael…
RE:” Perhaps they’ve forgotten regular hard working Americans.” https://dasil.sites.grinnell.edu/2020/05/the-demographic-profiles-of-democrats-and-republicans/
Schiff is, literally, one of the most disingenuous, lying hacks to ever make to Washington. Compared to Schiff, Trump, an habitual liar and exaggerator, is the very model of truthfulness and self-effacing sobriety. So I am not surprised.
Trump, an habitual liar and exaggerator, hahaahah an i bet you think brandon and camel are honest, trump2024 learn to like it
https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/2022-07-26_05-23-18.jpg?itok=PYNeYeF4
The January 6 Committee is the best argument for the re-election of Donald Trump. This gross abuse of power must not only fail, it must be seen to have failed. If Trump is not re-elected, Democrats will view the 1/6 Committee as a success, to be used again when needed.
The best solution for our dumpster fire national crisis is for all Federal politicians to immediately step down from office, both Legislative and Executive, call a national election, previous politicos banned from running again, and walk away in shame and to return, …..quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”
The Raven
BY EDGAR ALLAN POE
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48860/the-raven
Anonymous the Stupid, you are so convinced yourself that you see to it that your posting is deleted.
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That’s right. S. Meyer. You still don’t get it. You’re the one and only ATS and you’re incredibly rude and stupid.
Not only is Anonymous the Stupid incapable of knowing anything, he doesn’t know who he is.
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“ATS-S. Meyer is a rude one. He projects @ 5:09.”
Ginni Thomas already said she wanted to testify – on camera. Broadcast it live and she’ll likely show up without a subpoena.
They’re too afraid to show it on live tv, the nation would see just how much of a farce this is. I’ve grown extremely weary of schiff type politicians on both sides who are liars, deceivers, and self serving pigs in the trough of MNC’s and the ccp
“Trump’s comments come as Murdoch-owned newspapers the New York Post and Wall Street Journal have criticized Trump, editorializing that he is unworthy of another stint in the White House and failed as president during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/3572831-trump-fox-friends-has-gone-to-the-dark-side/
Here are the respective headlines of those two editorials:
“The President who stood still on Jan. 6”
“Trump’s silence on Jan. 6 is damning.”
Both of which Turley would agree. Turley has NEVER claimed that there was any evidence of massive voter fraud. By ignoring “2000 Mules,” Turley evidences his contempt for the belief that the election was stolen. Turley has NEVER advocated that Trump should run again. If he did, he would vote against him a 3rd time…
Trumpists don’t want to admit it publicly, but they know- deep down they know- that Turley is a NeverTrumper just like me.
Nobody cares
I do, and those like me outnumber you Q-Anon and MAGA cultists.
Not according to the ratings. Since the hearings began trumps poll numbers have risen and Biden’s have dropped.
Yet another effort by Turley to throw dirt on the J 6 Committee and to defend Clarence Thomas and his sitting in judgment of matters which directly involve his wife. In any other court in any other jurisdiction, this would violate the Code of Judicial Ethics. How deeply ironic that a judge sitting on the court of last resort has violated the most-basic premise of judicial ethics: issuing a ruling directly involving discovery of communications between his spouse and the White House to support the POTUS who knew he had lost the election, who had failed to bully or litigate his way into staying in office, and who had told his followers to “fight like hell or you’re not going to have a country any more”. We know she even appeared in person at the rally. Beyond that, we don’t have evidence of what she may or may not have done to further the insurrection.
Thomas sitting in judgment in litigation involving his wife and her support of the insurrection wouldn’t fly even in a small claims or traffic court. Turley says: “Schiff clearly states that the interest of the Committee is to use Thomas’ spouse to explore a prior opinion in an election-related case.” Turley is twisting what Rep. Schiff said, which is that Thomas should have recused himself in any and all decisions involving his wife. The question posed to Schiff was whether there are lines “that shouldn’t be crossed”, and his answer directly addressed this question. Rep. Schiff is right, of course.
Turley also attempts to defend Virginia Thomas by meekly claiming that she was just encouraging Mark Meadows to pursue “what she viewed as a stolen election.” She can “view” the election any way she wants to, but there wasn’t and still isn’t, any evidence of a “stolen election’, so her alleged “view” is false. The J6 commmittee has convincingly established that Trump knew he didn’t win, based on everyone telling him so, including Bill Barr after the DOJ investigated and found no widespread fraud. Turley also tries to lamely argue: “There is no evidence that Ginni Thomas ever encouraged violence or was even present at the Capitol during the riot.” No one knows what the “evidence” will eventually prove, but for the spouse of a sitting SCOTUS justice to support a lie about a “stolen election”, and to appear at a rally calculated to disrupt the certification of the election winner’s victory is serious business. It would be Congressional malpractice to fail to investigate these matters, especially in view of Clarence Thomas’s refusal to recuse himself from discovery of his wife’s involvement in the insurrection and his sole vote against disclosure of her e-mails.
Turley argues: “The fact that Cheney has joined in such calls only highlights the absence of even a modicum of balance on the committee. It would also constitute one of the most intrusive acts ever taken against the Court outside of a formal impeachment proceeding. It is a threat that should be universally condemned and immediately withdrawn.” No, Turley, you have it exactly wrong: conducting discovery regarding Ginni Thomas’s conduct and involvement in the insurrection and her husband’s refusal to recuse himself, and further, his voting against discovery of her e-mails, is what everyone NOT connected with alt-right media “universally condemns”. Your status as a paid pundit is showing.
Then the Republican should call Bernie Sanders’s wife and find out where is 10-million dollars she stole from a college – how about going after Biden’s kid and brother for all the crap they stole ?
I would love to see exactly ALL the criminal activity the filthy biden clan has committed
Marjorie Taylor Greene said “Republicans need to prove to the American people that we are the party of …Christian nationalism,” and she thinks Christian nationalist policies “serve everyone.”
Apparently she’s too stupid to understand that Christian nationalist policies don’t serve people who aren’t Christian nationalists.
She embodies what the GOP is turning into and what Liz Cheney is fighting against within the party.
And the dems are the party of atheism, communism, pedophilia, transgender mental illness, and the destruction of the greatest nation ever. Such an entitled group of self serving minions who thrive on participation ribbons and feelings. This nation should just go ahead and get it over with-secession. So we can declare hostilities with you and imprison you like your ilk has imprisoned innocent patriots
I’m sorry, but that is funny. Liz Cheney isn’t fighting for anything but her own power and relevance. She doesn’t give one whit of care about anyone but herself. I mean, we’re talking about the woman who threw her own sister under the bus.
Anomaly,
MTG said; “”Republicans need to prove to the American people that we are the party of American nationalism and Christian nationalism”.
When you have to mis-quote someone to smear them you have lost both the argument and your own credibility.
When Turley explains why Mrs. Thomas’s messages were in the possession of the J6 Committee, he ended his explanation with a statement which in my view is of paramount importance in this now heavily partisan, divisive, ‘them versus us’ political environment in which we live —- her documents were given to Congress,” then they were LEAKED, and the media did the rest”
Perhaps the penalty for ‘leaking’ should be intensified — imprisonment, and in some cases, execution.
@Richard Lowe, you wrote:
When Turley explains why Mrs. Thomas’s messages were in the possession of the J6 Committee, he ended his explanation with a statement which in my view is of paramount importance in this now heavily partisan, divisive, ‘them versus us’ political environment in which we live —- her documents were given to Congress,” then they were LEAKED, and the media did the rest”
-=-
That’s not accurate.
Thomas became entangled in this when Mark Meadows surrendered the documents/texts to the Committee in order to comply with their subpoena. That is to say that they were not voluntarily handed to the committee that the quote implied.
Leaks will happen, regardless of the penalties. People know that they are going to be protected or else they’ll start naming names. This is true on both sides of the aisle.
The issue would be in that the Press is a rabid mob who only want to cause damage.
-G
Is it possible that Ginni Thomas would give testimony to help the committee find out what caused the riot? Certainly not. Riots are caused by spontaneous criminality showing others how easy it is to do violence under the cover of the mob.
Schiff only wants to get Trump by any means possible. He’ll hate and degrade Trump until his dying day. Schiff has serially lied about the Russian hoax and continues now about the coming bombshell that doesn’t exist.
Such a hate filled person cannot get over Trump. Knowing that Ginni Thomas supported Trump is enough to keep Schiff salivating to further his hatred.
Anything Schiff says cannot be believed without a full shaker of salt.
Don’t forget that.
Your 100% right about Schiff. I can’t believe he hasn’t been prosecuted.
The media and the federal agencies have become extensions of the deep state and the democrat party and rinos