Emails show Ginni Thomas urged Arizona lawmakers to “fight back against fraud” after 2020 election

Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, who is the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, pressed Arizona lawmakers after the 2020 election to set aside Joe Biden’s popular vote victory and choose “a clean slate of Electors,” according to e-mails obtained by The Washington Post.

The e-mails, which were sent by Ginni Thomas to 2 lawmakers on November 9th, 2020, argued that legislators needed to intervene because the vote had been marred by fraud. Thomas did not mention either candidate by name.

A few days after media organizations called the race for Biden in Arizona and nationwide, Thomas reportedly pressed the lawmakers to “stand strong in the face of political and media pressure.” She told the lawmakers that the responsibility to choose electors was “yours and yours alone” and said they had “power to fight back against fraud.”

Thomas sent the messages via an online platform designed to make it easy to send prewritten form emails to multiple elected officials, according to a review of the emails, obtained under the state’s public-records law.

The e-mails were sent to Russell Bowers, a veteran legislator and speaker of the Arizona House, and Shawnna Bolick, who was first elected to the chamber in 2018 and served on the House elections committee during the 2020 session.

“Article II of the United States Constitution gives you an awesome responsibility: to choose our state’s Electors,’’ read the Nov. 9 email. “…[P]lease take action to ensure that a clean slate of Electors is chosen.’’

Thomas’s name also appears on an e-mail to the two representatives on Dec. 13, the day before members of the Electoral College met to cast their votes and seal Biden’s victory. “Before you choose your state’s Electors . . . consider what will happen to the nation we all love if you don’t stand up and lead,’’ the e-mail said.

It included a link to a video of a man delivering a message meant for swing-state lawmakers, urging them to “put things right” and “not give in to cowardice.”

“You have only hours to act,” said the speaker, who is not identified in the video.