Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) on Monday called on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from any cases related to January 6 because his wife Virginia “Ginni” Thomas exercised her First Amendment rights to friends in private texts regarding the 2020 election.
The January 6 Committee on Thursday leaked Ginni Thomas’ text exchanges with Mark Meadows to the Washington Post as her husband was hospitalized with an infection.
The text messages exchanged between Ginni Thomas and Trump’s former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows are uneventful.
Dick Durbin joined other Democrats and called for Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from cases related to January 6.
The Hill reported:
Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the No. 2 Senate Democrat and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said on Monday that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas should recuse himself from cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
Durbin said Ginni Thomas’s involvement “really creates an obvious conflict” for her husband on Jan. 6-related cases.
“For the good of the court I think he should recuse himself from those cases,” Durbin added.
Other Democrats have floated requiring a code of ethics for the Supreme Court or even considered launching a congressional committee investigation.
Durbin didn’t rule out an investigation in the future but said that his focus for now is getting Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Biden’s Supreme Court pick, confirmed.
“So there’s plenty of time and plenty of reason for us to debate this in the future. But for the time being, I want to make sure this vacancy is filled with Judge Jackson,” Durbin said.
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