Wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Emailed Wisconsin Lawmakers Urging Them to Change 2020 Electors

Friday, September 2nd, 2022 -- 1:01 PM

(AP) The wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas contacted at least two Wisconsin state lawmakers, including the chair of the Senate elections committee, urging them to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 election win in the tightly contested state, emails obtained Thursday by The Associated Press show.

Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, a conservative activist, also had sent messages to more than two dozen lawmakers in Arizona. In her communications with lawmakers in both states, Thomas urged Republicans to choose their own slate of electors after the election, arguing that results giving Biden a victory in the states were marred by fraud.

Despite numerous reviews, lawsuits and recounts, no widespread fraud calling into question the results has been discovered in either state. The emails received at the exact same time on Nov. 9, 2020, by Wisconsin state Sen. Kathy Bernier and state Rep. Gary Tauchen were first reported Thursday by The Washington Post. The AP obtained the email from Bernier, and the watchdog group Documented posted the email Tauchen received.

The emails were sent at almost the exact same time as the ones Thomas sent to lawmakers in Arizona. Bernier, in a telephone interview with the AP, said she did not recall receiving the email from Thomas, which was one of thousands her office and other Wisconsin lawmakers received around that time.

The message was sent over the FreeRoots platform that allows for mass mailing of prewritten emails. Bernier said she had no contact with Thomas aside from receiving the email.

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