A rat in the basement

Adam Rappaport at CREW on Ginni Thomas:

Ginni Thomas finds herself in the news a lot these days. Controversies surrounding the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas range from her husband’s conflicts of interest to texts she sent pushing former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to overturn the 2020 presidential election to her roles in organizations involved in litigation before the Court.

What many people do not know is that Thomas currently is a federal government official herself. And that’s not a position she should have.

In May 2020, then-President Trump appointed Thomas to a five-year term on the Library of Congress Trust Fund Board. Created by statute in 1925, the Trust Fund Board oversees gifts to the Library and determines the investment policy of the Library’s gift and trust funds. As of the Library’s most recent financial report, the combined value of the gift and trust funds overseen by the Trust Fund Board totalled more than $200 million.

It’s not a paid job, but it’s for sure a prestige one.

Unsurprisingly, Trust Fund Board membership is rarely if ever controversial. But Thomas’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election make her unfit for any role in government, let alone one overseeing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal money.

She’s not what you could call impartial, or reasonable, or temperate.

Thomas also recently admitted she attended the January 6th “Stop the Steal” rally at the Ellipse, though she said she left before Trump spoke. Early on that day, Thomas proclaimed on Facebook “LOVE MAGA people!!!!” and posted “GOD BLESS EACH OF YOU STANDING UP or PRAYING.” Thomas also signed a letter last December calling on the House Republican Conference to expel Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) for working on the House January 6th Committee, which the letter called “an overtly partisan political persecution” engaging in “political harassment” and “demagoguery.” One month later, Thomas’s husband, Justice Clarence Thomas, was the Supreme Court’s lone dissent in its order rejecting Donald Trump’s bid to withhold documents from the January 6 panel.

Both of them are pro-coup pro-sedition pro-Trump let’s destroy what’s left of democracy partisans. Not ideal.

It isn’t clear why then-President Trump put Thomas on the Library of Congress Trust Fund Board. But after her efforts to undermine democracy by overturning the election that Trump lost, she shouldn’t still be on it. Her egregious actions to push the White House Chief of Staff and others to overturn a free and fair election make her a threat to democracy and should disqualify her for any role of public trust at the Library of Congress or anywhere else in government.

Seems fair to me.

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