LETTER FROM WASHINGTON

Virginia Thomas, known as “Ginni”, is one of the most influential women in the United States. His name is known to everyone in Washington. His address book resembles a web meticulously woven through the Conservative ranks for decades. In 1991, this fervent Republican was alongside her husband, Clarence Thomas, at the time of his swearing in, signifying his entry to the Supreme Court, under the gaze of President George Bush. Due to her involvement in public affairs, Ginni Thomas, 65, has always been a controversial personality, and her couple suspected of a dangerous mix of genres. A mixture which, today, looks like an explosive conflict of interest, damaging the image of the Supreme Court, at a key moment in its history.

Ginni Thomas was in the crowd gathered at the Ellipse, a stone’s throw from the White House, on the morning of January 6, 2021, shortly before Donald Trump took the floor. The assault on the Capitol followed quickly. This presence, even ephemeral, signaled the strength of the commitment of this conservative activist alongside the former president, to the point of espousing his craziest conspiratorial theses on electoral fraud. An old trend, at home. Already in 2018, after the mid-term elections, the Washington Post reported his writings on this subject, on social networks, with this sarcastic comment: “On Facebook, she acts like your slightly paranoid neighbor hoarding ammo and astronaut food. »

Accelerated skid

No law prevents Ginni Thomas from expressing her personal beliefs, no matter how radical. But at what point does it become unacceptable for a person to militate in favor of a legal and political coup, on which, in the last instance, her husband would be called upon to decide? Placed at the head of a Republican influence group called the Council for National Policy, Ginni Thomas also founded another organization, Groundswell, a real platform for the far right, with former Trump nationalist adviser Steve Bannon. . As an impressive survey of the New York Times Magazineon February 22, she became a shadow referent, very listened to, in the era of Trump, whom she had not supported from the outset.

His zeal after the last presidential election testifies to an accelerated skid. In emails whose Washington Post became aware, dated November 9, 2020, a few days after the ballot, Ginni Thomas was speaking to two elected officials from Arizona to recommend that they intervene and block pseudo-fraud. She asked them to “coping with political and media pressure. » However, indisputably, the results in this state had been proclaimed in favor of Joe Biden (0.4% difference), a real feat for a Democrat.

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