A growing list of House Democrats is calling on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from a case examining former President Donald Trump's claims of immunity from prosecution, attacking the jurist's wife over her public support for the former president.
"We know through public reporting and through congressional investigations that your wife, Virginia ('Ginni') Thomas, was intimately involved in Mr. Trump's alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election and to obstruct its certification — the very conspiracies at issue in this case," the group of Democrats — which included Reps. Hank Johnson (D-GA), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), Dan Goldman (D-NY), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) — wrote in the letter obtained by the Washington Examiner.
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Special counsel Jack Smith, who is prosecuting Trump over an alleged conspiracy to undo his 2020 election defeat, has asked the high court to decide "whether a former President is absolutely immune from federal prosecution for crimes committed while in office or is constitutionally protected from federal prosecution when he has been impeached but not convicted before the criminal proceedings begin," according to an emergency petition Smith filed to the Supreme Court.
Johnson serves as the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on the courts. His letter follows calls last week by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL), who said "unanswered questions" about the relationship of Thomas and his family with the Trump administration should prompt him to recuse himself.
The justices have asked Trump to respond to Smith's emergency request no later than Wednesday, indicating the high court will make a decision on whether to take up Smith's request soon.
Johnson's letter, dated Dec. 15, noted Ginni Thomas has been an active supporter of Trump's election fraud claims. The congressional panel that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol interviewed her, and she restated that she believed the former president's claims.
Clarence Thomas most recently recused himself from considering a petition that was sent to the high court by an embattled former clerk to him, attorney John Eastman.
Eastman is considered the architect behind a "fake electors" scheme that was floated around the time of Trump's loss, involving possible alternate electors from states President Joe Biden won who were poised to cast electoral votes in Trump's name rather than Biden's.
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While Clarence Thomas did not explicitly state the reason for his recusal, it is largely believed he did so because the case involved a close friend who formerly worked for him.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Thomas for comment.