Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, sent numerous text messages to former President Donald Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows between the 2020 presidential election and the January 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol, according to information obtained by The Washington Post and CBS News.
In multiple messages with Meadows, Thomas reportedly referenced conspiracy theories pushed by QAnon, the far-right political movement.
The texts were part of about 9,000 pages of documents—including 2,320 texts—Meadows turned over to the House select committee investigating the January 6 riots. The contents of the messages were published Thursday by The Post and CBS News. Over the course of 29 messages shared between Thomas and Meadows, she often praised Trump and questioned the integrity of the election results.
None of the messages involve Justice Thomas, who is currently hospitalized for an infection. Thomas has previously argued her conservative advocacy does not create a conflict of interest for her husband. However, critics have observed that Justice Thomas has sided with Trump during court rulings, including in January when he was the only member of the Supreme Court to vote against allowing the release of records from the Trump White House related to the Capitol riots.
Thomas referenced multiple theories popular in QAnon circles in her messages with Meadows, including one that claims Trump had watermarked mail-in ballots in order to track potential electoral fraud.
QAnon has become well known in recent years for numerous conspiracy theories. False beliefs that members have spread online involve former President Barack Obama's citizenship as well as various disproven claims regarding the coronavirus. Many theories also involve a reported cabal of liberal elites that QAnon believers claim are clandestinely trying to control the government.
More recently, many QAnon theories have focused on disproven ideas about President Joe Biden stealing the 2020 election as a result of widespread voter fraud. This includes a false belief that Trump watermarked mail-in ballots prior to the election in order to find evidence of fraud. Adherents to this theory have taken up the slogan "watch the water" on message boards such as 8kun.
"Watermarked ballots in over 12 states have been part of a huge Trump & military white hat sting operation in 12 key battleground states," Thomas reportedly wrote to Meadows in one message.
In another message, Thomas reportedly sent a link to Meadows of a YouTube video that was entitled "TRUMP STING w CIA Director Steve Pieczenik, The Biggest Election Story in History, QFS-BLOCKCHAIN."
Steve Pieczenik, a former State Department official, is a commentator with far-right beliefs who reportedly endorsed a false theory about the Sandy Hook massacre being a set-up operation to push more gun control legislation. The video is said to contain misinformation commonly associated with QAnon.
Thomas also seemingly referenced another popular QAnon theory that pushes an event known as "The Storm." This conspiracy theory posits that Trump's political enemies would be sent to Guantánamo Bay, also known as Gitmo, for military tribunals.
"Biden crime family & ballot fraud co-conspirators (elected officials, bureaucrats, social media censorship mongers, fake stream media reporters, etc) are being arrested & detained for ballot fraud right now & over coming days, & will be living in barges off GITMO to face military tribunals for sedition," Thomas allegedly wrote to Meadows in November.
Newsweek has contacted Virginia Thomas and the Supreme Court for comment but did not hear back in time for publication.
