- Justice Clarence Thomas' wife urged Mark Meadows to support 2020 conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell.
- Thomas wrote in text to Meadows for Powell to be "the lead and the face" of Trump's legal team.
- The January 6 committee has 29 texts exchanged between Thomas and Meadows after the 2020 election.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' wife, Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, pushed former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to support Sidney Powell, a lawyer who spread conspiracy theories that the 2020 election was rigged against former President Donald Trump, The Washington Post reported Thursday.
The Post found that Thomas, in a series of text messages to Meadows after the 2020 election, wanted Powell to take center-stage as "the lead and the face" of Trump's legal team, which was actively filing lawsuits to challenge the election results in several states, all of which eventually failed.
The texts were among the thousands that the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot obtained from Meadows, CNN first reported on Thursday. The panel has a total of 29 texts exchanged between Thomas, a longtime conservative activist, and Meadows from November 2020 to January 2021 related to the 2020 election.
On November 13, 2020, days after the major news networks declared then-Democratic nominee Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 election, Thomas texted Meadows: "Just forwarded to yr gmail an email I sent Jared this am. Sidney Powell & improved coordination now will help the cavalry come and Fraud exposed and America saved," per the Post. The mention of "Jared" in the text message could be a reference to Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and then-White House senior advisor, The Post reported.
Powell at the time had been elevating baseless claims that election-technology firms had been secretly working to steal millions of votes away from Trump to Biden. Yet, some Trump officials began to distance themselves from Powell as they learned she had no evidence to support her allegations.
Thomas, however, urged Meadows to stick by Powell. "Don't let her and your assets be marginalized instead...help her be the lead and the face," she wrote to Meadows on November 13, 2020, per The Post.
Six days later, Thomas texted Meadows to "Release the Kraken," a catchphrase that Powell had been amplifying as a reference to the massive evidence of voter fraud that she claimed to have collected. The phrase circulated widely among far-right circles at the time.
"Mark (don't want to wake you)…," Thomas wrote to Meadows on November 19, 2020, according to The Post. "Sounds like Sidney and her team are getting inundated with evidence of fraud. Make a plan. Release the Kraken and save us from the left taking America down."
Later that day, during a now-infamous news conference, Powell spoke about a baseless, international conspiracy theory, involving hacked voting machines and Venezuelan communists, about the 2020 election being stolen. She stood beside Trump's then-personal attorney, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, who also floated baseless election claims as streaks of hair dye dripped down his face.
"Tears are flowing at what Rudy is doing right now!!!!" Thomas wrote to Meadows at the time, per The Post.
"Glad to help," Meadows responded, according to the Post.
Trump's legal team, in a statement three days later, moved away from Powell and her conspiracy theories.
"Sidney Powell is practicing law on her own," Giuliani and Trump's then-legal advisor Jenna Ellis said in a statement. "She is not a member of the Trump Legal Team. She is also not a lawyer for the President in his personal capacity."
The move seemingly concerned Thomas, who wrote to Meadows: "Trying to understand the Sidney Powell distancing," in a text on November 22, 2020, per The Post.
"She doesn't have anything or at least she won't share it if she does," Meadows replied.
"Wow!" Thomas texted back, according to The Post.
Since then, Powell has been sued by voting machine companies for defamation. She was also sanctioned over her election claims, which a federal judge called a "historic and profound abuse" of the legal system.
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