PHOENIX — On November 9, 2020 protests over the results of the Arizona election were escalating. Lawyers were filing legal challenges and Senate President Karen Fann sent a letter to Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, calling on her to investigate allegations of election fraud.
November 9 was also the day Virginia "Ginnie" Thomas, wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, emailed Arizona Speaker of the House Rusty Bowers and Republican State Representative Shawnna Bolick telling them to "please do your constitutional duty!"
"Here's why it's a bombshell," election attorney Tom Ryan said, "you have the wife of a sitting U.S. Supreme Court justice taking extraordinary efforts to overturn the legitimate election of a U.S. President."
The disclosure was first reported on Friday by the Washington Post. ABC15 obtained the emails independently. Thomas tells Bowers and Bolick they have the power to choose our state's electors.
"The responsibility is theirs," Thomas writes. "Please stand strong in the face of political and media pressure. Please reflect on the awesome authority granted to you by our constitution. And then please take action to ensure that a clean slate of Electors is chosen."
On December 13, Bowers and Bolick received a second email from Thomas asking that they watch a two-minute video on YouTube. The video is no longer available online but the Washington Post reports it's a man delivering a message meant for swing-state lawmakers, urging them to "put things right" and "not give in to cowardice." "You have only hours to act." The Washington Post says the speaker is not identified.
Andrew Wilder, the spokesman for Speaker Bowers, said, "The emails appear to have been among the hundreds of thousands of messages sent to the Speaker's office during that period. Speaker Bowers did not see, much less read, the vast majority of those messages, including the form email sent by Mrs. Thomas.
Representative Bolick knows Ginni Thomas. The lawmaker's husband is Arizona State Supreme Court Justice Clint Bolick, a friend of Clarence Thomas.
"They didn't give any indication they were going to act on her advice," Washington Post reporter Emma Brown said.
In the ensuing weeks, Speaker Bowers would announce, despite pressure from members of his own caucus the election results were accurate. Biden won Arizona. Representative Bolick signed on to a letter sent to Congress calling for Arizona's electors to go to Trump. Or at least be set aside until after a forensic audit was completed.
