Klobuchar Says Justice Clarence Thomas Should Recuse Himself From Jan. 6 Cases

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D) suggested Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas should recuse himself in cases dealing with the 2020 election after his wife’s texts with former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows were obtained and released by the House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack last week.

Klobuchar called Ginni Thomas‘ texts to Meadow urging him to do what he could to keep then-President Donald Trump in office “a textbook case for removal.”

“The entire integrity of the court is on the line here,” Klobuchar said on This Week. “All I hear is silence from the Supreme Court right now.”

“They had better speak out on this because you cannot have a justice hearing cases related to this election and, in fact, the ethics rules that apply to all the other federal judges say that if it involves a family member, the appearance of impartiality, they have to recuse themselves,” she added.

Calls for Justice Thomas to recuse himself from these decisions come after Ginni Thomas made headlines earlier this month for attending the January 6 rally. She gave an interview to the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative news outlet, to clarify that he had no part in organizing the rally and that she had left before Trump spoke.

“We share many of the same ideals, principles and aspirations for America … we have our own separate careers, and our own ideas and opinions too,” she said in the interview. “We don’t discuss Supreme Court cases until [the court’s] opinions are public – and even then, our discussions have always been very general and limited to public information.”

Watch Klobuchar’s full statement below.