Flash news, Virginia Thomas agrees to testify

22nd of September (UPI) — Virginia Thomas, the wife of conservative Supreme Court Justice Lawerence Thomas, has agreed to testify before a House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol building, according to her attorney.

Thomas’ lawyer, Mark Paoletta, confirmed to The Washington Post on Wednesday that his client has agreed to “participate in a voluntary interview” with the committee.

“As she has stated from the beginning, Mrs. Thomas is eager to answer the Committee’s questions in order to dispel any misconceptions about her work in relation to the 2020 election,” Paoletta said. “She is excited about the opportunity.”

Paoletta’s response comes months after the select committee requested information from Thomas, a conservative activist, after it was revealed that she had allegedly attempted to interfere with Joe Biden’s election as the 46th President of the United States.

The committee requested the interview with Thomas in June after it was revealed that she had urged Mark Meadows, former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, in a series of text messages to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Between the November 4 election and the November 24 election, Thomas and Meadows exchanged 28 text messages. On January 10, the pair exchanged their 29th message.

The text message exchanges were among thousands provided to the committee by Meadows, and they showed Thomas pressuring the then-chief of staff to overturn the will of 81 million American voters who chose Biden as their president.

“Help This Great President Stand Firm, Mark,” she said of Trump in one message dated Nov. 10, 2020. Others, including Thomas, incorrectly referred to Trump’s election defeat as a “heist,” while repeating widely debunked conspiracy theory claims of voter fraud.

The committee also told Thomas that it wanted to talk to her about an email exchange she had with John Eastman, a former Trump attorney who is accused of being behind the former president’s legal strategy to have then-Vice President Mike Pence overturn the 2020 Electoral College vote, which was being certified on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building.

Paoletta initially turned down the committee’s request to interview his client in late June, writing in a letter obtained by The New York Times that “I do not believe there is currently a sufficient basis to speak with Mrs. Thomas.”