Biden Declines to Call on Justice Thomas to Recuse Himself From January 6-Related Cases

• Biden declined to call on Justice Thomas to recuse himself from January 6-related cases before the Supreme Court.
• Thomas has come under fire for his wife Ginni Thomas’ private efforts to try to overturn the 2020 election.
• Ginni Thomas’ efforts have brought her under the scrutiny of the House committee probing the Capitol riot.

President Joe Biden on Monday declined to join some of his fellow Democrats in calling on Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from cases related to the January 6 insurrection in the wake of more details coming to light about his wife Virginia Thomas’ involvement with efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

“I leave that to two entities,” Biden told reporters. “One, the January 6 committee, and two, the Justice Department. That’s their judgment, not mine, to make.”

When pressed, Biden said that such a call gets “into legal issues” and that he, as president, would not use his stature to pressure Thomas one way or another. 

Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, has called on Thomas to recuse himself from any January 6-related cases and potentially any 2024-related cases before the court if former President Donald Trump runs again. Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, has gone even further by calling for Thomas to be impeached. 

Biden’s views mostly align him with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy who also suggested that Thomas himself should be able to decide whether or not he recuses himself. Supreme Court justices are mostly left to themselves to determine when they should step aside from a case. While rare, such recusals are not unprecedented. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, Biden’s nominee to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, has already pledged to recuse herself from a major case involving Harvard’s affirmative action standards due to her extensive ties to the Ivy League university. 

Last week, The Washington Post and CBS broke news about Virginia “Ginni” Thomas’ texts with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows after the 2020 election. The publication of the messages renewed a focus on Thomas’ close-ties to conservative groups and causes, some of which have business come before the Supreme Court. 

Clarence Thomas was the lone dissenter in a case involving a House January 6 committee records request. Ginni Thomas’ texts to Meadows were among the more than 2,000 messages Meadows initially turned over to the panel probing the insurrection.

“Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!! Ginni Thomas wrote to Meadows on November 10 as major networks began calling the race for Biden. Thomas later floated an outlandish conspiracy theory about the Bidens being sent to live “in barges off GITMO to face military tribunals.”

Ginni Thomas has also confirmed that she attended the Ellipse rally that preceded the insurrection. The House panel is now weighing whether to request her to cooperate with the investigation.

Biden has played a pivotal role in Clarence Thomas’ career. As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, it was Biden who presided over Thomas’ 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearings that became dominated by allegations of sexual misconduct related to Thomas’ time at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Anita Hill, who worked with Thomas and who detailed some of his alleged sexual harassment, has criticized Biden for how he handled the claims.