Senate Democrats are pressuring the supreme court justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from deciding whether Donald Trump has immunity from prosecution for alleged crimes he committed while president.
Democrats have argued that Thomas poses a potential conflict of interest because his wife, Ginni Thomas, has previously supported Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen, the Hill reported.
During her testimony to the committee investigating the January 6 insurrection in 2022, Ginni Thomas said she still believed the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.
Following the 2020 election, Ginni Thomas also texted Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows and told him to contest the election results, accusing Biden and Democrats of “attempting the greatest Heist of our History”.
The Illinois senator Dick Durbin, who is chair of the Senate judicial committee, has called for Thomas’s recusal, arguing the relationship between Trump and the Thomas family is unclear.
“There are so many unanswered questions about the relationship of the justice and his family with the Trump administration that I think in the interests of justice, he should recuse himself,” Durbin said to the Hill.
Durbin later told CNN that Thomas should “think twice” and recuse himself from the case.
“There’s been enough information raised about Mr Thomas and his spouse that he ought to think twice about recusal in this case,” Durbin said.
The Connecticut senator Richard Blumenthal echoed the calls. Blumenthal told the Hill that the supreme court would be deciding on if Trump can be tried for attempting to overturn the results of 2020 election, which involves “Jan 6, which involved [Thomas’s] wife”.
Special counsel Jack Smith asked the supreme court on Monday to decide if Trump can be criminally prosecuted. The supreme court quickly responded to say it would, and gave Trump until 20 December to reply. The earliest the court would consider the motion is 5 January, when the justices have their next scheduled private conference.
Smith’s move came amid fears that Trump’s trial could be indefinitely delayed, if as expected Trump appeals a decision from a federal judge on Friday that rejected his immunity claims. The judge in that case, Tanya Chutkan, denied Trump’s motion for dismissal, opening up the possibility for him to appeal to the DC circuit court and if necessary the US supreme court.
“It is of imperative public importance that respondent’s claims of immunity be resolved by this court and that respondent’s trial proceed as promptly as possible if his claim of immunity is rejected,” Smith’s filing said.
“Only this court can definitively resolve them.”
