Experts alarmed by Thomas’ participation in Trump immunity case despite 'insurrectionist' wife

25 April 2024

Thursday, April 25 marks the day the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in Donald Trump's presidential immunity case. The presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee is claiming that because he was still president in late 2020 and early 2021, he enjoys total immunity from special counsel Jack Smith's election interference indictment.

Judge Tanya Chutkan, assigned to Smith's case, has slammed Trump's presidential immunity argument as absurd — ruling that U.S. presidents do not enjoy a "divine right of kings." But it remains to be seen what the High Court will decide in the matter.

Critics of far-right Justice Clarence Thomas have been arguing that because of the role his wife, GOP activist Ginni Thomas, played in Trump's efforts to overturn the 2024 presidential election results, he should recuse himself from the case. Justice Thomas' critics argue that it is a major conflict of interest for him to rule in Trump's immunity case.

But CNN's Devan Cole reports that Justice Thomas "has given no sign that he intends to recuse himself."

Gabe Roth, executive director of Fix the Court — a group calling for Supreme Court reforms — believes that Justice Thomas should at least offer an explanation.

Roth told CNN, "I think that's a fairly low bar: you think you're unbiased — OK, tell us why."

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) has concerns about Justice Thomas' participation in the case as well.

The Democratic senator told CNN, "He's still never answered questions about what he knew about his wife's insurrectionist activities as he sat on cases directly involving those activities."

Meanwhile, in a biting opinion column published on April 25, MSNBC legal writer Jordan Rubin argues that it is unethical for Justice Thomas to not recuse himself from Trump's immunity case.

Justice Thomas' "participation," Rubin warns, is "incredible in a bad way."

"The GOP appointee has ignored calls to recuse himself from January 6-related cases, even though his wife, Ginni, backed efforts to overturn Trump's 2020 election loss," Rubin explains. "Notably, Thomas did recuse himself from a rejected petition by MAGA lawyer John Eastman at the beginning of the term in October, though he didn't explain his rationale for doing so. I have made the modest suggestion that he should at least explain his non-recusal in these matters, but the justice has not taken me up on that idea."

The MSNBC legal columnist continues, "Indeed, we saw quite recently that Thomas has no intention of sitting out these cases. At last week's hearing in another January 6 appeal, he pressed the federal government on its prosecutions of rioters, suggesting that they're unfair. Given his personal connection to the insurrection and its aftermath, Thomas' involvement in Trump's immunity appeal is even further troubling, due partly to the presently unknown behind-the-scenes moves that led the Court to take up the appeal at all back in February and then not hear it argued sooner."

Read CNN's full report at this link and Jordan Rubin's MSNBC column here.

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