Fed up with negative New York Times coverage of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife, friends are waging war with the paper over suggestions that Ginni Thomas was linked to the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.
Family friend and former Trump budget office lawyer Mark Paoletta is leading the effort, lining up statements that counter a New York Times story that Ginni Thomas played a “mediating role” leading to the day’s Trump rally and following events in the Capitol.
In a Twitter thread just posted, Paoletta said the paper suggested that Ginni Thomas was working with Tea Party Patriots and Women for America First. But both denied that in statements.
He said the paper “can’t stop smearing Ginni Thomas.”
Women for America First was a key organizer of the rally just steps from the White House, during which former President Donald Trump spoke. Ginni Thomas attended part of the rally but left before Trump spoke.
1/The @NYTimes @DannyHakim can’t stop smearing Ginni Thomas.His May 20 story falsely represents that G. Thomas played “mediating role” in lead up to Jan 6th rally. I have obtained statement from Tea Party Patriots @jennybethm (below) making Hakim’s story even more provably false.
— Mark Paoletta (@MarkPaoletta) May 26, 2022
At one point after an initial magazine story ran, Paoletta said the New York Times pledged it would fix it online but that it didn’t happen.
New today, Paoletta provided a statement from Tea Party Patriots head Jenny Beth Martin, who denied that Ginni Thomas had anything to do with her invitation to the Trump event.
16/ More @Jennybethm: “Moreover, Tea Party Patriots was not involved in the planning of or organizing for the January 6th rallies, so there was no mediating role played by Ginni Thomas or anyone else with respect to TPP regarding the January 6th activities.”
— Mark Paoletta (@MarkPaoletta) May 26, 2022
“TPP head @Jennybethm provided this statement: ‘With respect to the January 6th events, my only involvement was an invitation I received asking me to speak, which ultimately did not happen. Ginni Thomas and I had no conversations about my invitation to the event,’” he tweeted.
Also from Martin: “Tea Party Patriots was not involved in the planning of or organizing for the January 6th rallies, so there was no mediating role played by Ginni Thomas or anyone else with respect to TPP regarding the January 6th activities.”
Some liberal media outlets have been trying to tie Ginni Thomas, an ardent Trump supporter, to the riots in hopes the Jan. 6 congressional investigation calls her to testify. That could subsequently force her husband to recuse himself from any Jan. 6 case that makes it to the high court.