There’s no evidence Ginni Thomas organized Jan. 6 events

On the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, a conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, took to her Facebook page to cheer on supporters of Donald Trump who were attending a rally in Washington, D.C., that day.

Two days after that rally devolved into a violent attack on the Capitol building, she amended her posts to clarify that they were written before the violence, according to Slate. Shortly after, unsubstantiated claims that Thomas paid for 80 buses to charter people to the rally began to surface on social media. 

They were debunked by fact-checkers, as well as The New York Times and Washington Post, but a similar claim is showing up on social media again this week, shortly after the one-year anniversary of the attack.

A Facebook post features a screenshot of a tweet that reads, "The fact that Clarence Thomas’s wife was one of the organizers of Jan 6th should be mentioned every time SCOTUS is in the news, IMHO." The original tweet came from an account belonging to a comedian and podcaster Noel Casler and garnered more than 50,000 likes. We reached out to Casler on Twitter for the source of his claim but he has not responded.

There’s no evidence that Thomas was an organizer of Jan. 6 events or that she did anything more than express her support for Trump and rallygoers.

"LOVE MAGA PEOPLE," she wrote in one post that morning and "GOD BLESS EACH OF YOU STANDING UP OR PRAYING," in another. Her Facebook page is no longer visible, but reporting by Slate, the Washington Post and Law & Crime confirmed those posts were made in the morning hours of Jan. 6.

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The New York Times in January 2021 debunked assertions that Thomas paid for buses to send people to the Jan. 6 rally in DC through Turning Point USA, a conservative group founded by Charlie Kirk. The Times wrote the claim was likely sparked by a tweet from a writer named Anne Nelson, who said Turning Point USA was sending 80 buses to the rally and noted that Thomas was on the group’s advisory council.

A spokesperson for Turning Point at the time said that Thomas did not provide any funding for the seven buses that were ultimately chartered. The spokesperson also clarified that Thomas hadn’t been on the group’s advisory board for years.

The House select committee investigating the attack has so far subpoenaed several dozen people, including many involved in organizing rallies that day. Thomas was not among them as of Jan. 10. There is also no indication from the committee that she has been asked to voluntarily testify.

Thomas wrote a letter shortly after the Jan. 6 attack to her husband’s former law clerks in a private email list, apologizing after a rift developed over her outspoken advocacy for the former president before and after the election, the Washington Post reported.

A Facebook post claims that Thomas was one of the organizers of Jan. 6. Though Thomas did signal support for "MAGA people" the morning of Jan. 6, she later clarified that those posts were made before Trump supporters stormed the Capitol. There’s no evidence that Thomas was involved in organizing the events that unfolded on Jan. 6. She has not been subpoenaed by the House select committee investigating the attack and rumors that she helped organize busing for Trump supporters that day have not been supported.

We rate this claim False.