Liz Cheney gave the Thomases a free pass — for the sake of keeping the GOP's judicial victories: attorney
On Thursday, writing for Slate, lawyer and journalist Dahlia Lithwick walked through how Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), willing to stand up to her party and former President Donald Trump on a number of issues where they threatened democratic principles, wasn't able to hold Justice Clarence Thomas or his far-right activist wife Ginni Thomas accountable for their involvement in January 6.
This comes after reporting earlier this year that Cheney was reluctant to pursue any investigation that would, in her eyes, "unfairly tarnish" the right-wing jurist and his legacy.
"Consider that Ginni Thomas was nowhere mentioned in the executive summary — nor, aside from an opinion citation, was her husband, the sitting Supreme Court justice who will not recuse himself from cases that involve the Jan. 6 attempted insurrection in which his wife had both participated in the efforts and a vested interest in the outcome," wrote Lithwick. "Given the committee’s deference to the Thomases throughout its hearings, no surprises there. But it is still disappointing, for those of us who bought into the idea that the committee could restore some real idea of justice across government."
The reason for this, wrote Lithwick, is that "no matter what they may tell you about the rule of law and the need for consequences and accountability, absolutely nobody in the GOP as it is currently constituted has any interest in stopping the goose that has laid the conservative legal establishment’s golden egg."
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"Love him or hate him, Thomas has been the single most effective jurist in modern history, and even those conservatives who deplore Trump’s incitement and violence and threats will gleefully turn a blind eye to Thomas’ ethical lapses if it means securing enduring wins on abortion, guns, massive deregulation, and ascendant corporate power," she continued. "Virtually nobody who is winning at the Supreme Court in a decades-long conservative legal project aimed at dismantling environmental protections, subverting minority voting rights, and imposing theocratic supremacy is going to take seriously the myriad ethical conflicts and structural failings that plague the current court. Better to keep pretending that Donald Trump is the problem than concede that the problem is actually that both Trump and the Thomases operate as if the law is for the little people, and the law lets them."
"Clarence and Ginni Thomas were ultimately untouchable for the Jan. 6 investigators for the same reason they are untouchable for purposes of Supreme Court ethics reform: When you’re a justice, they let you do it," wrote Lithwick. "And when you are delivering long-sought victories, even ethical Never Trumpers like Liz Cheney will let you do whatever it takes to deliver the goods."