Clarence Thomas was 'key' to delaying certification of 2020 election, Trump lawyers said in emails

[BumRushDaShow]

Last edited Wed Nov 2, 2022, 12:23 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: CNN Politics

CNN — A lawyer for former President Donald Trump described Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as “key” to Trump’s plan to delay Congress’ certification of President Joe Biden’s victory through litigation after the 2020 election, according to emails recently turned over to the House select committee investigating January 6.

“We want to frame things so that Thomas could be the one to issue” a temporary order putting Georgia’s results in doubt, Trump attorney Kenneth Chesebro wrote in a December 31, 2020, email, adding that a favorable order from Thomas was their “only chance” to hold up to hold up Congress counting electoral votes for Biden from Georgia.

John Eastman, another attorney for Trump, responded to that email saying he agreed with the plan. In the email exchanges with several other lawyers working on Trump’s legal team, they were discussing filing a lawsuit that they hoped would result in an order that “TENTATIVELY” held that Biden electoral votes from Georgia were not valid because of election fraud.

Having a case pending in front of the Supreme Court, Chesebro wrote, would be enough to prevent the Senate from counting Biden’s electors. Thomas would end up being “the key here,” Chesebro wrote, noting that Thomas is the justice assigned to dealing with emergency matters coming from the southeastern part of the county. The email referencing Thomas was first reported by Politico


Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/02/politics/clarence-thomas-trump-eastman-emails/index.html

---

They had every base covered.

[Sanity Claws]

1. Well, well, well

And how did they know that Thomas was the key one? Is he every bit as corrupt as many of us think?

[BumRushDaShow]

6. Thomas is assigned to the 11th Circuit Court

for emergency requests. And that includes GA, FL & AL.

https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/circuitassignments.aspx

So he would be the go-to for anything dealing with GA or the shenanigans going on in FL.

[Farmer-Rick]

18. But how are the Justices assigned?

I see the assignments but how do they do the allotments? Did the chief justice just make the assignments arbitrarily? Do associate justices get input? Funny how Thomas is so perfectly positioned.

I don't trust coincidences.

[BumRushDaShow]

21. Well they most likely take the assignment of the one being replaced

although in some cases, they might have been born/raised in and/or went to school in one of the states they have jurisdiciton over.

For example, when native Floridian Brown-Jackson came in, she replaced Breyer (a Harvard Law grad) who had jurisdiction over the 1st Circuit (that includes some New England states and Puerto Rico). However both went to Harvard and thus spent time in MA. There was a mention on SCOTUSBlog about that here and her having clerked for judges on the 1st Circuit.

Some other kin examples might be Sonia Sotomayor, who covers the 2nd Circuit which includes NY (and she was born and raised as a NYer), and Alito does the 3rd Circuit, which covers here in PA, as well as NJ & DE (and he is from NJ).

SCOTUSBlog did a nice little ditty on this when there were changes a couple years ago per this (because they do move them around as necessary each session) -

Court issues new circuit assignments
By Amy Howe
on Nov 20, 2020 at 12:06 pm

(snip)

Sotomayor’s move to the 2nd Circuit, which had previously been assigned to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (who grew up in New York City and lived there before moving to Washington to become a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit), kicked off a game of musical circuits among the justices. Sotomayor had previously been responsible for the 10th Circuit, which is now assigned to Gorsuch, as well as the 6th Circuit, which is now assigned to Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh, who had previously been assigned to the 7th Circuit, also took on the 8th Circuit, ceding the 7th Circuit to Barrett.

(snip)

[Farmer-Rick]

42. Thanks for the information

I always wondered and could not find good info on it.

[BumRushDaShow]

44. SCOTUSBlog is a great site

since they "live blog" the court sessions and give summaries of what is expected each day (plus provide some good background info).

SCOTUSBlog

[onenote]

26. Assignments are made by the Chief Justice.

I can't find anything definitive, but my recollection is that Thomas has been assigned the 11th Circuit for many years.

Typically, assignments shift when a new Justice comes on the Court. Where a SCOTUS Justice previously served as a judge in a particular circuit, Roberts apparently tries to assign that circuit to that Justice.

This article describes some of the more recent moves. https://www.scotusblog.com/2020/11/court-issues-new-circuit-assignments-2/

And keep this in mind -- if the Justice assigned to a circuit denies a request for emergency relief, the requesting party can then renew that request with any of the other Justices.

[Farmer-Rick]

43. Very interesting

It's all kinds of convoluted.

But good info to know.

Thanks

[Ocelot II]

12. Ginny was in it up to her neck. Nobody can convince me

that Clarence didn't know exactly what she was up to. He was assigned to 11th Circuit cases, but there were other cases in other circuits, too. Why did they focus in particular on GA? IMO it's because they knew the emergency petition would go to Thomas, and they figured they could count on him more than any of the others to help them out. As it turned out he didn't; maybe because it would have been too obvious? That's what the voices from within my tinfoil hat are telling me, anyhow.

[ffr]

13. K&R

[MontanaMama]

17. I believe we must have the same

brand of tin foil hat.

[Bluethroughu]

19. Time to make arrests at the top.

Sedious Conspiracy includes people that makes laws, enforce laws and decide on the litgitimacy of the law.

It's time to take the treason out of our government. It's ugly, but these people are working to end this Democracy and benefit by selling it off for their benefit. It's treason, no other would be involved but our enemies.

[erronis]

23. The Federalist Society cultivated Ginny since she was a loose cannon tied to a justice

who had many personal issues. They could woo her and him - make them both feel important even though they were both at the rear-end of the backwaters of political and judicial thought.

They were both bought. Hook, line, and sinker.

[SergeStorms]

31. They certainly paid her enough.

Over $800,000. Could that be another reason they didn't declare it on their taxes?

Whoever bought these tin-foil hats must have purchased them in bulk, because mine arrived this morning as well. 🤔

[flying_wahini]

30. And Ginny reassured them that good ol' Clarence would be happy to oblige.

We are all on the same track here.

[Lonestarblue]

22. Considering that Ginni Thomas was part of the insurrection, they knew what Thomas would

most likely do. The corruption has definitely spread to the Supreme Court.

[LiberalFighter]

2. Were they in contact with the witch Ginny too?

[2live is 2fly]

3. "They had every base covered." Or so they thought

[republianmushroom]

4. Where is Roberts ?

[erronis]

24. Hiding under his black robe. The white one is hanging in the SCOTUS cloakroom.

[SergeStorms]

32. There's more than one.

I believe there's five, but I'll go count them again.

[erronis]

36. Clarence would look good in white...

Not sure that once he has served his purpose to the white christo-fascists that he'll need any robes anymore.

[SergeStorms]

39. He'll see the same dermatologist....

Michael Jackson used to frequent.

[Grimelle]

45. busy doing Trump a solid

he put a hold on transfer of Trumps taxes to House.

[Ford_Prefect]

5. It seems to me they still have the Thomas audible play in motion.

[bluestarone]

7. What if any are our options here?

Waiting for our smart lawyer types here to chime in!

[Stuckinthebush]

10. Not a lawyer but isn't the only option impeachment?

And that's not likely.

I guess we could nullify the crazy extremists on the SC by pushing through 4 new SC justices. That only happens if we get the senate with 2 more senators to nullify our two holdouts on the fillibuster.

But as for Thomas, aside from some conspiracy charge from the DOJ, I be there is nothing we can do about him.

[karynnj]

16. From my reading, no action on the part of Thomas is spoken of

Thomas is SEEN by Eastman as the best chance to get something before the SC. The goal actually seemed not to be that they would win, but that you having something accepted by a SCJ they could prevent Georgia's electors from being counted. This did not happen.

Had it happened, Thomas would be on the hook. By the way, not having GA would not have been enough.

[SergeStorms]

34. But enough...

to completely taint the election as fraudulent and toss it to the complete SC. Who knows what happens then?

[karynnj]

53. Completely agree, but what I don't see is anything that says Thomas agreed to do this

Like everyone here, I think Thomas should never have been seated and was probably the most likely to do this. Where I see this as evidence against the lawyers and possibly even a tie to Trump, I don't see that it proves Thomas was on board ... other than Ginni. It is clear the Trump lawyers are betting on him, but it seems they see it as low probability of working.

[bluestarone]

20. I fear you're right.

They have way to much power, if the wrong group gets control of them. (which is what's happening here) I wish the OTHER judges would call him out on this bullshit.

[Quakerfriend]

29. News came out last week that Thomas failed to

report 600+K in income that Ginni had made ‘working’ for the Heritage Foundation-

Can we get them on tax evasion??

[SergeStorms]

35. Past history.

The Thomas's amended their taxes, paid up, and all was deemed right and proper.

[LymphocyteLover]

37. He really needs to be impeached and there is other evidence of corruption

endless blatant conflicts of interest

[erronis]

25. Pardon my ignorance. But can't any person in the US be arrested for crimes?

Sure there is some immunity conveyed in the position. But if a president was to try to kill another person - say a vice-president, wouldn't they be subject to a criminal trial and prosecution? (Kidding here....)

[bluestarone]

28. You would think so.

THEY definitely tried some shit to destroy our country here. (if provable) What a fucking mess!!

[DURHAM D]

8. Never forget -

Clarence Thomas was a known serial sexual harasser appointed by Ronald Reagan to head the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The EEOC exists to stop this very behavior.

Once again - FAILURE OF REPUBLICANS

[hadEnuf]

9. Oh gee, how about that....

SCOTUS manipulating the law in order to help Trump.

Whodathunkit?

[aggiesal]

11. And of course there was no mention of Ginni Thomas ...

which is probably the reason they felt that going through Clarence Thomas was the "Key" choice.

Yea, Ginni & Clarence never talk to each other about the election. I'm sure she locked him in.

Ginni: Honey, if you see a lawsuit coming out of Georgia about election fraud, please issue an unlimited STAY injunction on counting the electoral ballots. Trump said he'll have the congressman take it from there. Thanks!

[Mr.Mystery]

14. And remember when that same Justice Clarence Thomas ruled in Bush v Gore

that "there wasn't enough TIME to re-count the votes in Florida. Safe Harbor Clause etc. etc.?"

I didn't hear one damn thing about "Safe Harbor" when Georgia was recounting its votes THREE TIMES.

[FakeNoose]

27. That's when this crap all started - Florida was the beginning in 2000

The Repukes found their man on the bench, and it has been downhill ever since.

[Kaleva]

15. Freepers were so excited about challenges to the election reaching SCOTUS

They ended up very disappointed when the plans layed out by their 3D chess champion failed.

[Novara]

33. I think many people are seeing this backwards

I think that once they knew Thomas was in charge of Georgia, that's why they focused their efforts so hard on Georgia - because if they were to send this to the SCOTUS, Thomas would be in their pocket because Eastman and Ginny Thomas had been corresponding with each other.

So the orange fuck and Lindsey Graham, et al focused their efforts on Georgia because of the SCOTUS connection to Thomas, who they knew they already had in their pocket.

The case just never got there.

[BumRushDaShow]

38. Well they put a lot of effort into AZ too (see Ginni)

as both of those states (GA & AZ) have a GOP trifecta state governments (Governors, legislature, state Supreme Court), although Kagan does the 9th Circuit (using your scenario). The other "contested" states have Democratic governors (although have GOP legislatures).

[Novara]

40. And Wisconsin

Now, all three states have enough electoral votes to have fucked up the count if challenged, but Georgia had been solidly red for so long that it must have been seen as an easy target since it "suddenly" went blue.

In general, they were throwing shit at the wall and seeing what would stick. But I'm thinking that once they knew Thomas was in charge of the 11th Circuit, they saw their path forward there. Did the orange fuck and Graham call AZ and WI? They concentrated their efforts more on GA, and not the least because they already had Thomas in their pocket.

[BumRushDaShow]

41. WI has a Democratic governor

that is why I mentioned AZ & GA as possibilities - particularly for one of the paths where a state legislature could attempt to "pick" the electors based on what they wanted, regardless of the actual voter tally. They ended up with 3 recounts in GA trying to manufacture "votes".

As a note, AZ had 11 electoral votes and GA had 16 (WI had 10, MI had 16, NV had 6, and PA had 20).

The contested states in addition to AZ and GA, were PA, MI, WI, & NV, but all of those latter ones have Democrats for governors and all got bombarded (to various degrees) but would be unmovable...

However that would theoretically not be the case for AZ and GA (which relied on Ducey and Kemp to go along). What partially scuttled their AZ/GA path was that AZ had a (D) SOS and GA's SOS (Raffensperger) wasn't having it.

When the dust settled in the aftermath of the insurrection, there were eventually 2 Electoral "objections" that went forward through the full process of a debate and vote - one for AZ & one for PA - where each had at least one House member and one Senator officially present the (signed) objection. Both were voted down by full House and Senate chambers.

One of the things that has come out the past month is that there were multiple fringe Constitutional legal theories that were being used and it seems almost every one was included in a "Plan A, B, C, etc.".

[Ligyron]

52. Good stuff!

[BumRushDaShow]

54. Even though I am in PA, when Scott Walker finally went bye bye

after 2 recall attempts couldn't get him out, I cheered for WI!

I stayed up all night through the re-started Electoral count process on January 6, 2021 and finally fell into the bed at around 4:30 am EST on January 7, exhausted but adamant that I saw it out to the bitter end, and glad that mess was over.

And it gave me a chuckle to find that thread because I had the below video of what happened the day before on January 5, 2021 here in PA with Fetterman going through what was supposed to be a ceremonial session of swearing in State Senators and running into the MAGat GOP not only objecting to one duly elected Democrat, whose election was already certified and upheld by the state courts, but voted to remove Fetterman out of the chamber despite his being President of the Senate as Lt. Governor. They then installed their lackey Pro-tempore Jake Corman to carry out the blocking of the Democratic Senator. At the eventual end of the fiasco, the Democrat WAS finally sworn in and seated about a week later.

[Grins]

46. How? Biden still would have won.

Biden had 306 electoral votes.
Remove Georgia’s 16 votes = 290.
To be president you need 270.

The only way this could work was to then concentrate on Arizona (11 votes) and Pennsylvania (20 votes). But even with those two it would not have been enough. He would have needed one more state.

Flipping one state is HARD. But FOUR?

[BumRushDaShow]

49. "only way this could work was to then concentrate on Arizona (11 votes) and Pennsylvania (20 votes)"

and as I mention upthread here - https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=2989502

those were the 2 states that went through the entire "Electoral Count objection" process in Congress, including a debate and votes in each chamber.

The votes failed (obviously) but hours were wasted doing that nonsense (and 5 hours of mayhem and destruction in the Capitol had already delayed what was supposed to be a ceremonial procedure just as they were beginning the objection debates).

If you "took" GA, and then were able to successfully object to PA and AZ and fringe-theory send those certs back to those state legislatures to award the votes, then that would be =

306 - 16 (GA) = 290
290 - 20 (PA) = 270
270 - 11 (AZ) = 259

So just needed 3.

[clementine613]

47. Rapist Thomas needs to be impeached.

As does rapist Kavanaugh, rapist Alito, rapist Roberts, rapist Alito and rapist Barrett.

[live love laugh]

50. Two rapists on the SCOTUS. WOW

[NH Ethylene]

51. Really? They are all rapists?

How did i miss all that?

[Evolve Dammit]

48. He's the "key" all right. Waterboard him and Ginny and see what secrets come out...