Remember John Eastman, Donald Trump's chief election theft legal advisor?
And remember when, after he was subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 Committee, Eastman unsuccessfully attempted to keep private a group of emails that he said concerned "civic minded citizens of a conservative viewpoint who meet semi-regularly to socialize and discuss issues of public concern"? The group, apparently, had a "high-profile leader."
That prompted a good deal of speculation — including at TPM — about just who that high-profile leader might be. We had some ideas.
Well, now we have confirmation: The group was apparently one that included Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and a right-wing activist heavily involved in her own right in the effort to steal a second Trump term.
After an explosive pair of articles this week describing fresh committee records detailing the correspondence between the two, Eastman on Thursday acknowledged reality himself, posting a copy of a Dec. 4 invitation from Ginni Thomas for him to speak to her group "Frontliners" four days later, and to present "a status update to a group of grassroots state leaders."
Eastman didn't confirm outright that the invitation he described was the same correspondence he tried to keep hidden from the committee, but the details of both records appear to match up.
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Don't worry, Eastman said, that thing where he wrote on Dec. 24 that "I understand that there is a heated fight underway" within the Supreme Court — that definitely wasn't based on insider knowledge from the Thomas family.
"I can categorically confirm that at no time did I discuss with Mrs. Thomas or Justice Thomas any matters pending or likely to come before the Court," he said in a blog post Thursday. "We have never engaged in such discussions, would not engage in such discussions, and did not do so in December 2020 or anytime else."
Eastman claims, instead, he was relying on internet rumors published on conservative websites. He pointed to one example from the Vision Times. As the Washington Post's Philip Bump pointed out yesterday, unfounded stories about a supposed fight among the justices were spread across the internet, and even made their way into Trump's election-theft litigation.
But that's not to say he wasn't in touch with Ginni Thomas at all! "As you can see for yourselves, she invited me to give an update about election litigation to a group she met with periodically," Eastman said.
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See! Nothing to worry about.
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Thomas, for her part, sent dozens of emails to state lawmakers pressuring them to overturn the election results. The committee has requested an interview with Thomas, who told the Daily Caller Thursday that she "can't wait to clear up misconceptions."
See Also: NBC Washington Correspondent Yamiche Alcindor and former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade join Andrea Mitchell to discuss key challenges facing the January 6 Committee ahead of their primetime hearings this week: getting a "distracted nation" to pay attention and understand what's at stake. "I think the biggest challenge for lawmakers here, as they talk about these sort of huge ideas of American democracy and sort of the experiment that we're all living in, benefiting from, possibly being brought to his knees, is whether or not they can make people care," says Alcindor. "The American public has been groomed to expect high value quick entertainment," says McQuade. "I think putting together a polished show can be very important."
