| For the second time this month, we're learning just how tied up Ginni Thomas, a conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, was in efforts to keep President Donald Trump in power. That will put more pressure on her husband to recuse himself from major election-related cases — although only he gets to decide. So far, Clarence Thomas has appeared more open than the other justices to the causes of Jan. 6 sympathizers. Ginni Thomas said earlier this month that she attended the Jan. 6 "Stop the Steal" rally, held just before many attendees left to storm the Capitol. Thursday, we learned she sent more than two dozen texts to the Trump White House around that time urging it to do what it could to stay in power. The texts she sent to the White House chief of staff were revealed by The Washington Post's Bob Woodard and CBS's Robert Costa. In them, she embraces some pretty far-right election conspiracy claims.  Ginni and Clarence Thomas in 2019. (Patrick Semansky/AP) | What does this mean for Clarence Thomas's work on the Supreme Court? Maybe not much. Justices decide for themselves whether they have a conflict of interest, and Clarence Thomas and Republicans don't see one. They argue that recusals should be difficult to come by, because they could give interest groups opportunities to oust justices they don't want on a case. They also note that Ginni's organizations aren't directly before the court. But her causes are, and her husband often sides with her side of the ideological aisle. Ginni desperately wanted Trump to stay in power despite his loss. ("The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History," she texted the White House chief of staff.) A few months later, Clarence Thomas said he wanted to consider a GOP challenge to Trump's loss even though the majority of the court rejected it. (He said it was to clear up how states set election rules for future elections.) Ginni has been critical of the House Jan. 6 committee's work. Thomas was the only justice to say he thought Trump should be able to keep documents from the Jan. 6 committee. Ginni has been a conservative activist for decades, so this recusal question isn't new for the couple. But what's perhaps changed — and why it's getting so much attention now — is that some Americans view the Supreme Court as another partisan entity. At the very least, Clarence Thomas is feeding directly into that by not recusing himself from election-related cases when his wife so strenuously advocated to overturn a legitimate presidential election. Your politics questions, answered Q: What new constituencies are Republicans trying to win over with their push to restrict access to women's reproductive health? A: Restricting abortion has always been a base issue. From many Republican politicians' viewpoint, you can't go too far. (Although bans on abortion at six weeks in Texas and Idaho go further than public opinion overall.) More broadly, though, Republicans are framing abortion and transgender rights as obstacles to women's equality, writes Amanda Becker with the 19th News. Take allowing trans women to compete in elite sports, like swimmer Lia Thomas. "What message does that send to girls who aspire to compete and win in sports?" Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) asked Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson during her Supreme Court confirmation hearings this week. Q: Will any Republican senators who voted to convict Trump also vote to confirm Jackson to the Supreme Court? A: Possibly, since those are usually the swing votes in these kinds of situations. Specifically, watch Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. And maybe Mitt Romney of Utah, though he voted against Jackson in her previous confirmation to an appeals court. The other senators who voted to convict Trump for his role in Jan. 6 but are less swingy, such as Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Richard Burr of North Carolina, have been quiet about her, according to a Washington Post count. On the Democratic side, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said today that he'll support Jackson, leaving little question she'll get confirmed with at least Democratic votes. Q: What's the latest on Steve Bannon's criminal charges related to the Jan. 6 committee? A: He's staring at potential jail time for refusing to comply with the Jan. 6 committee's subpoena. In November, the Justice Department decided to charge him with contempt of Congress, and he faces a trial in July. It's tough to say what might come of this. Actual jail time for ignoring a congressional subpoena is rare, and rarer still for someone who's a private citizen. (Bannon hasn't held an official role in government in years.) Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows was held in contempt of Congress for not complying with a subpoena, but the Justice Department hasn't yet prosecuted him. The Jan. 6 committee is also about to vote to hold in contempt of Congress two other top Trump aides, Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino, meaning the Justice Department could decide to prosecute them, too. Q: What's the story with Ashley Biden and her diary? A: Ashley, 40, is the daughter of the president. She's the most private of the Biden children, and just before the 2020 election, a right-wing group called Project Veritas acquired a diary that Ashley had kept the year before while being treated for addiction. The New York Times has chronicled how the diary exchanged hands among right-wing groups and people apparently trying to make some money off it, and it was even passed around at a Trump fundraiser. Now the FBI is investigating. | 
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