Former President Donald Trump‘s attorneys thought Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas would be their “only chance” at thwarting President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election, according to emails from Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro.
“We want to frame things so that Thomas could be the one to issue some sort of stay or other circuit justice opinion saying Georgia is in legitimate doubt,” Chesebro wrote in a Dec. 31, 2020, email to Trump’s legal team, according to Politico.
Chesebro said that Thomas, a justice appointed by former President George H. W. Bush in 1991, would be “our only chance to get a favorable judicial opinion by Jan. 6, which might hold up the Georgia count in Congress.” Thomas is in charge of handling emergency matters stemming from Georgia and would have been the justice to receive an emergency appeal of Trump’s lawsuit to the Supreme Court.
CLARENCE THOMAS SIDES WITH LINDSEY GRAHAM, TEMPORARILY HALTS TESTIMONY IN GEORGIA INQUIRY
Former White House counsel John Eastman said, “I think I agree with this” in response to Chesebro, according to copies of eight emails obtained by the outlet, which were made available through a link in a court filing submitted to the Jan. 6 committee investigating the riot at the Capitol in early 2021.
The emails belong to a cluster of records Eastman sought to conceal from the committee, though a judge ordered them to be turned over, describing them as evidence of likely crimes committed by the former president and Eastman. The attorney once clerked for Thomas and had communications with his wife, Ginni, in the weeks before the Capitol riot.
“[I]f we can just get this case pending before the Supreme Court by Jan. 5, ideally with something positive written by a judge or justice, hopefully Thomas, I think it’s our best shot at holding up the count of a state in Congress,” Chesebro said in another Dec. 31, 2020, email.
Trump’s efforts to get litigation before the high court were unsuccessful, though Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito noted they would have accepted jurisdiction over a Texas challenge to vote counts in four other states. Still, the pair of justices joined the rest of the court on Dec. 11, denying any relief to the Lone Star State.
U.S. District Judge David Carter, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, was the judge who said last month that the emails show evidence of potential criminal activity in Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss, finding Trump’s legal team was attempting to use lawsuits not to obtain court relief but to meddle in congressional duties.
Carter said the emails depicted evidence of potential obstruction of a proceeding.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Chesebro noted in a separate email that chances of success with the Supreme Court before lawmakers certified the election on Jan. 6 were highly unlikely.
The Washington Examiner contacted Chesebro for a response.
