Ginni Thomas ‘never spoke’ about 2020 vote to supreme court justice husband

The conservative activist Ginni Thomas has "no memory" of what she discussed with her husband, the supreme court justice Clarence Thomas, during the heat of the battle to overturn the 2020 presidential election, according to congressional testimony released on Friday.

Thomas, 65, recalled "an emotional time" in which her mood was lifted by her husband and Mark Meadows, then Donald Trump's chief of staff, a transcript of her deposition with the congressional committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol showed.

Thomas has been a prominent backer of Trump's lies that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.

At 74, her husband is the oldest and most conservative member of America's highest court, which has played a crucial part in settling disputed elections.

The January 6 committee spent months seeking an interview with Ginni Thomas, who was known to have texted Meadows and contacted officials in Arizona and Wisconsin in the aftermath of Trump's election defeat by Joe Biden. She was eventually interviewed behind closed doors on 29 September.

In opening remarks, Thomas said she entered Republican politics long before meeting Clarence Thomas in 1986. She said her husband had never spoken to her about court cases - "it's an ironclad rule in our house" - and was "uninterested in politics".

She added: "I am certain I never spoke with him about any of the challenges to the 2020 election, as I was not involved in those challenges in any way."