Senate Judiciary Committee member Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) made the case for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's recusal from cases involving the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot after former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows turned over messages from Thomas's wife, Virginia, asking him to help overturn the 2020 election, ABC News reports. Meadows voluntarily disclosed the messages to the House Jan. 6 committee before deciding not to cooperate further. Justice Thomas was the only justice voting to block the Jan. 6 committee from obtaining Trump White House records.
Klobuchar said Sunday that the episode was a "textbook case" for recusal, observing that, "The facts are clear here. This is unbelievable ... They had better speak out on this because you cannot have a justice hearing cases related to this election and, in fact, the ethics rules that apply to all the other federal judges say that if it involves a family member, appearance of impartiality, they have to recuse themselves," she said. Klobuchar added, "This Supreme Court badly needs ethics rules." She said she would like other justices to speak out on the issue.