Ginni Thomas testifies before the January 6 panel

Ginni Thomas meets with the House January 6 panel; Finland stops letting in Russian tourists.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Jariel Arvin.

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Ginni Thomas still thinks the 2020 election was stolen

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• A House panel investigating the January 6, 2021, Capitol attacks interviewed Ginni Thomas, the conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, on Thursday. [CNN]
• Thomas’s appearance before the committee was voluntary. According to committee members, she answered “some” of the panel’s questions but continued to falsely insist the 2020 election was stolen. [CBS News / Caroline Linton and Melissa Quinn]
• The committee wanted to speak with Thomas about her involvement in Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Questions first arose after Thomas sent messages to then-chief of staff Mark Meadows urging him not to concede victory. [NBC News / Summer Concepcion, Haley Talbot, and Ali Vitali]
• Thomas also communicated with Trump lawyer and adviser John Eastman. Eastman drew up a plan to pressure former Vice President Mike Pence into rejecting electoral votes from states Joe Biden won. [NPR / Deirdre Walsh and Claudia Grisales]
• Thomas has insisted that there’s no conflict of interest with her husband’s work. However, her activism has prompted calls for Justice Thomas to recuse himself from cases involving January 6. [USA Today / Bart Jansen]
• Meanwhile, the House committee investigating January 6 postponed its final hearing this week because of Hurricane Ian. [Politico / Nicholas Wu]

📍 If you read just one story

Vox’s Andrew Prokop explains how Ginni Thomas’s texts reveal some elite Republicans believe Trump’s 2020 election lies. [Vox / Andrew Prokop]

Finland closes its borders to Russian tourists

• On Friday, Finland will join its European neighbors in blocking Russian tourists from entering its borders amid the war in Ukraine. [BBC / Francesca Gillett]
• Thousands have fled Russia following President Vladimir Putin’s decision to order a partial mobilization of troops. Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said Thursday the flow of Russians into the country threatened Finland’s international relations. [Axios / Ivana Saric]
• The ban aims to prevent Russian tourism and travel through Finland, which shares an 830-mile border with Russia. However, Russians can still enter the country to visit family, work, or study. [Associated Press]
• Meanwhile, Sweden discovered a new leak in the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea on Thursday. It’s the fourth rupture found in what EU leaders believe was an act of sabotage. [Guardian / Philip Oltermann]

At least 2.5 million Floridians were without power Thursday, a day after Hurricane Ian brought widespread destruction and catastrophic flooding to the state. [New York Times]

• A US Army major and her anesthesiologist wife were indicted Thursday for trying to leak confidential health care information about US military servicemembers to Russia. [CNBC / Dan Mangan and Kevin Breuninger]
• Two students and four staff were wounded in a shooting outside an Oakland, California, high school. Police believe the shooting could be gang-related. [NBC / Antonio Planas and Tim Stelloh]
• Queen Elizabeth II’s cause of death — at 96 — was old age, according to her death certificate released Thursday. [CNN / David Wilkinson, Sharon Braithwaite, and Sana Noor Haq]

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"Mrs. Thomas has significant concerns about fraud and irregularities in the 2020 election. Beyond that, she played no role in any events after the 2020 election results.”

[Ginni Thomas’s lawyer Mark Paoletta on her testimony / USA Today]

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