Clarence Thomas leaves hospital after week-long stay

Mr Thomas had ‘flu-like symptoms’ but a court spokesperson confirmed he did not have Covid-19

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been released from the hospital a week after he was admitted.

Mr Thomas left Sibley Memorial Hospital on Friday, according to a court spokesperson. He was reportedly admitted to be treated for an infection.

Mr Thomas's hospitalisation was made public on Sunday when the court issued a statement confirming that the judge was "experiencing flu-like symptoms”. While the court's public informations officer did not go into detail beyond the symptoms, they did confirm to media outlets that Mr Thomas had not been diagnosed with Covid-19.

In some very personal ways, the world Mr Thomas left when he entered the hospital is significantly different from the world he re-entered when he was discharged. While he was undergoing treatment, the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol riot announced that his wife, Virginia, had sent nearly 30 text messages to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

The details of the text messages were first reported by The Washington Post.

The messages – all sent between early November 2020 and mid-January 2021 – revealed that Ms Thomas, a conservative political activist, had attended the rally that immediately preceded the Capitol riot. She claimed she played "no role" in planning the events that led to the attack at the Capitol.

In one message, Ms Thomas begs Mr Meadows to keep fighting to overturn the 2020 election.

“Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!! … You are the leader, with him, who is standing for America’s constitutional governance at the precipice," Ms Thomas wrote a week after the election. "The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History."

They continued to exchange messages between November and January. In some messages Ms Thomas continued to encourage Mr Meadows to undermine the results of the 2020 election, specifically through promotion of former President Donald Trump's voter fraud conspiracy theory.

Mr Meadows replied to Ms Thomas with his own bombastic messages, assuring her he intended to continue fighting to keep Mr Trump in office.

“I will stand firm. We will fight until there is no fight left. Our country is too precious to give up on. Thanks for all you do,” he said in one reply.

In another, he described his allegiance to Mr Trump's fraudulent conspiracy theories as a "fight of good versus evil," even going so far as to bring Jesus into the discussion.

"Evil always looks like the victor until the King of Kings triumphs. Do not grow weary in well doing. The fight continues. I have staked my career on it. Well at least my time in DC on it," Mr Meadows wrote.

Following the Capitol riot, Ms Thomas wrote to Mr Meadows that she was upset with former Vice President Mike Pence for refusing to block the election certification - something he could never have done in the first place.

“We are living through what feels like the end of America. Most of us are disgusted with the VP and are in a listening mode to see where to fight with our teams. Those who attacked the Capitol are not representative of our great teams of patriots for DJT!! Amazing times. The end of Liberty,” she wrote.

Ms Thomas claims she keeps a distance from her husband on a professional level due to the natures of both of their work.

Mr Thomas was the only Supreme Court Justice to vote in favour of Mr Trump's attempts to block the release of thousands of his administration's documents for the 6 January select committee.