WASHINGTON — The House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol will ask the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, Virginia Thomas, for an interview, the panel’s chairman said Thursday.

Mrs. Thomas, a conservative activist, communicated with people in President Trump’s orbit ahead of the attack and also on the day of the riot, when hundreds of Mr. Trump’s supporters violently stormed the Capitol and interrupted the certification of President Biden’s election victory.

Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and the chairman of the panel, said that “it’s time for her to come talk” to the committee after investigators discovered information that refers to Mrs. Thomas — known as Ginni — in communications they have obtained relating to one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, John Eastman. 

Mr. Eastman was advising Mr. Trump in the weeks and days ahead of the attack as the president pushed Vice President Pence to try to object to or delay Mr. Biden’s certification on January 6.

Mr. Thompson didn’t specify a time or schedule for an interview. He said her name could also come up at some point in the panel’s hearings that are being held throughout June.

The emails between Mr. Eastman and Mrs. Thomas were first reported by the Washington Post.

It is not the first time members of the panel have said they want to talk to Mrs. Thomas. In March, lawmakers on the committee said they were considering inviting her for a witness interview about text messages with the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, on the day of the attack. Yet she still has not spoken to the panel.

Justice Thomas was the only member of the Supreme Court who voted against the court’s order allowing the January 6 committee to obtain Trump records that were held by the National Archives and Records Administration. The court voted in January to allow the committee to get the documents.

The court on Thursday did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the justice.