Alito spoke with Trump before president-elect asked Supreme Court to delay his sentencing
CNN
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said he spoke with President-elect Donald Trump by phone this week in support of a former law clerk who is seeking a job in the incoming administration – but the justice said he did not discuss Trump’s pending effort to delay his sentencing.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said he spoke with President-elect Donald Trump by phone this week in support of a former law clerk who is seeking a job in the incoming administration – but the justice said he did not discuss Trump’s pending effort to delay his sentencing. “William Levi, one of my former law clerks, asked me to take a call from President-elect Trump regarding his qualifications to serve in a government position,” Alito said in a statement issued Wednesday. “I agreed to discuss this matter with President-elect Trump, and he called me yesterday afternoon.” The call, first reported by ABC News, came one day before Trump filed an emergency appeal seeking to delay his Friday sentencing in his New York hush money case. It’s not unusual for justices to make job recommendations on behalf of former clerks, who often remain close with the justice for whom they worked. But it is remarkable for justices to speak with an incoming president, especially in advance of a major court filing regarding the first-ever criminal sentencing of a former president. The call may give the conservative court’s critics another reason to question its independence from politics and Trump in particular. The incoming president named three justices during his first term, and the court has handed down several high-profile opinions in which the six conservatives and three liberals have lined up on opposite sides. Alito, a member of the court’s conservative wing, has faced repeated calls for recusal from ethics experts and Democrats on Capitol Hill. Most recently, that criticism was focused around two controversial flags that were raised over his properties in Virginia and New Jersey.
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