Justice Alito says he spoke with Trump the day before filing the former official’s hush-hush lawsuit
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito confirmed to Fox News on Wednesday that he had spoken with the president-elect Donald Trump a day before Trump’s high court appearance, but said they had not discussed an emergency motion the former president’s legal team planned to file to delay the ruling.
Alito told Fox News’ Shannon Bream that he was asked if he would accept Trump’s invitation about the position being considered for his former staffer, William Levi, and praised Levi’s “remarkable resume.”
“William Levi, one of my former legal staff, asked me to take a call from President-elect Trump regarding his qualifications for government service. I agreed to discuss this matter with President-elect Trump, and he called me yesterday afternoon,” he said. is Alito.
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Associate Justice Samuel Alito joins the other members of the Supreme Court as they pose for a new group portrait in October 2022. (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)
Alito said he had not discussed the emergency request with Trump, nor was he “even aware at the time of our conversation that such a request would be made.”
“We also have not discussed any other issue that is pending or may come before the Supreme Court in the future or any past Supreme Court decisions involving the president-elect,” Alito said.
Alito told Fox News that he is often asked to provide referrals for former employees to potential employers and that this is a common practice.
Levi once served in Ministry of Justice during the president-elect’s first term, and also clerked for Alito from 2011 to 2012.
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President-elect Trump meets with lawmakers. (Getty Images)
Alito, who spoke with Trump a day before Trump’s high court appearance in connection with his New York money laundering case, led some to call him out, saying the conversation was an “unmistakable breach of protocol.”
“No person, no matter who they are, should engage in out-of-court communications with a judge or a judge hearing that person’s case,” Gabe Roth, executive director of the nonpartisan group Fix the Court, said in a statement.
Alito said he he did not know that Trump’s legal team was preparing an emergency motion regarding the New York state case and there was no discussion about it.
Associate Justice Samuel Alito Jr. during an official group photo at the Supreme Court in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, October 7, 2022. (Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
He confirmed to Fox News that the call was solely about Levi and that there was no discussion of any matter involving Trump’s legal matter — past, present or future.
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He also said that there was no discussion of any matter before the Court or potentially coming before the Court.
ABC News first reported the Trump-Alito conversation.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
