U.S. Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) have requested that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito recuse from the Trump immunity case and “any other cases related the the 2020 election” or “the January 6th attack on the Capitol.” The Senators noted the flying of controversial flags at the homes of Alito (news and photos of which have been recently released by the media) as impropriety that requires recusal.
Note: Both flags (an inverted American flag and an “Appeal to Heaven” flag) were raised by MAGA adherents at the Capitol on January 6th.
Alito today responded to the Senators in writing (see letter below). He wrote that he is “duty-bound” to reject the the request of recusal from the Trump case and claims his wife’s use of the flags had no connection to the ‘Stop the Steal’ movement or any other partisan movement.
Alito tells Congress he will NOT recuse from the Trump immunity case. He defends his wife’s use of the two controversial flags, saying they had no connection to “Stop the Steal” or any other partisan movement. https://t.co/BXh2kLhgHw pic.twitter.com/LYRb8DgQKa
— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) May 29, 2024
Slate senior writer Mark Joseph Stern, who covers the courts and the law, responded to the letter: “Alito reads the Supreme Court’s totally voluntary, non-binding ethics guidelines to impose a seemingly mandatory ‘obligation’ that he sit on any case he’s not recused from.”
Stern added a mention of conservative activist Ginni Thomas, wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Ginni Thomas reportedly attended the Trump rally in Washington on January 6 and supported the overturning of the election results. “Incidentally,” Stern writes, “There is almost certainly a picture of Ginni Thomas at the ellipse during the Jan. 6 Stop the Steal rally. If you’re in possession of it, I am begging you to contact me.”
Incidentally: There is almost certainly a picture of Ginni Thomas at the ellipse during the Jan. 6 Stop the Steal rally. If you’re in possession of it, I am begging you to contact me.
— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) May 29, 2024
According to The Washington Post, after Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, Ginni Thomas emailed 29 Arizona state lawmakers and “urged them to set aside Biden’s popular-vote victory and ‘choose’ their own presidential electors, despite the fact that the responsibility for choosing electors rests with voters under Arizona state law.” Thomas also texted Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, told him “not to concede” and called the results of the election, “the greatest Heist of our History.”