A conservative Supreme Court justice on Wednesday rejected calls to recuse himself from cases involving Donald Trump after flags linked to the former president’s false election fraud claims were flown outside his home and vacation property.
Justice Samuel Alito, in a letter to the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the flags were flown by his wife and did not meet the conditions for recusal in the court’s code of conduct.
Alito has been facing recusal calls since The New York Times reported this month that an inverted American flag was flown outside his home in the weeks following the January 6, 2021 storming of the US Capitol by Trump supporters.
A similarly provocative “Appeal to Heaven” flag featuring a pine tree on a white background was flown outside the Alito vacation home in New Jersey last summer, according to the newspaper.
Both flags have been associated with Trump’s false claims that he won the 2020 election over Democrat Joe Biden.
Alito, in his letter, said he had “nothing whatsoever” to do with the flying of the upside down American flag outside his Virginia home.
“As soon as I saw it, I asked my wife to take it down, but for several days, she refused,” he said.
He said his wife flew the flag in response to a neighbor who had “displayed a sign attacking her personally.”
As for the flag flown outside their vacation home, Alito said he “had no involvement in the decision to fly that flag” and neither he nor his wife was aware that it was associated with Trump’s so-called “Stop the Steal Movement.”
