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Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Wednesday vowed not to recuse himself from cases tied to the Jan. 6, 2021 siege of the U.S. Capitol despite admitting that his wife put up a flag that is often used to signify support for the attack outside their suburban Virginia home.
The conservative jurist rejected calls from Democratic senators to step aside from cases related to former President Donald Trump’s effort to overturn his loss in the 2020 election, saying that he did not necessarily agree with his wife’s decision to raise the upside-down U.S. flag.
“As soon as I saw it, I asked my wife to take it down, but for several days, she refused,” Alito wrote in a letter to lawmakers.
He likewise claimed that he played no role in Martha-Ann Alitio’s decision to fly a so-called “Appeal to Heaven” flag, which is often used by Christian nationalists, outside their home on the Jersey Shore.
“My wife is fond of flying flags,” Alito said. “I am not.”
Trump wasted little time praising Alito’s refusal to step aside from the cases over the flags controversy.
“Congratulations….for showing the intelligence, courage, and guts to refuse stepping aside from making a decision on anything January 6th related,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social site. “All U.S. judges, justices, and leaders should have such grit.”
The revelations about right-wing flags at Alito’s homes were revealed in recent days when The New York Times covered a bitter dispute between the judge and his wife with more liberal neighbors in their suburban Fairfax, Va., neighborhood.
Alito says his wife put up the pro-Trump flag after becoming embroiled in a feud with the anti-Trump neighbors in the days following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) wrote a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts last week asking him to call on Alito to step aside from Jan. 6 cases, saying the flags show evidence of pro-Trump bias.
That missive prompted the unyielding response from Alito.
“This event does not meet the applicable standard for recusal,” the judge wrote.
Alito is the second conservative judge on the nine-member panel to face growing demands to step aside from Trump election cases.
Justice Clarence Thomas has also refused to recuse himself, though his wife Ginni is an ultra-conservative activist who admits she urged White House aides to push Trump to refuse to accept the results of the 2020 election.
At a recent hearing, both right-wing judges appeared to be sympathetic to Trump’s claim to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions taken during his time in the White House.
The conservative-dominated court has already tapped the brakes on Special Counsel Jack Smith’s federal election interference case against Trump and could punt it till after the fall election.
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