Judiciary Committee member Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse requested information from Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito in connection with an interview with The Wall Street Journal last year in which Alito questioned whether Congress has the power to impose ethics rules on the Supreme Court. Cut.
At the Letter released FridayWhitehouse, DR.I., accused Alito of offering in a newspaper interview last year “an improper opinion on a question that could be submitted to the Court” amid an ethical dilemma related to donor funding for undisclosed gifts to the justices of the Supreme Court.
According to Newspaper interview, published on July 28, Alito stated that Congress did not have the authority to regulate the high court.
“No provision of the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court — period,” Alito told the newspaper at the time.
Alito’s interview appeared weeks after the Journal published hIt is comment refuting a ProPública Report detailing his failure to publicize an Alaskan fishing trip with a Republican billionaire.
The interview, Whitehouse noted, was conducted by David B. Rivkin, an attorney representing Leonard Leo, who, according to the ProPublica report, coordinated Alito’s 2008 trip with Republican donor Robin Arkley II.
Whitehouse argued that Alito’s statements in the interview were made “for his benefit as the recipient of undisclosed gifts that are the subject of our investigation.”
He further accused Alito of participating in the interview “at the behest” of Rivkin, which challenged the committee’s investigative efforts.
“From the outside, it appears that the lawyer recruited him to support his legal case against our investigation, using the interview to advance the argument he and several colleagues were making,” Whitehouse wrote. “The interview appeared solicited and timed to have an effect on the ongoing dispute.”
Rivkin and a Supreme Court spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday night.
ProPublica also published an article in April of last year, detailing lavish trips taken by Justice Clarence Thomas that were funded by Republican donor Harlan Crow.
Whitehouse noted that the interview was published shortly after the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced its ethics bill to the Supreme Court, which would establish new disclosure rules for gifts and travel.
Whitehouse made similar remarks in a September ethics complaint related to Alito’s Journal interview in which he demanded that Chief Justice John Roberts take action.
The Supreme Court subsequently adopted a new code of conduct, but criticism regarding its application continues.
Alito last month refused to recuse himself from two cases linked to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, after being asked to do so when The New York Times reported that an inverted American flag was displayed outside his home in mid-January 2021.
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