Democratic senator: Alito has made impropriety the norm

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Thursday blasted conservative Justice Samuel Alito for having a conversation with President-elect Trump amidst Trump’s effort to have courts halt his criminal sentencing in New York.

“Brazenly unapologetic, Justice Alito has made impropriety the norm,” Blumenthal wrote on social media.

The Connecticut senator called Alito’s contact with Trump while Trump’s litigating an issue that could come before the Supreme Court “expected & unexceptionable,” given Senate Democrats recent criticisms of Alito’s conduct on the court.

“This inexcusable call w/ Trump certainly should compel recusal, disqualifying him from this case & much more. The Court’s current supposed ethical standards are an unenforceable sham,” Blumenthal posted on X.

Alito on Wednesday confirmed his call with Trump but said he didn’t discuss Trump’s emergency application to block his sentencing in New York for falsifying business records.

“William Levi, one of my former law clerks, asked me to take a call from President-elect Trump regarding his qualifications to serve in a government position,” Alito said in a statement. 

“I agreed to discuss this matter with President-elect Trump, and he called me yesterday afternoon,” Alito added. “We did not discuss the emergency application he filed today, and indeed, I was not even aware at the time of our conversation that such an application would be filed.”

Trump’s legal team has asked the Supreme Court to stop his sentencing from moving forward until he finishes appealing the court’s authority to punish him in light of a Supreme Court ruling last year on presidential immunity.

New York Judge Juan Merchan is due to sentence Trump Friday.

Trump's attorneys have argued that the sentencing should be halted because the president-elect is “currently engaged in the most crucial and sensitive tasks of preparing to assume the Executive Power in less than two weeks, all of which are essential to the United States’ national security and vital interests.”

Senate Democrats called on Alito to recuse himself from legal cases related to Trump and the 2020 election after his wife raised two controversial flags at his homes, including an upside-down American flag and an Appeal to Heaven flag, both of which are associated with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.