Trump Praises Alito's 'COURAGE and GUTS' for Refusing to Sit Out Jan 6 Cases After Upside-Down Flag Controversy
May 29 2024, Published 6:00 p.m. ET
Donald Trump has praised Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito for refusing to recuse himself from any cases involving the embattled former president, the 2020 election, and the January 6 Capitol riots, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Alito rejected calls to sit out pending cases after it was reported that the judge flew an upside-down U.S. flag outside of his home in the wake of the January 6 insurrection. He claimed that his wife Martha-Ann Alito "was solely responsible for having flagpoles put up at our residence and our vacation home and has flown a wide variety of flags over the years."
"I had nothing whatsoever to do with the flying of that flag. I was not even aware of the upside-down flag until it was called to my attention. As soon as I saw it, I asked my wife to take it down, but for several days, she refused," the justice wrote in a three-page letter sent to the Senate on Wednesday. "My wife is fond of flying flags. I am not."
Trump took to his Truth Social platform to praise Alito's decision, Mediaite reports. "Congratulations to United States Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito for showing the INTELLIGENCE, COURAGE, and ‘GUTS’ to refuse stepping aside from making a decision on anything January 6th related," he wrote.
"All U.S. Judges, Justices, and Leaders should have such GRIT – Our Country would be far more advanced than its current status as A BADLY FAILING NATION, headed by the Worst President in American History, Crooked Joe Biden!" Trump added.
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The Supreme Court's new code of conduct was issued last year following bipartisan pressure from Congress and requires justices to recuse themselves from cases where their "impartiality might reasonably be questioned."
Each justice is allowed to decide for themselves if those conditions are met and cannot be removed from a case by the chief justice or the full court.
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Rep. Hank Johnson (D., Ga.), a House Judiciary Committee member who had called for Alito to recuse himself from the Trump cases, slammed Alito's announcement, per The Wall Street Journal.
“Any unbiased and reasonable person would find laughable Justice Alito’s ‘the dog ate my homework, and I didn’t even know I had homework’ defense,” Johnson said, emphasizing the “urgent need for Congress to pass legislation that imposes on Supreme Court justices a code of conduct with an enforcement mechanism.”