Alito Refuses Demand He Recuse From Jan. 6 Cases in Defiant Letter Heaping More Blame On Wife For Flag
AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito rejected calls to recuse himself from any cases involving former President Donald Trump after stories surfaced that his wife flew flags on their properties with symbolism associated with far-right movements.
In a three-page letter addressed to members of the U.S. Senate, the associate justice placed full blame on his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, for flying the flags in the first place and said that she “refused” to take them down for “several days” when asked. Rejecting the accusations that the flags had a political nature, the flags at his home “did not meet the conditions for recusal,” Alito wrote. He also wrote: “I had nothing whatsoever to do with the flying of that flag” at the couple’s Virginia home,” adding: “As soon as I saw it, I asked my wife to take it down, but for several days, she refused.”
NBC News’ Ryan Reilly tweeted on Wednesday:
“I asked my wife to take it down, but for several days, she refused.”
— Alito on the upside-down American flag that flew at their home. pic.twitter.com/xej2FLrODj
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) May 29, 2024
Alito wrote that his wife “is fond of flying flags” and they have flown a variety of flags on their properties. But when it came to the upside-down flag as a symbol of the “Stop the Steal” movement that drove the January 6 insurrection, Alito claimed it was flown following the neighborhood kerfuffles as a sign of her own “distressed” state. (An upside-down flag, in general, is recognized as a symbol of distress.) As for the “Appeal to Heaven” flag, Justice Alito claimed ignorance, writing: “I was not familiar with the ‘Appeal to Heaven’ flag when my wife flew it. She may have mentioned that it dates back to the American Revolution, and I assumed she was flying it to express a religious and patriotic message.”
When The New York Times initially broke the story about Martha-Ann Alito flying an upside-down flag in their front yard, Justice Alito claimed that the flag was flown following a dust-up with neighbors during which Martha-Ann was called a “cunt.” However, a follow-up by the Times — after the revelation that a second flag featuring far-right symbolism was flown at the Alitos’ beach home — had a different timeline, with neighbors and law enforcement who responded to these neighborhood quarrels saying that it was Mrs. Alito who was the instigator and the events happened weeks apart.
This story has been updated.
