U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has formally refused to recuse from any and all cases involving indicted ex-president Donald Trump or the January 6, 2021 attack on the seat of the American government and American democracy itself. Legal experts and elected Democrats, including the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has oversight responsibility of the nation’s highest court, have demanded the George W. Bush-appointed jurist’s recusal. Now, some legal experts sat either the Chief Justice or the Senate Judiciary Committee must intervene.

Justice Alito is standing by his now thoroughly debunked story about why a flag associated with the insurrection and the “Stop the Steal” conspiracy was flying at his home just three days before Joe Biden was inaugurated president, and a different, Christian nationalist flag also associated with those efforts to overthrow the government and disenfranchise 81 million Americans was flying at another of his homes.

Responding to a letter sent to Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Alito in his own letter wrote he was “required” to reject Democrats’ request and not recuse himself, despite numerous legal experts citing both law and precedent, declaring he at least should, or must, recuse himself.

Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern, who writes about the courts and the law, pushed back on Justice Alito’s claim.

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“Alito reads the Supreme Court’s totally voluntary, non-binding ethics guidelines to impose a seemingly mandatory ‘obligation’ that he sit on any case he’s not recused from.”

Professor of law Steve Vladeck, a CNN contributor, appeared to take that one strep further: “Justice Alito’s insistence in his letters to Congress that he has an ‘obligation to sit’ in the January 6 cases *because* the Code of Conduct says so is an interesting data point for those who have insisted that the Code doesn’t impose *any* requirements on the justices.”

Journalist, author, and foreign policy, national security and political affairs analyst and commentator David Rothkopf observed, “Alito, by saying he should not recuse, demonstrates clearly why he should not be on the court in the first place.”

The New York Times’ Michael Barbaro notes, “As with his statement to the NYT, Alito in his response to Congress never disavows the meaning of the upside down flag that flew over his house for days or its link to the Jan 6th riot/Stop The Steal movement that was at its height during this period. Notably, Alito does deny that link with the Appeal To Heaven flag, but not the upside down flag.”

Saying Alito is “really is a piece of work,” attorney and former FBI special agent Asha Rangappa suggested the justice is flipping the script: “Alito does a Reverse Uno, suggesting that people calling for his recusal are trying to influence the outcome of cases before the Court.”

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a government watchdog, noted: “That Justice Alito responded *at all* to the demand that he recuse from these cases shows the gravity of his misconduct. But this response changes nothing about the ethical issue here. Since he will not recuse on his own, Chief Justice Roberts should intervene.”

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Constitutional law scholar and professor of law Eric Segall served up a scathing assessment: “To be clear, if we found a love letter written to Donald Trump from Sam Alito saying, ‘Can’t wait till you’re back in office,’ Alito still would not recuse. He has no moral compass at all.”

The Atlantic’s Ronald Brownstein suggests Democrats will need to take further action: “Alito’s dismissive response, which [Chief Justice John] Roberts is unlikely to challenge in any way, has placed the ball squarely in the court of @SenatorDurbin, @SenSchumer and Senate Democrats.”

CNN’s Edward-Isaac Dovere, posting a screenshot of Donald Trump’s response to the justice’s decision to not recuse, writes: “Trump thanks Alito for not recusing himself from cases pending about Trump after Alito’s being criticized for a flag flying at his house that has been interpreted as a sign of support for Trump.”

Trump thanks Alito for not recusing himself from cases pending about Trump after Alito’s being criticized for a flag flying at his house that has been interpreted as a sign of support for Trump: pic.twitter.com/Up1m6U7qLz

— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) May 29, 2024

See the social media post above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Wildly Lawless’: Judge Cannon’s Removal Predicted by Top Legal Scholar

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon suffered more strong criticism, this time from attorney George Conway who blasted the Trump-appointed jurist over a New York Times report in which, he said, she appeared to not understand the basics of a criminal rule.

Judge Cannon is already under fire after likely delaying until after the 2024 presidential election one of the most important cases in American jurisprudence – an ex-president, his party’s presumptive nominee, running again for the White House, charged under the Espionage Act with unlawful removal and retention of some of the nation’s top classified documents, including nuclear secrets.

On Tuesday, a top legal scholar declared a recent Cannon ruling against Special Counsel Jack Smith’s motion to expand the limits on the ex-president’s release, “wildly lawless.” He also predicted it would result in her removal from the Trump Espionage Act case, also known as the classified documents case.

On Wednesday, attorney Conway responded to a portion of that New York Times profile of Judge Cannon.

READ MORE: ‘Liar’: Critics Question Alito’s Integrity After His Insurrection Flag Story Disintegrates

“The portrait that has emerged so far,” The Times reported, “is that of an industrious but inexperienced and often insecure judge whose reluctance to rule decisively even on minor matters has permitted one of the country’s most important criminal cases to become bogged down in a logjam of unresolved issues.”

“Regardless of her motives, Judge Cannon has effectively imperiled the future of a criminal prosecution that once seemed the most straightforward of the four Mr. Trump is facing,” The Times continued. “She has largely accomplished this by granting a serious hearing to almost every issue — no matter how far-fetched — that Mr. Trump’s lawyers have raised, playing directly into the former president’s strategy of delaying the case from reaching trial.”

Conway was responding to an exchange “that occurred last week when Judge Cannon was debating with Jay Bratt, one of the prosecutors, about a common theory of legal liability called the Pinkerton rule. The rule holds that all members of a conspiracy can be held accountable for any crimes committed by their co-conspirators.”

“Mr. Bratt said the rule would likely apply to Mr. Trump’s dealings with his two co-defendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, employees of Mar-a-Lago who have been accused of conspiring with the former president to obstruct the government’s repeated efforts to retrieve the classified materials,” The Times’ story stated. “Judge Cannon seemed a bit perplexed and asked Mr. Bratt what authority he intended to rely on in applying the Pinkerton rule. Mr. Bratt seemed almost sheepish in having to lay things out for her so simply.”

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“’So the authority is Pinkerton,’ he said, and launched into a quick explanation.”

Conway, appearing to express shock, wrote: “There are no words for this. Judge Cannon doesn’t know the most basic rule governing criminal conspiracies.”

There are no words for this. Judge Cannon doesn’t know the most basic rule governing criminal conspiracies. https://t.co/t9ualuvqvR

— George Conway (@gtconway3d) May 29, 2024

See the social media post above or at this link.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s defense for why an upside down American flag, associated with the January 6, 2021 insurrection and the “Stop the Steal” conspiracy, was flying outside his Virginia home quickly fell apart barely days after he shared it with Fox News, but that story has now further disintegrated after The New York Times published a report that includes interviews with neighbors and a review of text messages.

Critics responding to The Times’ report are now calling the 74-year old jurist’s credibility into question over the divergent details.

Two weeks ago The New York Times reported on Alito’s insurrectionist “upside down” American flag – one of two flags associated with the insurrection flown at Alito’s two homes.  The Supreme Court justice then talked to Fox News host Shanon Bream, who reported, “he told me a neighbor on their street had a ‘F— Trump’ sign that was within 50 feet of where children await the school bus in Jan 21.”

“According to Justice Alito, things escalated and the neighbor put up a sign personally addressing Mrs. Alito and blaming her for the Jan 6th attacks,” Bream also stated, referring to Martha-Ann Alito.

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“Justice Alito says he and his wife were walking in the neighborhood and there were words between Mrs. Alito and a male at the home with the sign. Alito says the man engaged in vulgar language, ‘including the c-word’,” according to Bream. “Following that exchange, Mrs. Alito was distraught and hung the flag upside down ‘for a short time’.”

Some quickly pointed out that school bus children aspect didn’t hold water as it was during the COVID pandemic and schools in the Alitos” county had gone to virtual sessions.

Also, according to the New York Times report Tuesday evening, the argument was with Emily Baden, not her then-boyfriend and now-husband.

The couple had called Fairfax County police “after a series of encounters with Martha-Ann Alito,” The Times reported, “that had gone from uneasy to ugly.”

“‘Somebody in a position of authority needs to talk to her and make her stop,’ said the 36-year-old man making the complaint, according to a recording of the call reviewed by The New York Times. The officer on the line responded that there was little the police could do: Yelling was not a crime.”

Noting there are “some differences” between the Alitos’ story and the Badens’s, The Times importantly reports, “the justice told Fox News that his wife hoisted the flag in response to Ms. Baden’s vulgar insult. A text message and the police call — corroborated by Fairfax County authorities — indicate, however, that the name-calling took place on Feb. 15, weeks after the inverted flag was taken down.”

Also importantly, The Times reports, on the day President Joe Biden was inaugurated, “Mrs. Alito happened to be standing outside” the Alitos’ home.

“According to interviews with Ms. Baden and her husband, as well as messages they sent to friends at the time, Mrs. Alito ran toward their car and yelled something they did not understand. The couple continued driving, they said, and as they passed the Alito home again to exit the cul-de-sac, Mrs. Alito appeared to spit toward the vehicle.”

READ MORE: Supreme Court ‘Puppetmaster’ Slammed Over Report He’s Flying Alito’s ‘Theocratic’ Flag Again

The Washington Post last week reported Mrs. Alito shouted at neighbors.

“Martha-Ann Alito … got out of the car and shouted in apparent reference to the neighbors: ‘Ask them what they did!’ She said yard signs about the couple had been placed in the neighborhood. After getting back in the car, she exited again and then brought out from their residence a novelty flag, the type that would typically decorate a garden. She hoisted it up the flagpole. ‘There! Is that better?’ she yelled.”

The Times also reported, “on Feb. 15, the couple were pulling in trash bins when the Alitos, who seemed to be on a stroll, appeared. Mrs. Alito addressed the pair by name, used an expletive and called them ‘fascists,’ the couple told The Times and said in texts at the time. Justice Alito remained silent, they added. The Alitos began to walk away.”

“That was when Emily Baden snapped, she said. She does not remember her precise words, but recalls something like this: How dare you behave this way. You’ve been harassing us, over signs. You represent the highest court in the land. Shame on you.”

Some legal and political experts say Justice Alito’s tale exposes him as a “liar,” others call the Alitos “liars,” and some suggest the nation’s highest court’s impartiality is now in question.

Many responded to this excerpt, posted by the Times’ Jodi Kantor, who wrote Tuesday’s report.

Just published: Mrs. Alito’s conflict with her neighbors in Virginia escalated so much that the neighbors called the police. But that final incident, which Justice Alito said helped spur his wife to raise the upside-down flag, happened a month after the flag was up.… pic.twitter.com/3xoILuVdpN

— Jodi Kantor (@jodikantor) May 29, 2024

The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols, a retired U.S. Naval War College professor and expert on Russia, nuclear weapons, and national security affairs, offered this sarcastic take: “I’m starting to think Justice and Mrs. Alito are not entirely trustworthy in their explanations.”

The Nation’s justice correspondent, Elie Mystal, wrote simply, “Oh look, the Alitos are also liars.”

“The entire Alito fiasco is so far from normal decorum-let alone judicial decorum or any ethical standard of objectivity or propriety,” observed Janai Nelson, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund (LDF). “The legal community—esp the Supreme Court bar—should be actively outraged & demand action from Congress and the Chief Judge for sake of the Court.”

The Atlantic’s Norman Ornstein, an Emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), succinctly declared, “Liar. Sam Alito is an insurrectionist supporting liar.”

National security attorney Mark S. Zaid said, “Quite a different set of facts than we were first led to believe per Justice Alito,” and warned: “There are good reasons to be concerned about true legal impartiality of this Court.”

Former official in both the Obama and Biden White Houses, Jesse Lee, remarked: “The reason the conservative justices change their principles from case to case based on what serves Republican and corporate interests is that they have no integrity whatsoever. Remember ‘judicial restraint’? They are on a partisan rampage through a century of jurisprudence.”

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