President-elect Donald Trump and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito had a phone call on Tuesday, just one day before Trump asked the court to block sentencing in the New York criminal case against him, ABC News reported on Wednesday.
In May, a New York jury found Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to cover up extramarital affairs before the 2016 election.
In September, Judge Juan Merchan postponed sentencing until after last year’s presidential election to “dispel any suggestion that the Court will have issued any decision or imposed sentence either to give an advantage to, or to create a disadvantage for, any political party and or any candidate for any office.”
After Trump won the election, Merchan said he would move forward with sentencing, but that he would not impose jail time, fines, or probation. Rather, Merchan is expected to sentence Trump to an unconditional discharge.
Trump’s call with Alito – one of the more conservative justices on the court – occurred the day before the president-elect’s lawyers filed an emergency petition with the court to block Merchan from imposing sentence, which is scheduled for Friday.
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,” Alito told ABC News. “We also did not discuss any other matter that is pending or might in the future come before the Supreme Court or any past Supreme Court decisions involving the President-elect.”
Alito said one of his former law clerks asked the justice to speak with Trump on the clerk’s behalf.
“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,” Justice Alito confirmed to ABC News Wednesday. “I agreed to discuss this matter with President-elect Trump, and he called me yesterday afternoon.”
Last year, Alito came under scrutiny after it was reported that flags associated with the 2021 “Stop the Steal” movement were flown at homes he owns. The justice claimed his wife Martha-Ann Alito was responsible for the flags. Weeks after that report, the Supreme Court ruled that Trump and all presidents are immune from criminal prosecution when exercising their core constitutional powers. The decision was 6-3, with Alito voting with the rest of the court’s conservatives.
