Supreme Court Justice Alito goes to war with ProPublica over billionaire’s private jet story

The story is the latest damning twist in a series of allegations that Supreme Court justices are at work. This time it’s conservative judge Samuel Alito who is revealed to have enjoyed a luxury fishing expedition to Alaska, probably worth tens of thousands of dollars, courtesy of a Republican mega-donor.

Alito did not shy away from cases involving the billionaire’s companies on multiple occasions when they later went to court.

But instead of responding to investigative news site ProPublica when his reporters asked him for comment, Alito chose to go on the offensive.

On Tuesday night, he labeled the unpublished report “misleading” with his own legal account of the trip, which appears to reflect growing anger among judges that their integrity is being questioned.

ProPublica has filed two charges against me: first, that I should have declined in cases where an entity associated with Paul Singer was a party and second, that I was required to list certain items as gifts on my 2008 Financial Disclosure Report ,” he wrote in an op-ed published by the Wall Street Journal.

“Neither charge is valid.”

Leonard Leo, center, on the 2008 fishing trip with a guide and other guests. He is a key player in guiding conservative judicial figures to banks across the country

The allegations come at a difficult time for Supreme Court judges. They are increasingly being pressured to accept a binding code of ethics.

Meanwhile, a series of revelations about ties between Judge Clarence Thomas and a Texas billionaire coincide with a sharp fall in public confidence in the nation’s Supreme Court.

Hours after Alito’s rebuttal was posted Tuesday night, ProPublica published its scoop,

It features a photo of a radiant Alito holding a monster King Salmon alongside billionaire Singer during their July 2008 trip.

The hedge fund manager flew Justice to Alaska on a private jet — a trip that could have cost as much as $100,000 had Alito paid for it himself, the report said.

He stayed in a commercial fishing cabin owned by another prominent businessman. Three years earlier, that same figure received Judge Antonin Scalia, who died in 2016.

ProPublica said reporting of Alito and Scalia’s trips included examining planning emails, Alaska fishing permits and interviews with dozens of people, including private jet pilots, fishing guides, former senior employees of both Singer and the lodge. owner, and other guests on the trips.

And it said Alito didn’t report the trip at his annual unveiling.

Alito in Alaska with a fishing guide. He stayed at the King Salmon Lodge, a luxury fishing resort that attracted celebrities, wealthy businessmen and sports stars

Supreme Court members are under intense pressure to tighten their ethics rules, following a slew of allegations that they are not being forthright about accepting gifts

During the trip, ProPublica said the group flew on one of the lodge’s planes to a waterfall in Katmai National Park. That night they dined on Alaskan king crab legs or Kobe fillet.

At the last dinner, a guest bragged that they drank $1,000 bottles of wine, according to a tour guide.

In the years that followed, Singer’s hedge fund was involved in multiple legal battles, including at least 10 that ended up in the Supreme Court.

In 2014, he won a decade-long battle with Argentina when the court voted 7-1 in his favor, winning $2.4 billion in the process. Scalia did not withdraw from the case and voted by majority.

In his pre-emptive response, Alito insisted that he was under no obligation to retreat.

“My recollection is that I have spoken to Mr. Singer on no more than a handful of occasions, all of which (with the exception of a chat on a fishing trip 15 years ago) consisted of short and casual remarks at events attended by large groups,” he wrote. he.

“On no occasion have we discussed the activities of his companies, and we have never discussed any case or issue in court.”

Justice Clarence Thomas has also been charged with failing to declare gifts, but as Alito has said he acted in accordance with reporting rules

He defended the trip to Alaska, saying it wasn’t enough to suggest he might be biased.

“And as I will discuss, he allowed me to occupy what would otherwise have been an unoccupied seat on a private flight to Alaska,” he wrote. “It was and is my judgment that these facts would not cause a reasonable and unprejudiced person to doubt my ability to decide impartially the matters at hand.”

In addition, the cases that came to court did not mention Singer’s name, he said, so he was not aware of any connection.

And he insisted that he had followed the reporting rules.

“When I joined the court and until the recent change to the filing instructions, judges usually interpreted this discussion of ‘hospitality’ to mean that accommodation and transportation for social events were not reportable gifts,” he wrote.

“The flight to Alaska was the only occasion on which I accepted transportation for a purely social event, following what I considered standard practice.”

He also suggested that being flown across the continent to fish rich salmon grounds was a more modest expedition than it sounded.

“I stayed for three nights in a modest one-room unit at the King Salmon Lodge, a comfortable yet rustic facility,” he wrote. “If I remember correctly, the meals were home-style.

“I don’t recall if the group at the lodge, about 20 people, were served wine, but if there was wine, it certainly wasn’t wine that cost $1,000.

“Since my visit 15 years ago, the lodge has been sold and I believe renovated, but an examination of the photos and information on the lodge’s website shows that the ProPublica image is misleading.”

His answers failed to impress Supreme Court pundits or legislators pushing for tougher ethical rules.

“This is only going to get worse,” wrote Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse in a lengthy Twitter thread that took apart Alito’s defense.

Charles Geyh, an Indiana law professor and expert on challenge, said, “If you were good friends, what did you do to judge his case?

“And if you weren’t good friends, what did you do to accept this?”