Urges judge to drop Trump election case | Wilnesh News

President senate judiciary committee Others on Friday urged Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito to recuse himself from considering cases related to the 2020 election, including the issue of former President Donald Trump’s immunity from criminal prosecution. there is controversy. upside down american flag The plane flew out of Alito’s home more than a week after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

On Thursday, after The New York Times detailed a Jan. 17 photo of the judge displaying the flag in this manner outside his home in Virginia, Illinois Judicial Chairman Dick Durbin said conservative Alito This heightened moral concerns about the courts.

Alito told The Times that his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, flew the flag upside down after a confrontation with neighbors after the election, which Trump falsely claimed he had won.

Some supporters who claim Trump won the 2020 election displayed the flag in the same manner during the invasion of the Capitol and during protests and rallies. According to the U.S. Flag Code, “The flag shall not be displayed while the flag is being flown except as a signal for emergency distress in cases of extreme danger to life or property.”

“Flying the American flag upside down – a symbol of the so-called ‘Stop the Steal’ movement – clearly creates bias,” Durbin said in a statement.

“Judge Alito should immediately recuse himself from cases related to the 2020 election and the January 6 election.^th insurrection, including the issue of the former president’s immunity currently being considered by the Supreme Court in United States v. Donald Trump,” Durbin said.

The Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on Trump’s claim that he enjoys presidential immunity from prosecution in a federal case in Washington, D.C., in which he is charged with crimes related to an attempt to undo Biden’s 2020 election victory offense. Alito and other justices heard oral arguments in the case in late April.

“The Court is facing an ethical crisis of its own making, and Judge Alito and other members of the Court should do everything they can to regain the public’s trust.”

“I don’t want to comment on specific reports,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Friday when asked about the controversy.

“What I can say more broadly is that the president believes that the American flag is sacred, you’ve heard him say that, and should be treated with appropriate respect in honor of the brave men and women who have defended our country for generations, and we let – “We should respect that flag, we should make sure it’s respected in this way, it’s sacred,” Pierre said. “

“As for other things, whether it’s conduct or avoidance, that’s for the court to decide.”

The advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said the flag flying at Alito’s home raised questions about his objectivity in a recent Supreme Court ruling that overturned a Colorado high court ruling that banned Alito. Trump will vote in the state’s election this year. The riot lasted for several hours, disrupting a joint session of Congress that was meeting to certify Biden’s electoral victory over Trump.

“This appears to be an egregious ethical violation that calls into question Judge Alito’s decision in Trump v. Anderson and other cases,” CREW President Noah Bookbinder said on behalf of the Colorado case. questions the objectivity in

“Judges should avoid even the appearance of bias,” Bookbinder said. “We don’t know exactly who put up the flag, but we know it has been there for several days.”

“Judge Alito not only failed to avoid bias, but also spent years ruling cases related to the 2020 election and the Capitol attack, even as he publicly displayed a clear affinity with those seeking to overturn democracy. Know .

“I did not participate in the flying of the flag,” Alito said in an emailed statement to The Times.

“Mrs. Alito briefly placed the sign in response to a neighbor’s use of offensive and personally insulting language on a yard sign,” Alito said.

On Friday, Fox News host Shannon Bream said in a series of social media posts by Less than 50 feet away from where children waited for school buses in January.

“According to Judge Alito, the matter escalated when the neighbor posted a placard addressing Mrs. Alito personally and blaming her for the January 6 attack,” Bream wrote. “Judge Alito said He and his wife were walking nearby when words broke out between Mrs. Alito and a man holding a sign at the home, who said vulgar language was used.”

“Following this exchange, Mrs. Alito became distraught and flew the flag upside down for ‘a brief period of time.’ Judge Alito said some of the neighbors on his street were ‘very political,’ and acknowledged that January 2021 was A very intense period,” Bream wrote.

A spokesman for the Supreme Court did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on Friday.