Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito accused news organization ProPublica of operating with political motivations because “they don’t like our decisions,” according to new audio published Tuesday by Rolling Stone.
Alito was secretly recorded at the Supreme Court Historical Society annual dinner on June 3 by Ally Sammarco, a colleague of journalist Lauren Windsor, who herself recorded frank comments by Alito and his wife, Martha-Ann, which were reported on Monday.
When asked why the Supreme Court “is being so attacked and being so targeted by the media these days,” Alito replied:
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“Well, I think it’s a simple reason: they don’t like our decisions, and they don’t like how they anticipate we may decide some cases that are coming up. That’s the beginning of the end of it,” he said, adding: “There are groups that are very well-funded by ideological groups that have spearheaded these attacks. That’s what it is.”
Alito then named ProPublica, which has reported on his and other justices’ lack of financial disclosures, saying they get “a lot of money, and they have spent a fortune investigating Clarence Thomas, for example. You know, everything he’s ever done in his entire life.”
“And they’ve done some of that to me, too,” he said. “They look for any little thing they can find, and they try to make something out of it.”
Last year, ProPublica reported on Alito’s luxury Alaska fishing trip—which he failed to report—with a GOP donor who later had cases come up at the high court. The publication has also delved into Thomas receiving several undisclosed vacations and gifts from billionaires like Harland Crow, including private school tuition for his grandnephew. A 2014 real estate deal also saw Crow’s money go into Thomas’ pocket, according to the publication, which won a Pulitzer Prize this year for its court reporting.
Thomas, in a disclosure for 2023 that was released last week, acknowledged that he should have reported two vacations that Crow paid for, and which ProPublica exposed.
Regarding Alito’s comment about ProPublica “look[ing] for any little thing they can find,” Windsor told Rolling Stone that Alito was “thumbing his nose at ethical standards he thinks he should not be subjected to.”
“I don’t think anybody in their right mind would consider a free RV, your nephew’s tuition, or buying your mother’s house a ‘little thing,’” she said. “These are all purchases from a donor—gifts from a donor—that I think any reasonable person would consider to be extraordinary.”
