Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said he spoke with President-elect Donald Trump on the phone about an ex-law clerk a day before Trump asked the Supreme Court to delay sentencing in his New York hush money case.
Alito confirmed the news to ABC News on Wednesday. “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,” said the justice. “I agreed to discuss this matter with President-elect Trump, and he called me yesterday afternoon.”
He claimed that the pair did not discuss Trump’s attempts to block his sentencing, and said he took the Tuesday call at the request of his former law clerk, William Levi, to recommend him for a job in the upcoming administration.
“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 asserted. “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.”
According to ABC, the call took place before Trump’s attorneys filed an emergency application on Wednesday with the Supreme Court asking the justices to stop a New York judge from moving forward with sentencing Trump on Friday, 10 days before his presidential inauguration.
In May, Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records stemming from a payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about an alleged affair before the 2016 election. Trump and his team have denied any wrongdoing. His lawyers previously argued that the sentencing should be pushed back as he appeals the conviction to “prevent grave injustice and harm to the institution of the Presidency and the operations of the federal government.”
Although the Supreme Court granted Trump immunity in July from prosecution for “official” acts committed while president, Judge Merchan later ruled that the prosecution’s evidence in his Manhattan case related “entirely to unofficial conduct.”
While Trump faces up to four years in prison for his conviction, Merchan has signaled that he intends to sentence the president-elect to an “unconditional discharge,” which would allow Trump to avoid prison, fines, or probation.
