Alito did not disclose Alaska private jet trip from GOP billionaire with business before Supreme Court
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito in 2008 flew on the private jet of hedge fund billionaire and Republican megadonor Paul Singer to a luxury $1,000-a-night lodge in Alaska owned by a second GOP donor who did not charge him for his stay, ProPublica reported late Tuesday night.
Alito did not report his flight on Singer's private jet on his financial disclosure forms, ProPublica said, adding that the flight would have cost Alito more than $100,000 one-way if he had chartered the plane himself. He also did not recuse himself when the Singer fund NML Capital finally got a hearing before the Supreme Court in 2012; Alito joined the 7-1 majority for the fund and against Argentina. The owner of the Alaska lodge at the time, Robin Arkley II, "does not appear to have been involved in any cases before the court," ProPublica noted.
Alito did not respond to ProPublica directly after its reporters sent him questions about his Alaska vacation on Friday, but he did offer a rebuttal in the form of a Wall Street Journal op-ed published about five hours before ProPublica's story went live.
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In his unusual op-ed, Alito argued he was not required to report the trip under an interpretation of the "personal hospitality" exception to federal ethics rules common among the justices at the time. He used a dictionary and other texts to claim that "both in ordinary and legal usage," the law's use of "facilities" actually "encompasses means of transportation." Alito also said he barely knows Singer, "had no good reason to be aware" he was connected to NML Capital, and only occupied a seat on Singer's plane "that, as far as I am aware, would have otherwise been vacant."
ProPublica uncovered similar free private jet travel and hospitality, plus financial entanglements, from GOP megadonors to Justice Clarence Thomas, highlighting the lack of binding ethics and recusal rules for Supreme Court justices. Justin Elliot, the lead ProPublica reporter on both stories, said the Supreme Court told his team earlier Tuesday that Alito would have no comment. "It was surprising to see the op-ed publish several hours after that," he told The Washington Post early Wednesday, "but we're happy to get substantive engagement with our questions in any forum."
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