Justice Samuel Alito confirmed he spoke Tuesday with President-elect Donald Trump but insisted the conversation revolved around his former law clerk seeking a job in the incoming Trump administration and did not include mention of any litigation pending at the Supreme Court.
The phone conversation, first reported by ABC News, came one day before Trump’s lawyers filed an emergency application asking the justices to halt his sentencing set for Friday on his conviction in the hush money criminal case in New York.
The unusual exchange also came in the same week the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments over the constitutionality of legislation to force the sale or shutdown of the social media platform TikTok. Trump filed a brief in that case asking the justices to put the law on hold while he tries to make a deal that would avoid shuttering the platform.
“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. I agreed to discuss this matter with President-elect Trump, and he called me yesterday afternoon,” Alito said in a statement released by a court spokesperson Wednesday.
“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,” said Alito, an appointee of President George W. Bush. “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.”
Levi, a former chief counsel to Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), is highly respected in conservative legal circles and has been mentioned as a potential pick for a senior Justice Department post or another prominent legal job in the incoming administration.
However, Levi served as a counselor to William Barr staff during his tenure as Trump’s attorney general from 2022 to 2024 and as Barr’s chief of staff for his last ten months in that job. Barr’s relationship with Trump deteriorated due in part to Barr’s refusal to endorse Trump’s unfounded claims of fraud in the 2020 election.
Levi and a spokesperson for the Trump transition did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday night.
