Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo has a good write-up about Supreme Court Justice Alito's "prebuttal" in the WSJ about the article in Pro Publica regarding his taking trips with another billionaire associated with the Federalist Society. The whole thing is very good; I recommend you subscribe to TPM.
Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo has a good write-up about Supreme Court Justice Alito's "prebuttal" in the WSJ about the article in Pro Publica regarding his taking trips with another billionaire associated with the Federalist Society. The whole thing is very good; I recommend you subscribe to TPM.
Alito in the WSJ has this to say about why getting a free flight to the Alaska adventure was OK:
"As for the flight, Mr. Singer and others had already made arrangements to fly to Alaska when I was invited shortly before the event, and I was asked whether I would like to fly there in a seat that, as far as I am aware, would have otherwise been vacant. It was my understanding that this would not impose any extra cost on Mr. Singer. Had I taken commercial flights, that would have imposed a substantial cost and inconvenience on the deputy U.S. Marshals who would have been required for security reasons to assist me."
Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo then adds:
"Alito seems to suggest that he was flying to Alaska and it turned out Singer happened to be flying to Alaska too. And he happened to have a spare seat on his private jet. So what sense would there be in having the seat go to waste? In the spirit of the Alaskan wilderness, taking the seat was sort of a resource-conservation effort in which Alito was lending a hand.
But of course Singer didn’t just happen to going to Alaska. He was going to Alaska specifically to spend quality time with Sam Alito. The whole thing had been arranged by The Federalist Society’s Leonard Leo, who asked Singer if he and Alito could fly up with him on his private jet."
Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo has a good write-up about Supreme Court Justice Alito's "prebuttal" in the WSJ about the article in Pro Publica regarding his taking trips with another billionaire associated with the Federalist Society. The whole thing is very good; I recommend you subscribe to TPM.
Alito in the WSJ has this to say about why getting a free flight to the Alaska adventure was OK:
"As for the flight, Mr. Singer and others had already made arrangements to fly to Alaska when I was invited shortly before the event, and I was asked whether I would like to fly there in a seat that, as far as I am aware, would have otherwise been vacant. It was my understanding that this would not impose any extra cost on Mr. Singer. Had I taken commercial flights, that would have imposed a substantial cost and inconvenience on the deputy U.S. Marshals who would have been required for security reasons to assist me."
Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo then adds:
"Alito seems to suggest that he was flying to Alaska and it turned out Singer happened to be flying to Alaska too. And he happened to have a spare seat on his private jet. So what sense would there be in having the seat go to waste? In the spirit of the Alaskan wilderness, taking the seat was sort of a resource-conservation effort in which Alito was lending a hand.
But of course Singer didn’t just happen to going to Alaska. He was going to Alaska specifically to spend quality time with Sam Alito. The whole thing had been arranged by The Federalist Society’s Leonard Leo, who asked Singer if he and Alito could fly up with him on his private jet."