Newly released audio recordings have revealed Justice Samuel Alito speaking candidly about the limitations of the Supreme Court's investigation into the leak of his draft majority opinion in the 2022 case that ended federal constitutional protections for abortion.
And in a separate recording, Alito's wife is heard addressing a recent controversy over flag displays at their homes in Virginia and New Jersey.
Martha-Ann was recorded during a private conversation at the Supreme Court Historical Society's annual dinner on June 3, expressing her plan to take revenge on those who criticized the couple for flying politically charged flags.
The recordings were posted on X by liberal activist and documentary filmmaker Lauren Windsor who posed as a conservative opposed to abortion rights and supportive of the Alitos during the exchanges.
"It's hard," Alito told Windsor during an exchange at the 2023 Supreme Court Historical Society event.
"You know, you can't name somebody unless you know for sure, and we don't have the power to do the things that would be necessary to try to figure out, nail down exactly [who did it]. And even then we might not be able to do it. We don't have the power to subpoena people to testify, to subpoena records, phone records or other things like that. We don't have that authority."
Rolling Stone first reported on the recordings.
In the second recording, Martha-Ann was heard saying she wants to get back at people who raised the flag controversy.
"You come after me, I'm gonna give it back to you," Martha-Ann Alito said in the recording of a private conversation at the Supreme Court Historical Society's annual dinner on June 3.
"There will be a way, it doesn't have to be now, but there will be a way they know," she added. "Don't worry about it."
Meanwhile, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a key member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has called on Justice Alito to clarify details regarding an interview he gave to The Wall Street Journal about Supreme Court ethics.
It follows Alito's decision not to recuse himself from cases related to the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot and the 2020 election.
In a letter, Whitehouse criticized Alito's remarks in the July interview, where the justice claimed there is "no provision in the Constitution" granting Congress authority to regulate the court.
Whitehouse deemed the interview "improper," especially as it was published over a month after ProPublica disclosed Alito's vacation with a prominent GOP donor in Alaska.
