‘The story smells’: former prosecutor questions Alito’s claim about Alaska flight with GOP billionaire
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito pre-emptively took to the Wall Street Journal op-ed page to angrily denounce a ProPublica article revealing billionaire GOP megadonor Paul Singer flew him to Alaska for a luxury fishing trip. Among his defenses of his behavior was that there happened to be an "empty seat" on the luxury plane and he saved taxpayers money by taking it.
But that really doesn't add up as an excuse, pointed out former federal prosecutor Harry Litman on Twitter, for one simple reason: why would taxpayers have paid for Alito to take a vacation in Alaska in the first place?
"Alito says he took seat on Singer’s private plane to save the taxpayers money," wrote Litman. "That assumes that the public would have paid for the commercial flight for his vacation. I know that at least some justices pay for their own personal travel. Much about the story smells like… you know…"...