Closing summary
Hunter Biden, the eldest living son of Joe Biden, was found guilty on Tuesday on all three felony counts he faced relating to buying a handgun while being a user of crack cocaine.
The jury reached its verdict after about three hours of deliberation over two days. It followed a weeklong trial in the Biden family’s home town of Wilmington, Delaware, that featured sometimes excruciating testimony about his addiction habit, from some of his closest relatives. Hunter Biden chose not to take the witness stand in his own defense. Also:
Republicans responded to Hunter Biden’s conviction by doubling down on conspiracy theories that many senior party figures have been using to try and damage his president father.
Joe Biden did not address the conviction in his son’s trial in his first public remarks after the jury reached its verdict as he touted his administration’s efforts to curb gun violence at an Everytown for Gun Safety event in Washington DC.
Samuel Alito, the supreme justice at the center of a flag controversy that has called his impartiality into question, said one side of the US’s bitter left v right ideological conflicts has to prevail, in secretly recorded remarks that are likely to exacerbate concerns about judicial neutrality. His wife, Martha-Ann Alito, was also recorded making critical comments about the gay pride flag.
Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who brought the hush-money case against Donald Trump, agreed to testify before Congress on 12 July, a day after the former president’s sentencing in New York.
JD Vance, the Republican senator for Ohio vying to be Donald Trump’s running mate, inadvertently revealed that as part of his vetting for the role, he was asked questions that might disqualify Trump himself.
Updated
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg to testify to Congress after Trump's sentencing
Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, has agreed to testify before Congress a day after Donald Trump’s sentencing in his hush-money trial.
Bragg, who brought the hush-money case against the former president, will appear on 12 July before the GOP-led House select subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government along with prosecutor Matthew Colangelo, a spokesperson for Bragg’s office said.
“The Manhattan D.A.’s Office is proud to play a crucial role in upholding and enforcing the rule of law for the people of New York,” the spokesperson said.
It undermines the rule of law to spread dangerous misinformation, baseless claims, and conspiracy theories following the jury’s return of a full-count felony conviction in People v. Trump. Nonetheless, we respect our government institutions and plan to appear voluntarily before the subcommittee after sentencing.
The Republican-controlled hearing, which will come a day after Trump’s sentencing hearing in New York, marks the latest effort by Trump’s closest congressional allies to discredit his 34-count conviction by waging war on the justice system.
House judiciary committee chair Jim Jordan has accused both Bragg and Colangelo of conducting a “political prosecution” in the case against the former president.
After emerging on Monday from having his mug shot taken in connection with the fake 2020 electors case pending against him in Arizona, Rudy Giuliani boasted about having no regrets over his actions that led to the criminal charges against him.
“I’m very, very proud of it,” the former Donald Trump attorney and ex-mayor of New York City said as he left the state courthouse where he was processed on Monday.
When a reporter with KPNX asked him if he had any regrets about his role in trying to overturn the former president’s defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 election, Giuliani added: “Oh, my goodness, no.”
The comments from Giuliani came after an Arizona grand jury in May indicted him alongside 16 other Trump allies with attempting to change the outcome of Biden’s electoral victory in the state in 2020.
The grand jury charged Giuliani with pressuring Arizona legislators and the Maricopa county board of supervisors to change the result of the state’s presidential election – and with encouraging Republican electors in Arizona and six other contested states to vote for Trump.
Biden does not mention Hunter's conviction in first appearance since verdict
During his address at an Everytown for Gun Safety event, Joe Biden did not address the guilty verdict in his son Hunter Biden’s trial on charges tied to the possession of a gun while using narcotics.
In his first public remarks after the verdict on Tuesday, the president instead touted his administration’s efforts to curb gun violence.
Biden will now depart for Wilmington, Delaware, where his son and family members are. The White House has also cancelled a press briefing scheduled for this afternoon.
House speaker Mike Johnson says Hunter Biden verdict was 'appropriate'
Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House, said he believes Hunter Biden’s conviction on federal felony gun charges was “appropriate”.
Johnson has been critical of Donald Trump’s conviction in his hush-money trial, describing the case as a “sham” and calling the court system “corrupt”.
Johnson, asked if Hunter Biden’s conviction undercuts the GOP narrative that there is a two-tiered justice system designed to hurt Republicans, replied: “It doesn’t.”
Every case is different. And clearly the evidence was overwhelming here. I don’t think that’s the case in the Trump trials. And all the charges that have been brought against him have been obviously brought for political purposes. Hunter Biden is a separate instance.
Just asked Speaker Mike Johnson if Hunter Biden’s conviction undercuts the GOP narrative that there's a two-tiered justice system designed to hurt Republicans.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 11, 2024
“It doesn’t,” he said. “Every case is different. And clearly the evidence was overwhelming here. I don’t think that’s… pic.twitter.com/oyzCwSC6JL
Joe Biden, addressing the Everytown for Gun Safety event, says the country’s murder rate was the highest increase on record in the year before he came to the presidency.
Last year saw the largest drop in murder rates in history, Biden said, adding that those rates are continuing to fall “faster than ever” last year.
Biden says last year he established the first ever White House office of gun violence overseen by his “incredible” vice president, in order to coordinate a nationwide effort to reduce gun violence.
More children are killed in America by guns than cancer and car accidents combined, Biden says.
Joe Biden has started speaking at the Everytown for Gun Safety event in Washington DC.
As the president began speaking, he was interrupted by a protester who shouted about the “genocide” in Gaza. The crowd drowned out the protester with chants of “four more years”.
The Biden-Harris campaign released a memo ahead of the president’s speech at Everytown for Gun Safety’s event touting the administration’s accomplishments to decrease gun violence.
The campaign’s senior spokesperson, Kevin Munoz, wrote:
Fighting for a safer America — an America that does its part to save more lives from gun violence — is on the ballot this November.
Biden “signed the most significant federal bipartisan gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years,” the memo said, “that went after gun traffickers and expanded federal background checks; has worked to combat deadly, untraceable ghost guns; and closed the background check loophole — and more,” he said.
The memo also blamed Donald Trump’s staunch support for the NRA and opposition to gun legislation for “the largest increase in violence in American history, leading to 20,000 more people dead by gun violence.”
One juror who found Hunter Biden guilty of three federal gun charges said he does not believe the president’s son deserved jail time.
Juror 10 told CNN:
We were not thinking of the sentencing. I really don’t think Hunter belongs in jail.
The unnamed juror said the 12-person jury was split evenly Monday night but came to a guilty verdict Tuesday morning.
He added that inside the deliberation room, politics did not come up:
No politics came into play and politics was not even spoken about.
Updated
Here’s a look at how Republican lawmakers are responding to Hunter Biden’s conviction.
As we reported earlier, House oversight chair James Comer said Tuesday’s verdict is “a step toward accountability” but added that he still wants further investigation into the Biden family’s business dealings.
Elise Stefanik, chair of the House Republican conference and Donald Trump’s potential vice-presidential pick, said the conviction was “first step in delivering accountability for the Biden Crime Family”.
Stefanik’s statement reads:
Remember this was Joe Biden’s corrupt DOJ that tried to negotiate outside immunity unrelated to this case. Today is the first step in delivering accountability for the Biden Crime Family. We must and will continue to investigate the Biden Crime Family for their corrupt influence peddling schemes that generated over $18 million in foreign payments for the Biden Crime Family.
Tennessee congressman Tim Burchett called on Congress to “condemn the intelligence community for lying to voters and covering up the story about Hunter’s laptop to help his father win an election.”
Florida congressman Matt Gaetz described the verdict as “kinda dumb”.
The Hunter Biden gun conviction is kinda dumb tbh.
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) June 11, 2024
Updated
Joe Biden will depart Joint Base Andrews to Wilmington, Delaware, after delivering remarks at the Everytown for Gun Safety event in Washington DC this afternoon, the White House said.
Biden was not originally scheduled to travel to Wilmington today, but his schedule was updated after Hunter Biden’s conviction.
Hunter Biden’s conviction is the best possible evidence that Joe Biden is not “rigging” the criminal justice system as Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed, Washington Post columnist EJ Dionne Jr writes.
Hunter Biden’s conviction is the best possible evidence that the president is not “rigging” the criminal justice system. Will that stop Trump and his apologists from claiming otherwise? Of course not. But everyone else should challenge Trump’s dangerous attacks on the rule of law https://t.co/dh6mHJPvtx
— EJ Dionne (@EJDionne) June 11, 2024
Updated
Hunter Biden conviction shows 'no one is above the law', says special counsel
Special counsel David Weiss, at a news conference just now, said Hunter Biden’s conviction is a reminder that no one is above the law.
“Everyone must be accountable for their actions, even this defendant,” Weiss said. He added:
However, Hunter Biden should be no more accountable than any other citizen convicted of this same conduct. The prosecution has been and will continue to be committed to this principle.
Weiss expressed sympathy with people struggling with addiction but noted that this case was about the “illegal choices” Hunter Biden made “to lie on a government form when he bought a gun, and the choice to then possess that gun.”
“It was these choices and the combination of guns and drugs, that made his conduct dangerous,” Weiss said.
Ultimately this case was not just about addiction, a disease that haunts families across the United States, including Hunter Biden’s family. This case was about the illegal choices the defendant made while in the throes of addiction.
Biden to speak about gun control after son Hunter convicted on firearm charges
Joe Biden is scheduled to deliver remarks at a gun violence prevention conference in Washington DC, just hours after his son, Hunter Biden, was found guilty on all three federal felony charges related to the purchase of a firearm in 2018.
The president is expected to speak at Everytown for Gun Safety’s annual training conference, Gun Sense University, at 1.30pm ET.
We will be following his speech live.
A press conference with special counsel David Weiss and fellow prosecutors on the Hunter Biden federal gun trial is expected to start at 1.00pm ET.
Stay tuned for further updates.
Updated
Abbe Lowell, the attorney for Hunter Biden, said that they are “naturally disappointed” by the verdict and are exploring other legal options given Tuesday’s guilty verdict.
In a statement, Lowell said:
We respect the jury process, and as we have done throughout this case, we will continue to vigorously pursue all the legal challenges available to Hunter…Through all he has been through in his recovery, including this trial, Hunter has felt grateful for and blessed by the love and support of his family.
Updated
Hunter Biden: 'I am more grateful today for the love and support ... than I am disappointed by the outcome'
Hunter Biden has publicly responded to the guilty verdict he received at his federal gun trial, in a new statement.
The 54-year-old thanked his wife, family, and other loved ones for their support, adding that he is more “grateful today for the love and support…than I am disappointed by the outcome”.
Biden added that he is blessed to experience the “gift” of recovery.
Read Biden’s full statement below:
I am more grateful today for the love and support I experienced this last week from Melissa, my family, my friends, and my community than I am disappointed by the outcome. Recovery is possible by the grace of God, and I am blessed to experience that gift one day at a time.”
Updated
House oversight chair James Comer said Hunter Biden’s guilty verdict is a “a step toward accountability,” but added that he still wants further investigation into the Biden family’s business dealings.
In a statement, Comer celebrated the verdict and called on the Department of Justice to investigate the “Bidens’ corrupt influence peddling schemes”.
Hunter Biden’s sweetheart plea deal was smoked out after scrutiny by a federal judge.
Today’s verdict is a step toward accountability but until the Department of Justice investigates everyone involved in the Bidens’ corrupt influence peddling schemes that generated over $18 million in foreign payments to the Biden family, it will be clear department officials continue to cover for the Big Guy, Joe Biden.
Comer, a US representative from Kentucky, has been investigating the Biden family for 18 months and has yet to reveal any evidence of financial misdeeds or other crimes.
In fact, Comer’s investigation into Joe Biden was criticized by the Congressional Integrity Project, a watchdog group, for “[overhyping] allegations of bribery and corruption against Biden without once producing hard evidence,” the Guardian’s David Smith reported.
Updated
The Trump campaign has released a statement responding to Hunter Biden’s conviction, claiming the trial “has been nothing more than a distraction from the real crimes of the Biden Crime Family.”
In a statement obtained by CNN, the campaign continued:
Crooked Joe Biden’s reign over the Biden Family Criminal Empire is all coming to an end on November 5th, and never again will a Biden sell government access for personal profit. As for Hunter, we wish him well in his recovery and legal affairs.
According to the outlet, the Trump campaign then sent an updated statement, striking the well wishes to Hunter.
'I will accept the outcome of this case': Biden says he 'will always be there' for son Hunter
Joe Biden has released a statement after his son, Hunter Biden, was found guilty on three counts related to illegal gun possession.
“As I said last week, I am the President, but I am also a Dad. Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today,” the president said in his statement.
So many families who have had loved ones battle addiction understand the feeling of pride seeing someone you love come out the other side and be so strong and resilient in recovery.
As I also said last week, I will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal. Jill and I will always be there for Hunter and the rest of our family with our love and support. Nothing will ever change that.
Updated
Hunter Biden is “full of love and gratitude” for his family and will continue to be “incredibly strong” after his conviction, a source has told Axios.
A person close to Hunter tells Axios:
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) June 11, 2024
“Hunter continues to be incredibly strong - he was full of love and gratitude for his family and his and team”
Joe Biden has previously indicated that he will not pardon his son, Hunter Biden, if he is convicted at his federal gun trial.
Asked during an interview last Tuesday if he would be prepared to accept whatever outcome arises from Hunter Biden’s trial, Biden replied: “Yes.”
The president has not attended his son’s trial in person, but released a statement last week saying that “I am the President, but I am also a Dad” who has “boundless love for my son, confidence in him, and respect for his strength.”
Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today. Hunter’s resilience in the face of adversity and the strength he has brought to his recovery are inspiring to us. A lot of families have loved ones who have overcome addiction and know what we mean.
Hunter Biden’s conviction on federal gun charges comes just hours before his father, Joe Biden, is scheduled to deliver remarks at a gun violence prevention summit to highlight his administration’s efforts to reduce crime.
The president is expected to speak at 1.30pm ET at a conference hosted by Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund.
No sentencing date set after Hunter Biden gun conviction
Court has adjourned for the day after the jury found Hunter Biden guilty on all three counts.
No sentencing date has been set.
First lady Jill Biden arrived to the courthouse shortly after the jury delivered its verdict.
Updated
Hunter Biden’s daughter, Naomi Biden Neal – testifying in his defence – told the court that her father had seemed sober in the weeks before the purchase of the firearm at the center of the trial.
But the prosecution introduced more text messages that betrayed a strained and fraying relationship between the pair, including one in which Naomi told her father he had driven her to breaking point.
The prosecution called other members of the Biden family, including his former wife Kathleen Buhle, to whom he was married for 24 years, and Hallie Biden, the widow of his brother Beau, as it tried to show that Hunter’s drug use continued during 2018 and 2019.
The testimony painted a portrait of Hunter Biden falling deeper into addiction as he struggled to cope with the death of his brother Beau, who died from brain cancer in 2015.
The jury’s verdict in the Hunter Biden trial, reached after about three hours of deliberation, followed a week-long trial in the Biden family’s hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, that featured sometimes excruciating testimony about his addiction habit, much of it from some of his closest relatives.
It followed a decision by Hunter Biden, the oldest living son of Joe Biden, not to take the witness stand in his own defence.
He was accused of making two false statements when filling a form to buy a Colt revolver in October 2018: first by stating untruthfully that he was not addicted to or using drugs, and then by declaring the statement to be true. A third charge alleged that he then illegally owned the gun possession for 11 days, before his sister-in-law and then lover, Hallie Biden, threw it in a trash bin in panic.
Abbe Lowell, Hunter’s principal lawyer, argued that the prosecution had provided no evidence that he had taken crack cocaine – to which he later admitted in a memoir to having been addicted before going into rehabilitation – in the month that he bought and owned the gun.
The defence lawyer also established that no one had seen Hunter use the drug in that period.
But messages retrieved from Hunter’s mobile phone undermined the argument that he had not been ingesting drugs in the period before and after purchasing the weapon. The day after he bought the gun, he sent a text to Hallie Biden saying he was meeting a known drug dealer called Mookie. Then, a day later, he revealed in another text that he was sleeping on a car and smoking crack.
Hunter Biden could face up to 25 years in prison
Hunter Biden, who has just been convicted on all three counts in his federal gun trial, could face up to 25 years in prison.
However, such a sentence would be highly unusual given that he is a first-time offender.
It is unclear whether the presiding judge, Maryellen Noreika, would give him time behind bars.
Hunter Biden also faces a separate federal trial in California on charges of failing to pay $1.4m in taxes.
Updated
Hunter Biden found guilty on all three felony charges
A federal jury has convicted Hunter Biden on all three felony charges in his federal gun trial.
Hunter Biden is charged with two felony counts of making a false statement related to the purchase of a firearm, and a third felony count of illegally possessing a gun while being an unlawful user of drugs.
Updated
Hunter Biden has re-entered the Wilmington courthouse with his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, after news came that a verdict has been reached in his criminal trial on federal gun charges.
Hunter Biden’s uncle and aunt, James and Valerie Biden, are also at the courthouse.
Jurors resumed deliberations this morning after deliberating for about an hour yesterday after lawyers on both sides delivered closing arguments.
Here are some key takeaways from the trial’s proceedings last week.
Jury reaches verdict in Hunter Biden gun trial
Jurors in Hunter Biden’s federal gun trial in Delaware have reached a verdict after around three hours of deliberations.
Hunter Biden, the only surviving son of Joe Biden, faces three felony charges tied to a 2018 firearm purchase while using narcotics.
He is accused of making false statements on a gun-purchase form when he said he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs, and then unlawfully possessing the gun for 11 days.
Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty.
Updated
The Washington Post op-ed marks the second time this month that the attorney general, Merrick Garland, has publicly pushed back against attacks on the justice department.
Last week, Garland condemned GOP attacks on the DoJ under his watch as “unprecedented and unfounded”, and vowed not to allow them to influence his decision-making.
Garland pushed back hard on the claim that the prosecution of Donald Trump – in the hush-money case last month that resulted in the former president being convicted of 34 felony charges – was “somehow controlled by the justice department”.
Testifying before the House judiciary committee, Garland accused GOP congressmen of engaging in conspiracy theories and peddling false narratives. “I will not be intimidated,” Garland told lawmakers.
The justice department will not be intimidated. We will continue to do our jobs free from political influence. And we will not back down from defending our democracy.
Merrick Garland urges end to 'baseless, personal and dangerous' attacks on DOJ
Attorney general Merrick Garland has warned that rising “baseless, personal and dangerous” attacks on the department of justice have become “dangerous for our democracy”.
Garland, in a Washington Post op-ed published this morning, echoed his fiery defense of the DoJ before the House judiciary committee last week amid recent threats by GOP allies of Donald Trump to defund special counsel Jack Smith, who is prosecuting the former president in the classified documents case and 2020 election subversion case.
“We will not be intimidated by these attacks,” Garland wrote.
Continued unfounded attacks against the Justice Department’s employees are dangerous for people’s safety. They are dangerous for our democracy. This must stop.
He said the DoJ was facing conspiracy theories and threats of violence “like never before”. Garland did not call out Trump by name, but denounced a number of “conspiracy theories” circulated by Republicans about the DoJ being weaponized against the former president. Garland said:
The Justice Department makes decisions about criminal investigations based only on the facts and the law. We do not investigate people because of their last name, their political affiliation, the size of their bank account, where they come from or what they look like. We investigate and prosecute violations of federal law — nothing more, nothing less.
Donald Trump completed his mandatory pre-sentencing interview with a New York City probation officer on Monday after his hush-money trial conviction last month.
The interview, which was required by law, was conducted privately by video conferencing with the former president in his Mar-a-Largo resort in Florida.
It was “uneventful” and lasted less than thirty minutes, a source told multiple outlets. They added:
The President and his team will continue to fight the lawless Manhattan DA Witch Hunt, along with the other Crooked Joe Biden-directed Hoaxes.
The probation interview is used to prepare a report that will include a defendant’s personal history, criminal record and recommendations for sentencing. It is also a chance for a defendant to say why they think they deserve a lighter punishment.
Judge Juan Merchan has scheduled Trump’s sentencing for 11 July. He has discretion to impose a wide range of punishments, ranging from probation and community service to up to four years in prison.
Alito's refusal to address doubts underscores weakness of supreme court ethical guidelines
Justice Samuel Alito’s flat-out refusal to address doubts about his impartiality in the wake of the flags scandal has underlined the weakness of the supreme court’s current ethical guidelines.
The supreme court justice has rejected calls to recuse himself from supreme court cases involving Donald Trump and January 6 defendants, following controversies over an inverted American flag seen at Alito’s home in Alexandria, Virginia, less than two weeks after the attack on the Capitol, and an “Appeal to Heaven” flag seen flying outside his beach home in New Jersey last summer.
Both flags were carried by rioters who violently stormed the Capitol in January 2021 echoing Trump’s false claims of election fraud.
Following a public outcry over undeclared luxury trips and other gifts that had been received by Alito and his fellow hard-right justice Clarence Thomas, the court was forced to adopt its first ethics code last November.
To the dismay of advocates of judicial reform, however, the code contained no enforcement provision. Individual justices are left to their own devices to decide whether or not they should recuse from cases in which there might be an appearance or reality of conflict of interest or impartiality.
Updated
Former Republican New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman, who backed Samuel Alito during his confirmation hearing in 2006, said she “absolutely, without question” regrets supporting the supreme court justice.
Whitman, in an interview with CNN, said she supported Alito at the time because she believed his record showed that he was “able to judge cases based on the facts presented” and “put aside personal convictions”. She added:
Unfortunately, since he’s gone to the supreme court that’s just seemed to have gone by the wayside.
Alito's wife complains about Pride flag in secret recording
In a separate recording, Martha-Ann Alito, the supreme court justice’s wife, said she wanted to fly a Catholic flag at the couple’s home in Virginia in response to a Pride flag in her neighborhood.
“You know what I want?” Alito told the filmmaker Lauren Windsor, who was posing as a religious conservative at a black-tie event, adding:
I want a Sacred Heart of Jesus flag because I have to look across the lagoon at the Pride flag for the next month.
She said she had deferred to her husband and agreed not to fly the flag for now, but said that she had told him that “when you are free of this nonsense,” adding:
I’m putting it up and I’m going to send them a message every day, maybe every week. I’ll be changing the flags.
EXCLUSIVE UNDERCOVER AUDIO:
— Lauren Windsor (@lawindsor) June 10, 2024
Martha-Ann Alito Unfurled
"I want a Sacred Heart of Jesus flag because I have to look across the lagoon at the Pride flag for the next month." pic.twitter.com/okNsW7SPlu
In an interview with Rolling Stone, filmmaker Lauren Windsor said she recorded the conversations with justices Samuel Alito and John Roberts because “the supreme court is shrouded in secrecy, and they’re refusing to submit to any accountability in the face of overwhelming evidence of serious ethics breaches, I think that it’s justified to take these types of measures.”
She went on to say that she wanted to give the public a “window into a body that is increasingly powerful and increasingly willing to overturn precedent, adding:
One of the main drivers for me in this work is showing Americans that we are at a crossroads: Do we embrace the idea of secular democracy and uphold that tradition, or do we start to transition into a Christian theocracy?
The supreme court’s chief justice, John Roberts, was also recorded speaking with filmmaker Lauren Windsor at the same event but was heard pushing back on her suggestion that America is a “Christian nation”. Roberts told her:
I don’t know that we live in a Christian nation. I know a lot of Jewish and Muslim friends who would say: Maybe not. It’s not our job to do that. It’s our job to decide the cases as best we can.
Pressed on whether the court should put the country on a more “moral path”, Roberts replied:
Would you want me to be in charge of putting the nation on a more moral path? That’s for people we elect. That’s not for lawyers.
2/ Chief Justice Roberts denies that America is a Christian nation. pic.twitter.com/hb3iFa5Jnv
— Lauren Windsor (@lawindsor) June 10, 2024
Updated
Justice Samuel Alito, in an audio recording posted to X on Monday, is heard agreeing that the US should return “to a place of godliness.”
The audio was posted by liberal filmmaker Lauren Windsor, who said it was recorded at the Supreme Court Historical Society’s annual dinner last week.
Windsor, posing as a religious conservative, is heard saying to Alito:
I think that the solution really is like winning the moral argument. Like, people in this country who believe in God have got to keep fighting for that, to return our country to a place of godliness.
“I agree with you, I agree with you,” Alito responded.
EXCLUSIVE UNDERCOVER AUDIO:
— Lauren Windsor (@lawindsor) June 10, 2024
Sam Alito x John Roberts x The Undercurrent 🧵
1/ Justice Alito admits lack of impartiality with the Left, says: “One side or the other is going to win.” pic.twitter.com/b5nmxToZ9z
Updated
Secret recording captures Justice Alito agreeing that US should return 'to a place of godliness'
Good morning US politics readers. Supreme court justice Samuel Alito is in facing fresh scrutiny after newly released audio recordings captured him agreeing that America should return “to a place of godliness”, just weeks after he came under fire for controversial flags that flew above his homes.
In audio posted on social media by liberal filmmaker Lauren Windsor, Alito is heard questioning whether compromise between the left and right is possible. “One side or the other is going to win,” Alito said.
There can be a way of working, a way of living together peacefully, but it’s difficult, you know, because there are differences on fundamental things that really can’t be compromised.
The recording comes after reports that an upside-down American flag was displayed at the home of Alito and his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, in Virginia just weeks after the January 6 Capitol riot. The inverted flag is a symbol that has become associated with Donald Trump’s false claims that Joe Biden stole the election. Another provocative flag, the “Appeal to Heaven” flag which has in recent years become a symbol of far-right Christian extremism, was flown outside the Alito’s’ New Jersey summer home, according to reports.
Alito has rejected calls to step aside from supreme court cases involving Trump and January 6 defendants, claiming that neither incident merits his recusal. The court is considering two major cases related to the 6 January 2021 attack by a mob of Trump supporters on the Capitol, including charges faced by the rioters and whether the former president has immunity from prosecution on election interference charges.
Here’s what else we’re watching today:
1.30pm ET. Joe Biden will speak about gun safety at Everytown’s Gun Sense University.
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, met this morning in Israel with Benny Gantz, chair of the National Unity party. Blinken will participate in an event in Sweimeh, Jordan, during an international conference to call for urgent humanitarian aid for Gaza. In the evening, Blinken will meet with Jordan’s King Abdullah.
Jury deliberations began in Hunter Biden’s federal gun trial on Monday. Deliberations are not expected to last long.
