Political Irony

During Donald Trump’s trial, he tried to get Judge Juan Merchan recused not once, but twice. Trump’s argument was based on the fact that Merchan’s adult daughter works for a consulting firm that has Democratic clients. This is especially bizarre because last year (before the trial even started), a judicial ethics commission decided that Merchan’s daughter’s work did not require recusal of the judge.

Now, recall that we have two Supreme Court justices who have refused to recuse themselves from cases related to Trump’s attempts to steal the 2020 presidential election. The first one is Clarence Thomas, whose wife Virginia is “a longtime conservative activist and Trump booster“, who actually helped lead the “Stop the Steal” campaign, and even attended the January 6, 2021 rally near the White House (but, like Trump himself, did not march on the Capitol).

The second one is Samuel Alito, whose wife twice flew flags at their home that were commonly used by the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol.

UPDATE: According to The Hill, a former law clerk for Samuel Alito has called for him to recuse himself from cases relating to Donald Trump, saying: “Irrespective of why it is there, who put it there — it shouldn’t have been there. The problem is that flag is incendiary, and it cannot do anything other than raise a reasonable inference of bias”.