'Scurrilous attacks': DeSantis amps up defense of Justices Alito and Thomas amid scrutiny over donor gifts

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday sharpened his defense of Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, criticizing the revelations of previously undisclosed trips and gifts the justices received from wealthy conservative donors.

Speaking at the Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference in Washington, DeSantis said he would “nominate and appoint justices to the Supreme Court in the mold of Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito.”

DeSantis, a 2024 GOP presidential hopeful, also said the conservative justices were being subjected to “scurrilous attacks” in the media, and accused liberal-leaning groups of a broader effort to fill the Supreme Court with like-minded justices.

The comments come just days after ProPublica published a report revealing that Alito took an expensive and previously unreported trip in 2008 with a conservative donor, Paul Singer, to an Alaskan fishing lodge. Singer’s business interests would later appear before the Supreme Court and win with Alito’s support. ProPublica also reported earlier this year that Thomas took several undisclosed trips with billionaire GOP donor Harlan Crow, who also paid for private school for the justice’s nephew.

For their part, both justices have denied wrongdoing. "ProPublica has leveled two charges against me: first, that I should have recused in matters in which an entity connected with Paul Singer was a party and, second, that I was obligated to list certain items as gifts on my 2008 Financial Disclose Report. Neither charge is valid," Alito wrote in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal published Tuesday night. Alito also swatted away concerns over the plane ride, writing that Singer “allowed me to occupy what would have otherwise been an unoccupied seat.”

“Early in my tenure at the Court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable,” Thomas said in a statement back in April. “I have endeavored to follow that counsel throughout my tenure, and have always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines.”

DeSantis, in his Friday speech, said left-leaning individuals are fearful of the conservative majority on the court. “If they’re able to sweep in [2024], they’re going to pack the U.S. Supreme Court with liberal justices," he said.

“They’re hard at this effort of trying to lay the groundwork for that by delegitimizing, delegitimizing our great conservative justices. I stand with Justice Thomas. I stand with Justice Alito in the face of these attacks,” DeSantis continued.

DeSantis recently criticized former President Donald Trump’s nominees to the Supreme Court, Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, saying that while he had "respect" for the three jurists, he would “do better than that.”