CNN
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A flag that was on show throughout the January 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol was flown outdoors Supreme Court docket Justice Samuel Alito’s trip dwelling in New Jersey, in keeping with a report within the New York Times on Wednesday.
Citing pictures and interviews with neighbors, the Occasions stories that the “Attraction to Heaven” flag was seen on show at his property final summer season. The flag, which has a historical past relationship to the Revolutionary Conflict, has additionally turn into a logo for supporters of former President Donald Trump. The flag is white and features a inexperienced evergreen tree and the phrases “An Attraction to Heaven” on the high.
Alito and the Supreme Court docket didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
It’s the second revelation in as many weeks a couple of controversial show outdoors Alito’s property. The New York Occasions final week printed {a photograph} of an inverted American flag raised at Alito’s dwelling in Virginia in 2021. Alito stated the upside-down US flag was raised by his spouse and was a response to a spat with neighbors.
The episode has drawn hearth from critics, together with Democrats and key GOP senators, who’ve referred to as on the justice to recuse himself from instances involving Trump and the 2021 assault on the Capitol.
Just like the inverted US flag, the Attraction to Heaven flag – also called the Pine Tree flag – was seen throughout the assault on the Capitol.
Home Speaker Mike Johnson confronted blowback for displaying the identical flag outdoors his workplace final yr earlier than assuming the management submit. The Attraction to Heaven flag stays outdoors his workplace as of Wednesday.
Johnson instructed CNN on Wednesday that “it’s George Washington’s flag. It goes again to the founder’s period. I’ve at all times flown that flag.”
“It has nothing to do with that,” Johnson stated, referring to “cease the steal” protests.
The Alitos’ alternative of flags are gaining consideration partially as a result of a number of high-profile instances are at the moment pending earlier than the excessive court docket involving the election and subsequent assault on the US Capitol, together with the blockbuster query of whether or not Trump might declare immunity from federal election subversion costs.
One other case offers with a January 6 defendant who’s difficult an obstruction cost filed by federal prosecutors for his function within the assault.
This story has been up to date with further developments.