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Jan. 9 (UPI) -- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito confirmed on that he talked with President-elect Donald Trump just days before possibly ruling on his immunity claims connected with his New York hush money sentencing case. Alito said in a statement Wednesday that he and Trump discussed one of the justice's former law clerks in relation to a job and not any of Trump's legal woes coming to the court.
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"William Levy, one of my former law clerks, asked me to take a call from President-elect Trump regarding his qualifications to serve in a government position," Alito said. "I agreed to discuss this matter with President-elect Trump, and he called me yesterday afternoon.
"We did not discuss the emergency application he filed today, and indeed, I was not even aware at the time of the conversation that such an application would be filed."
Trump had filed an emergency application request with the court asking the justices to halt the hush money sentencing from moving forward on Friday until his appeals suggesting he has presidential immunity are resolved.
Trump is considering Levi to serve as general counsel of the Department of Defense and other legal positions, according to ABC News. He had served as Alito's law clerk in 2011-12 and chief of staff for Attorney General William Barr.
In May, Alito told lawmakers that he would not recuse himself from cases connected with Trump over two controversial flags flown on his property which are often associated with far-right supporters of Trump.
Trump is set to be sentenced by a New York judge on Friday after being convicted in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The president-elected has employed numerous legal moves to keep the sentencing from happening and getting the case thrown out.
The emergency appeal went to Justice Sona Sotomayor, who is assigned to emergency matters coming out of New York. She has the option of acting on her own or referring it to the entire court for a vote.
