Washington Post Reveals Previously Unpublished Reporting On Alito Flag Controversy

Martha-Ann Alito told a Post reporter in 2021 the flag was "an international signal of distress."

The Washington Post published previously unreported details about a flag associated with former President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” movement that was flown outside Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s home in 2021.

On Saturday, the Post revealed it first spoke with Martha-Ann Alito, the justice’s wife, in January 2021. Alito told the Post the flag — an American flag flown upside down — was “an international signal of distress” that was present as part of a dispute with her neighbors.

That reporting corroborates a statement Justice Alito gave The New York Times, which released an investigation into the flag earlier this month.

“I had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag,” Alito said. “It was briefly placed by Mrs. Alito in response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs.”

According to The Washington Post, reporter Robert Barnes, now retired, first visited the Alitos’ home to report on the flag on Jan. 20, 2021 — President Joe Biden’s inauguration day. The Alitos, who did not attend the inauguration, ran into Barnes while exiting their home, and Martha-Ann Alito shouted that Barnes should “ask them [her neighbors] what they did!”