In an amazingly bizarre op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, justice Samuel Alito accuses Pulitzer Prize-winning ProPublica of misleading its readers about justice Alito accepting gifts from wealthy individuals with business before the court. The ProPublica article is yet to publish but evidently Alito was alerted to it and decided to run to the Journal to preempt the article with his own op-ed.

In short, Alito admits in the op-ed that he has accepted gifts including free rides on private jets but, wait, it's okay because, well, for one thing, justices usually pay "little personal attention" to the "vast majority" of cases that parties ask them to hear anyway.

And, oh yeah, that seat in the private jet otherwise would have been empty anyway.

Wait wut?

Alito writes:

"And as I will discuss, he allowed me to occupy what would have been an unoccupied seat on a private flight to Alaska."

As others have commented:

"I LOVE the notion that the seat on the private jet would have been empty so it doesn't count. That's how you know you're dealing with a straight-shooter with good judgment."

And:

"Just gotta love a Justice arguing that he had to take the bribe otherwise the money would have gone to waste. Welcome to lawlessness."

And republicans are crying about Hunter Biden.

wsj.com - Propublica misleads its readers alito gifts disclosure alaska singer