Justice Samuel Alito confirmed he spoke Tuesday with President-elect Donald Trump but insisted the conversation revolved around his former law clerk seeking a job in the incoming Trump administration and did not include mention of any litigation pending at the Supreme Court.

The phone conversation, first reported by ABC News, came one day before Trump’s lawyers filed an emergency application asking the justices to halt his sentencing set for Friday on his conviction in the hush money criminal case in New York.

The unusual exchange also came in the same week the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments over the constitutionality of legislation to force the sale or shutdown of the social media platform TikTok. Trump filed a brief in that case asking the justices to put the law on hold while he tries to make a deal that would avoid shuttering the platform.

“William Levi, 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. I agreed to discuss this matter with President-elect Trump, and he called me yesterday afternoon,” Alito said in a statement released by a court spokesperson Wednesday.

“We did not discuss the emergency application he filed today, and indeed, I was not even aware at the time of our conversation that such an application would be filed,” said Alito, an appointee of President George W. Bush. “We also did not discuss any other matter that is pending or might in the future come before the Supreme Court or any past Supreme Court decisions involving the President-elect.”

Levi is a former chief counsel to Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who is highly respected in conservative legal circles and has been mentioned as a potential pick for a senior Justice Department post or another prominent legal job in the incoming administration.

However, Levi served as a counselor to William Barr staff during his tenure as Trump’s attorney general from 2022 to 2024 and as Barr’s chief of staff for his last ten months in that job. Barr’s relationship with Trump deteriorated due in part to Barr’s refusal to endorse Trump’s unfounded claims of fraud in the 2020 election.

Levi and a spokesperson for the Trump transition did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday night.

Senate Energy and Natural Resources ranking member Martin Heinrich is warning Chair Mike Lee to wait to schedule a confirmation hearing for Chris Wright, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Energy secretary, until he receives all relevant paperwork.

Heinrich, a New Mexico Democrat, sent a letter to Lee on Wednesday that urged the Utah Republican to follow the committee’s “longstanding precedence and take seriously your constitutional responsibilities” by sharing final FBI background checks, financial disclosures and an ethics agreement before issuing a notice for a hearing for Wright, the CEO of fracking services company Liberty Energy.

Blue Light News previously reported Republicans are planning to hold a hearing for Wright on Jan. 15.

“The American people deserve transparency on the individuals nominated to serve them in the incoming administration,” Heinrich said in a letter to Lee shared exclusively with Blue Light News. “As members of the U.S. Senate, you and I have a solemn obligation to fulfill our constitutional duties to advise and consent to these nominees. That cannot happen without the information necessary to properly consider these nominees.”

Heinrich’s protests come after Lee has moved to schedule a Jan. 14 hearing for Interior secretary nominee North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum over the objections of panel Democrats. Heinich said Wednesday that he had not yet received Burgum’s paperwork either.

In a statement earlier Wednesday, Lee said Burgum submitted his paperwork to the Office of Government Ethics last week and accused Heinrich of seeking to delay the North Dakota governor’s hearing.

“I have made every effort to work with our Democratic colleagues, but we won’t give in to delays that undermine the American people’s mandate,” Lee said. “It’s time to move forward and focus on solutions that will unleash America’s full energy potential, and I hope Democrats will work with us to deliver results for the American people.”

Lee told reporters he expects to receive Burgum’s paperwork back from the ethics office before the hearing. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the status of Wright’s paperwork.

President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday that the wildfires ripping through the Los Angeles region were “a true tragedy” and blamed the disaster in part on the state’s Democratic governor.

Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill after meeting with Republican lawmakers, Trump criticized Gov. Gavin Newsom for the scarcity of water that has made it harder to fight fires that have killed at least five people. He didn’t explain what the governor could have done about the dry, windy conditions.

“This is a true tragedy and it’s a mistake of the governor, and you could say the administration,” Trump said.“The governor has not done a good job,” Trump said. “With that being said, I got along well with him when he was governor, we worked together very well. And we would work together — I guess it looks like we’re going to be the one having to rebuild it.”

Trump, who spoke for about seven minutes, said that on the first day of his administration he would close the border. “It’s going to be closed very strongly,” he said, adding that he would “take people out who were criminals.”

Trump also said that prior to his visit to the Capitol he met with members of President Jimmy Carter’s family at Blair House. Asked about potentially acquiring Greenland via military action, Trump said he was pleased with the reception his son and other representatives received during a visit there on Tuesday. “It was like a lovefest,” Trump said.