The justice spoke to President-elect Donald Trump on the phone hours before Trump asked the Supreme Court to stop his sentencing.

Some experts and Democratic lawmakers say a phone call between the president-elect and Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. was ethically problematic.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said he spoke with President-elect Donald Trump by phone this week in support of a former law clerk who is seeking a job in the incoming administration – but the justice said he did not discuss Trump’s pending effort to delay his sentencing.