Alito, one of six conservative justices on the nine-member Supreme Court, confirmed he took a call from Trump on Tuesday, one day before Trump's lawyers filed a petition asking the court to halt his New York sentencing scheduled for Friday.

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.

The justice said that the call was a job reference for one of his former clerks and that the request to stay the president-elect’s sentencing did not come up.