Activist defends tactics in getting Alito recordings

A liberal activist who posed as a conservative to obtain recordings of conservative Supreme Court justices at a recent gala is defending the methods she used to secretly record them.

“They’re audio recordings; there’s nothing illegal in D.C. about recording people so long as one person is a party to those people. It’s called one-party consent,” Lauren Windsor said during an appearance on CNN on Tuesday.

“To people who want to pearl-clutch about this, please tell me how we’re going to get answers when the Supreme Court has been shrouded in secrecy and really refusing any degree of accountability whatsoever.”

Windsor on Monday released recordings she took of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito speaking about the politics of the court and political polarization in America. She also recorded Alito’s wife, Martha-Ann Alito, vowing revenge on the people who have raised controversy surrounding her and her husband.

On one recording, Justice Alito is heard saying of the left and right, “one side or the other is going to win.”

Windsor obtained the recordings by attending the Supreme Court Historical Society’s gala June 3 as a member of the society under her real name. But she posed as a conservative to elicit comments from the justices, who did not know she was recording them.

The activist said such a tactic was necessary “particularly in the face of extraordinarily serious ethics breaches, mainly and most famously on the part of Clarence Thomas.”

Windsor said covertly recording the justices “was the only way to do it.”

“I understand there’s a certain level of decorum around the Supreme Court,” she added. “But this country right now is at a crossroads. … Are we going to continue secular democracy, or are we going to be led to Christian theocracy by this Supreme Court?”