Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s son quietly landed a top job in the Trump administration as his father ruled on huge cases involving the president.
Philip Alito, 39, got the political appointee job as a lawyer in the Treasury Department in the early days of Trump’s second term, NOTUS reported. The “sheepish” Alito was acutely aware of the nepotism and laid low once he got through the door, according to sources.
The office provides legal and policy advice to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. NOTUS spoke to a handful of sources who confirmed the move, and also obtained a functional Treasury email address for the younger Alito.
The arrangement was secretive. Philip Alito maintains no public resume, has no LinkedIn profile, and is not listed anywhere on the Treasury Department’s website.
His three professional bar listings are either outdated or list incorrect employers. Inside the building, he kept a deliberately low profile.
“Everybody knew who he was,” one former official with direct knowledge told NOTUS. “He kept a pretty low profile. I kind of had the impression that he was kind of a little bit sheepish about his celebrity affiliation. You’d go into a meeting, and if people were introducing themselves by first and last name, he’d just say ‘Phil,’ not Phil Alito. He’s a pretty soft-spoken guy.”
A second source was less charitable about how he got the job. “There’s no doubt he got that position because of who he is,” they said. As an attorney-adviser, Philip Alito “would get briefed on all kinds of important Treasury matters and offer legal feedback” and was “in all the meetings, so they knew all the issues across the board,” the source added.
There are fears of a conflict of interest among some inside the building. While Philip Alito was working at the Treasury Department, a lawsuit challenging Trump’s use of emergency powers to issue tariffs was argued before the Supreme Court in November. The Treasury Department was named in the suit. The department never disclosed Philip Alito’s employment in court documents. Justice Alito did not recuse himself and joined a dissent written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh after the majority ruled in February that Trump lacked the authority to issue sweeping tariffs.
And further conflicts loom. Federal legal challenges are already mounting against Trump’s so-called “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” which directs the Treasury Department to provide $1.776 billion in public funds to reward people who claim they were unfairly targeted by the Justice Department.
The administration is expected to use a portion of those funds to compensate the January 6 insurrectionists Trump pardoned on his first day back in office. Philip Alito has been placed in the office responsible for making legal decisions for the very agency administering that fund.
On Wednesday, 35 former federal judges made an independent attempt to reopen Trump’s original lawsuit against the IRS in an effort to block the settlement that created the fund.
Philip Alito’s last known court appearance as a prosecutor was at a sentencing hearing on April 1, 2025, for a man convicted of cocaine dealing who received a 13-year prison sentence. According to two sources, he arrived at the Treasury Department shortly afterward.
The Treasury Department and the White House have been contacted for comment.
