A conservative lawyer who claimed Justice Samuel Alito fled to an undisclosed location now says he cannot verify whether the Supreme Court member is actually in hiding, saying, “It was a rumor, and I never claimed it was anything other than a rumor.”

“Last week, I had heard from somewhere — I can’t remember where — that Alito had been taken to a secure location for his and his family’s protection,” author and attorney Ilya Shapiro told the Washington Examiner on Monday after he said on a Fox News program Saturday that he “heard that Justice Alito has been taken to an undisclosed location with his family.”