All 9 Supreme Court docket justices had been interviewed as a part of a probe into final 12 months’s leak of the draft opinion overturning federal abortion protections, however none had been implicated, court docket marshal Gail Curley stated on Friday.
Curley has led the court docket’s investigation since Politico printed the draft Dobbs v. Jackson Girls’s Well being Group majority opinion in Could, however she indicated on Thursday that investigators have not found the leaker.
“Through the course of the investigation, I spoke with every of the Justices, a number of on a number of events,” Curley stated in Friday’s assertion. “The Justices actively cooperated on this iterative course of, asking questions and answering mine. I adopted up on all credible leads, none of which implicated the Justices or their spouses. On this foundation, I didn’t imagine that it was essential to ask the Justices to signal sworn affidavits.”
Curley’s public report on Thursday detailed extensive efforts to identify the leak’s source, together with interviews with 97 individuals described as court docket “personnel” or “workers.”
That raised eyebrows as as to whether the record included the justices, with rumors circulating that they or their spouses might have leaked the draft opinion.
Curley famous that her group has not substantiated any of the allegations on social media.
Progressives, together with advocacy group Demand Justice, within the wake of the extraordinary leak emphasised how Justice Clarence Thomas’s spouse, Ginni Thomas, labored to overturn the 2020 presidential election in speculating a possible supply of the leak.
Scrutiny of Justice Samuel Alito, who authored the Dobbs majority opinion, has additionally grown after The New York Instances reported in November that an anti-abortion activist alleged he and his spouse had disclosed the then-pending determination in a separate landmark case at a 2014 dinner.
Alito has publicly denied the declare, and The Hill has not independently verified the allegation.
Each Thomas and Alito have beforehand condemned the leak.
“In Could 2022, this Court docket suffered one of many worst breaches of belief in its historical past: the leak of a draft opinion. The leak was no mere misguided try at protest. It was a grave assault on the judicial course of,” the court docket stated in unsigned assertion on Thursday accompanying Curley’s report.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
