Justice Department Elevates Supreme Court Leak To Criminal Investigation: Report

The Justice Department is reportedly expanding an investigation into a criminal case as it seeks to find the person who leaked a draft version of the landmark Supreme Court’s 2022 decision that overturned legalized abortion at the federal level.The investigation sets up possible constitutional issues with the executive branch probing the inner workings of the judicial branch, a seeming violation of the separation of powers.In May 2022, Politico published a leaked draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, authored by Associate Justice Samuel Alito, which indicated that the court had decided to overturn Roe v. Wade. The leaker has never been publicly identified. The Supreme Court called the leak “one of the worst breaches of trust in its history.”The Supreme Court launched an internal probe, in which it interviewed 97 staffers and clerks. The justices were never formally interviewed.Now, the United States attorney for the District of Columbia, Judge Jeanine Pirro, is overseeing a new investigation, the New York Times reported on Thursday. Prosecutors have sent grand jury subpoenas for testimony and are trying to get information from people who worked at the Supreme Court when the leak took place.It was unclear what law might have been broken with the leak since it might be hard to tie the disclosure to national security, which can carry criminal penalties.The Justice Department would not confirm the investigation to The New York Sun. “The Department does not comment on the existence of ongoing investigations or lack thereof,” the department wrote in an emailed response.The probe could create issues if the Justice Department seeks sensitive records from the court. The Supreme Court has attempted to keep its inner workings secret. Cooperating with the probe could open investigators to access to files showing justices’ private deliberations or records tied to Trump administration cases that are before the court.Chief Justice John Roberts ordered an internal investigation into the leak the day Politico published the leaked information. The marshal of the court and her staff conducted the probe but it wound down months later without resolution. The marshal’s final report found that work-from-home arrangements during the coronavirus pandemic made it easier to remove sensitive information from the court. The report also found little evidence of an outside breach of its computer networks, pointing to the likelihood of an internal leaker.Justice Alito told the Wall Street Journal a few months after the internal probe ended that the marshal did a good job and agreed that there wasn’t enough evidence to publicly name a potential leaker. “I personally have a pretty good idea who is responsible, but that’s different from the level of proof that is needed to name somebody,” Justice Alito said.Justice Alito called the incident a concerted attack on the justices and said that he believed the Dobbs draft was leaked in an effort to get the decision changed before the court delivered it a month later.In a June congressional hearing to request more money for the high court’s security, Associate Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Elena Kagan said threats on the justices have increased. “When personal threats increased following the Dobbs leak, we expanded our residential security and threat assessment activities,” Justice Kagan told senators.“I didn’t expect that performing this service was going to put me in the position of explaining to my children what a bulletproof vest was and why I had to wear one,” Justice Barrett said.President Trump has long sought to find the leaker. In May 2025, the deputy director of the FBI at the time, Dan Bongino, said he had received a requested briefing on the case and that the agency was “making progress” in the investigation.If prosecutors do eventually bring charges in the case they would have to convince a Washington, D.C. grand jury to indict a target of the investigation. The Justice Department has struggled to secure indictments in the district during Mr. Trump’s second term.

Justice Department Elevates Supreme Court Leak To Criminal Investigation: Report

Justice Department Elevates Supreme Court Leak To Criminal Investigation: Report

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