The Supreme Court official who conducted the inconclusive investigation into who was behind last year’s leak to Politico of Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case that overturned Roe v. Wade, did not ask any of the justices to sign an affidavit, according to a new statement.
Supreme Court Marshal Gail Curley released a 20-page report on Thursday which made no mention of any questioning of the justices during the eight-month-long investigation, which led to questions about the thoroughness of the investigation. The investigation had failed to determine who was behind the Dobbs leak.
“In May 2022, this Court suffered one of the worst breaches of trust in its history: the leak of a draft opinion,” an unsigned statement from the Supreme Court Justices said of the investigation. “The leak was no mere misguided attempt at protest. It was a grave assault on the judicial process.”
“For these reasons and others, the Court immediately and unanimously agreed that the extraordinary betrayal of trust that took place last May warranted a thorough investigation. The Chief Justice assigned the task to the Marshal of the Supreme Court and her staff,” the statement continued. “After months of diligent analysis of forensic evidence and interviews of almost 100 employees, the Marshal’s team determined that no further investigation was warranted with respect to many of the ’82 employees [who] had access to electronic or hard copies of the draft opinion.’”
“In following up on all available leads, however, the Marshal’s team performed additional forensic analysis and conducted multiple follow-up interviews of certain employees,” the statement added. “But the team has to date been unable to identify a person responsible by a preponderance of the evidence.”
On Friday, Marshal Curley released a four sentence statement saying she had discussions with all of the justices during her investigation, but did not conduct formal questioning and that the justices were not investigated to the same level as other employees.
“During the course of the investigation, I spoke with each of the Justices, several on multiple occasions. The Justices actively cooperated in this iterative process, asking questions and answering mine,” Curley said.
“I followed up on all credible leads, none of which implicated the Justices or their spouses. On this basis, I did not believe that it was necessary to ask the Justices to sign sworn affidavits,” Curley added.
