BREAKING: Supreme Court Releases Final Report From Investigation Into Who Leaked Dobbs Draft

The U.S. Supreme Court released a statement Thursday afternoon announcing that investigators could not determine who was behind the leak of Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Last year.

“In May 2022, this Court suffered one of the worst breaches of trust in its history: the leak of a draft opinion,” Unsigned statement from the Supreme Court Justices. “The leak was no mere misguided attempt at protest. It was a grave assault on the judicial process.”

“The Chief Justice assigned the task to the Marshal of the Supreme Court and her staff,” The statement was reiterated. “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 was reiterated. “But the team has to date been unable to identify a person responsible by a preponderance of the evidence.”

The Marshal’s report states that investigators continue to analyze some electronic data that has been collected and that there are still some outstanding inquiries at this time.

“To the extent that additional investigation yields new evidence or leads, the investigators will pursue them,” According to the report. “If a Court employee disclosed the draft opinion, that person brazenly violated a system that was built fundamentally on trust with limited safeguards to regulate and constrain access to very sensitive information.”

According to the report, the investigation was influenced by the following federal statutes:

• 18 U.S.C. § 371 prohibits two or more persons from conspiring to commit an offense against the United States or to defraud the United States in any manner or for any purpose.
• 18 U.S.C. § 401 states that “[a] court of the United States shall have power to punish . . . such contempt of its authority . . . as . . . [m]isbehavior of any person in its presence of so near thereto as to obstruct the administration of justice” And “[m]isbehavior of any of its officers in their official transactions.”
• 18 U.S.C. § 641 prohibits the disposition “without authority” Any document or thing of worth to the United States.
• 18 U.S.C. § 1030 prohibits intentionally accessing a computer without authorization or exceeding authorized access and thereby obtaining information from any department or agency or the United States.
• 18 U.S.C. § 1503 prohibits “corruptly . . . endeavor[ing] to influence, intimidate, or impede any . . . officer in or of any court of the United States . . . in the discharge of his duty . . . or corruptly . . . influenc[ing], obstruct[ing], or imped[ing], or endeavor[ing] to influence, obstruct, or impede, the due administration of justice.”
• 18 U.S.C. § 1905 prohibits disclosure by federal government employees Of information that comes to them in the course of their employment that is known by them to be confidential, including the “identity” of “any person.”
• 18 U.S.C. § 2071 prohibits unlawful removal of any record filed or deposited with any judicial officer of the United States.

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases