DOJ Escalates Criminal Probe Into Supreme Court Dobbs Leak

The Justice Department has escalated a criminal investigation into the 2022 leak of the Supreme Court’s draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, with U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s Washington, D.C., office leading the probe.

Multiple sources briefed on the matter told Fox News the inquiry has been underway for at least a year and that grand jury subpoenas have been issued, though it is unclear who received them.

The New York Times first reported the criminal investigation, Fox News said, reopening a mystery that has dogged the court since Politico published the draft on May 2, 2022.

A source familiar with the matter confirmed to the Washington Examiner that Pirro is overseeing the inquiry and that career prosecutors are handling it primarily.

A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment, saying the department would neither confirm nor deny an ongoing investigation, the Examiner reported.

The leak revealed that at least five conservative justices were prepared to overturn Roe nearly two months before the June 24, 2022, decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Fox News reported.

Chief Justice John Roberts ordered Court Marshal Gail Curley to investigate. After forensic work and interviews with nearly 100 employees, the court announced in January 2023 that investigators were “unable to identify a person responsible by a preponderance of the evidence,” according to Fox News.

“No one confessed to publicly disclosing the document and none of the available forensic and other evidence provided a basis for identifying any individual as the source,” Curley’s report concluded.

Former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff later reviewed the court’s methods and said he could not identify additional useful investigative measures.

Justice Samuel Alito, who authored the Dobbs opinion, told Fox News chief legal correspondent Shannon Bream last month that he has an idea who leaked but lacks evidence to name anyone publicly, Fox News reported.

“I do have an opinion. But the evidence available at this time is not strong enough for the court or for me to say this is the person who was responsible,” Alito said.

Alito called the leak “a grave breach of trust” that “very predictably made the five of us in the majority targets for assassination and nearly resulted in the assassination of my colleague Brett Kavanaugh.”

The Washington Examiner reported that prosecutors have recently issued grand jury subpoenas seeking testimony and information from people who worked at the court when the draft was disclosed, citing The New York Times.

It remains unclear what criminal offense prosecutors are investigating or whether they have identified a suspect, the Examiner noted, underscoring the legal novelty of pursuing a Supreme Court leak where no dedicated federal statute clearly covers the disclosure.

Will Chamberlain of the Article III Project told the Examiner that approaching charging deadlines could explain the timing and that grand jury subpoenas under oath are a logical step if prosecutors are serious.

The fallout from the leak included protests outside justices’ homes and the June 2022 arrest of a California man near Kavanaugh’s Maryland residence who was later sentenced for attempting to kill him.

Fox News also reached out to the Supreme Court about whether justices have worked with outside investigators, including the Justice Department; the department and U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment.

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