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SCOTUS Issues Report on Investigation Into Abortion Decision Leak

After nearly nine months of an investigation into who leaked a draft decision signaling overturning Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court announced Thursday its investigation is inconclusive.

The court released a 20-page public copy of the investigation. Chief Justice John Roberts initially tapped the marshal of the Supreme Court to conduct the investigation, but Roberts later asked an outside group known as the Chertoff Group to aid in the process of the investigation.

“The team has to date been unable to identify a person responsible by a preponderance of the evidence,” the report states.

Regarding Supreme Court Marshal Gail Anne Curley’s investigation, an unsigned statement of the report notes: “[i]nvestigators continue to review and process some electronic data that has been collected and a few other inquiries remain pending,” indicating that while the report is inconclusive, the investigation is not over.

The statement furthered that if additional investigative efforts yield new information, “the investigators will pursue them.”

“The Marshal and her team will continue to have our full support,” according to the statement denoting Curley’s findings.

The high court’s report on the leaked draft opinion in May comes just one week after the Wall Street Journal released an exclusive report with few details about updates for the investigation but noted officials had speculated at least one law clerk was a suspect.

But employees of the court who were interviewed as part of the investigation all denied they were sources of the leak, and there were no signs of a technological breach, according to the new report.

Michael Chertoff, who served as Homeland Security secretary during the administration of former President George W. Bush, wrote in a separate statement attached to the report that he recommended several measures for the high court to improve security.

Chertoff reviewed the court’s internal investigative efforts and concluded it was conducted thoroughly. “At this time, I cannot identify any additional useful investigative measures,” he said.

The May leak of the draft opinion to Politico, which signaled the high court was poised to vote along conservative-liberal ideological lines to overturn Roe, became official when the June 24 opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was released with hardly any changes from the draft.

In the months after the leak, justices endured heightened security concerns at their personal homes from pro-abortion rights protesters, coupled with a very real threat made against Justice Brett Kavanaugh in June, when a 26-year-old man came to his Maryland home armed with the intent to kill the justice, according to statements he made in a 911 call.

Justice Neil Gorsuch signaled on Sept. 8 that the investigation into the leak was still underway and expressed his “hope” that a report on the findings from the high court’s internal investigation would be forthcoming.

“The chief justice appointed an internal committee to oversee the investigation,” Gorsuch said at the 10th Circuit Bench and Bar Conference at the Broadmoor resort in Colorado. “That committee has been busy, and we’re looking forward to their report, I hope, soon.”

Gorsuch signaled the release of the new report months ahead of the Jan. 19 release, prompting court watchers and advocates to speculate whether a report was indeed coming and whether it would be made available to the public.

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