Trump calls for Politico journalists to be jailed after Supreme Court investigators couldn't determine who leaked the draft abortion ruling
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images
- Trump ranted about the journalists who published a draft of a major abortion opinion.
- He called for the arrests of the journalists to get them to divulge the leaker's identity.
- The Supreme Court's investigators on Thursday said they were unable to figure out the leaker's identity.
Former President Donald Trump on Thursday called for the journalists who published a leaked draft opinion of a major abortion ruling last May to be jailed.
"Arrest the reporter, publisher, editor - you'll get your answer fast," Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, hours after the Supreme Court released a report concluding that investigators have not yet identified the leaker.
"Stop playing games and wasting time!" the former president added.
Politico first published a copy of the draft opinion in the monumental case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, on May 2. Chief Justice John Roberts instructed the court's marshal to investigate the leak a day later. But after eight months of inquiry, which included interviewing nearly 100 of the court's personnel and assessing the court's information technology systems, the court could not determine who was behind the leak.
The news appeared to disturb Trump, who shared his disapproval on social media.
"The Supreme Court has just announced it is not able to find out, even with the help of our 'crack' FBI, who the leaker was on the R v Wade scandal," Trump wrote. "They'll never find out, & it's important that they do. So, go to the reporter & ask him/her who it was. If not given the answer, put whoever in jail until the answer is given. You might add the publisher and editor to the list. Stop playing games, this leaking cannot be allowed to happen. It won't take long before the name of this slime is revealed!"
Nine minutes after his first tirade against the journalists, Trump called for them to be arrested in a follow-up post.
Politico declined Insider's request for comment.
While investigators were unable to determine who leaked the draft, they did discover that some Supreme Court employees told their spouses and partners about it, calling the behavior a violation of the court's confidentiality procedures. The report also highlighted many gaps in the court's record-keeping and security practices, and offered recommendations to address them, including restricting the distribution of sensitive documents via hard copy, email and outside cell phones.
The draft opinion, authored by Justice Samuel Alito, showed that a majority of the justices appeared ready to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark decision that legalized abortion nationwide. The justices ultimately did so in the court's June 24 ruling. At least 13 states have banned abortion altogether or restricted the procedure since then.