U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro is overseeing a criminal investigation into the leak of the Supreme Court’s draft decision overturning Roe v. Wade, a source familiar with the investigation confirmed.
The inquiry is being handled primarily by career prosecutors, according to the source, opening a new chapter in the effort to identify who disclosed one of the most consequential rulings in the court’s history. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment, saying the department would neither confirm nor deny the existence of an ongoing investigation.
The Supreme Court is seen in Washington, Sept. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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The Supreme Court is seen in Washington, Sept. 29, 2026. (AP Photo)
The leak to Politico in May 2022 revealed that the high court was poised to overturn its abortion precedent nearly two months before the justices formally issued their decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which allowed states to set narrower gestational limits on abortion. The leak triggered an internal investigation, competing theories about the leaker’s motives, and an enduring rupture in trust inside the court.
The New York Times first reported on Pirro leading a novel criminal investigation Thursday, including that prosecutors have recently issued grand jury subpoenas seeking testimony and information from people who worked at the court when the draft was disclosed.
No leaker has been publicly identified in the years since, while the investigation has represented one of the languishing priorities of the Trump administration, with little to no developments since then-FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino formally stepped down earlier this year.
Bongino was previously overseeing the bureau’s effort to reexamine the leak. The bureau had faced several setbacks when handling the investigation, including pushback by the Supreme Court itself due to separation of powers issues. Investigators at one point narrowed the list of possible subjects down to a handful of people.
It remains unclear what criminal offense prosecutors are investigating or whether they have uncovered evidence identifying a suspect. The New York Times reported that Carlton Davis, one of Pirro’s top deputies, is working on the inquiry alongside career prosecutors.
Will Chamberlain, a lawyer with the conservative Article III Project, suggested that approaching deadlines for potential charges could help explain the timing.
“If Justice was thinking, ‘We want to go back and try and find this leaker,’ you’ve got to do it now,” Chamberlain told the Washington Examiner on Thursday.
Chamberlain argued that compelling testimony would be a logical step for prosecutors seeking answers.
“If you were trying to aggressively figure out who this person is, you’re going to do a grand jury subpoena and get them under oath,” he said.
Chamberlain pursued his own informal inquiry after the leak and publicly speculated that it could have originated with a clerk for then-Justice Stephen Breyer, who was preparing to retire. That theory was never proven or corroborated.
The criminal investigation follows an unsuccessful effort by the Supreme Court to identify the source of the disclosure. In January 2023, the court announced that its internal inquiry had failed to determine who was responsible after interviewing 97 court employees and clerks.
Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the Dobbs opinion, subsequently suggested he had reached his own conclusion. In a 2023 interview with the Wall Street Journal, Alito said he had a “pretty good idea” who was responsible, while acknowledging that he lacked sufficient proof to publicly identify the person.
For some of the justices, the disclosure represented a betrayal of the confidentiality on which their deliberations depend.
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Justice Clarence Thomas compared the breach to infidelity during an appearance in Dallas shortly after the draft became public. “It’s like kind of an infidelity, that you can explain it, but you can’t undo it,” Thomas said, describing the damage to trust within the institution.
The fallout also raised concerns about the justices’ safety, with abortion-rights protesters gathering outside the homes of Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts after the leak. In June 2022, an armed man traveled to Kavanaugh’s Maryland home intending to kill him. Nicholas Roske later pleaded guilty to attempted murder and was sentenced to more than eight years in prison.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
