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Justices weren't required to sign sworn affidavits in leak investigation

Supreme Court
Posted at 3:55 PM, Jan 20, 2023
and last updated 2023-01-20 17:55:03-05

The Marshal of the Supreme Court revealed on Friday justices were not required to sign sworn affidavits during the investigation into the leak of the Supreme Court draft opinion in an abortion case.

In a statement, Gail Curley said she spoke with the justices on several occasions. She added that they cooperated with the investigation, answering her questions and asking their own questions.

"I followed up with all credible leads, none of which implicated the justices or their spouses," she said. For those reasons, Curley said she did not require the justices to sign sworn affidavits despite others being required to do so.

The Supreme Court issued a statement Thursday that said the Marshal of the Court could not determine who leaked the document to Politico. Investigators conducted over 100 interviews with 97 employees, all of whom denied disclosing the draft opinion.

"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 of the document," the report says.

The report says it doesn't appear the court's systems were hacked to obtain the document. However, investigators couldn't rule out the possibility with 100% certainty. They also said they couldn't rule out that the draft opinion was inadvertently left in public.

Politico published the draft opinion about a month before the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion nationwide. At the time, Chief Justice John Roberts said the draft opinion did not represent a final decision by the court. However, the June ruling was nearly identical to the draft.