WASHINGTON — Supreme Court justices have spoken with the investigating official about the leak of an unpublished draft of an opinion in a consequential abortion case, a court official confirmed Friday.
Supreme Court Sheriff Gail Curley, who led the investigation, said in a statement that she «spoke to every single justice, multiple on multiple occasions.» The judges were «actively cooperative,» Curley said, and after following up on all leads, she concluded that neither the judges nor their spouses were involved.
«On this basis, I did not believe it was necessary to ask judges to sign affidavits,» Curley added.
The lack of signed affidavits suggests that the judges were not formally interviewed in the same manner as court personnel.
In a report issued Thursday, Curley concluded that the leaker had not been identified «by a preponderance of the evidence,» but it was unclear whether Curley had targeted the judges themselves.
Curley said in the report that 97 court employees were interviewed and all denied being the informants. She said it was unlikely that the court’s information technology systems were compromised.
Thursday’s report also said 82 employees, not including judges, had access to a hard copy or electronic version of the draft opinion. Several people admitted in interviews that they «did not treat information related to the draft opinion in a manner consistent with the court’s confidentiality policies,» the report says.
The employees were asked to sign affidavits stating that they did not leak the opinion. They would be subject to criminal prosecution if they lied to investigators.
Curley’s new statement still leaves some questions unanswered. The report a day earlier had said that «all personnel who had access to the draft opinion signed affidavits stating that they did not disclose the draft opinion or know anything about who did.»
Washington was rocked in May when Politico released a draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito indicating that the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, was on the verge of overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling on the right to abortion. The court ultimately struck out Roe in a 5-4 vote in a ruling issued in June.