Associate Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito stated that he has a “pretty good idea” as to who leaked the draft Dobbs ruling prior to the court’s reversal of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and why it was leaked.

“I personally have a pretty good idea who is responsible, but that’s different from the level of proof that is needed to name somebody,” he told The Wall Street Journal in a story published online on Friday.

He also said he is certain of the motive behind the unprecedented leak, which Alito authored, in May 2022: “It was a part of an effort to prevent the Dobbs draft . . . from becoming the decision of the court. And that’s how it was used for those six weeks by people on the outside—as part of the campaign to try to intimidate the court.”

The intimidation campaign included unlawful protests outside the residences of some of the court’s conservatives, which President Joe Biden’s Justice Department did not prosecute.

“Those of us who were thought to be in the majority, thought to have approved my draft opinion, were really targets of assassination,” Alito said. “It was rational for people to believe that they might be able to stop the decision in Dobbs by killing one of us.”

He may have been referring to the attempted assassination of fellow conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh; an armed man was arrested outside his residence on June 8 and has since pleaded not guilty in court.

The leak also caused justices to alter their itineraries out of fear of attack. Alito described an instance in which he was scheduled to address law school students at George Mason University just days after the disclosure.

“Our police conferred with the George Mason Police and the Arlington Police, and they said, ‘It’s not a good idea. He shouldn’t come here. . . . The security problems will be severe.’ So I ended up giving the speech by Zoom,” he told the WSJ. “Still, there were so many protesters, and they were so loud that you could hear them.”

And while he did not elaborate on how the disclosure may have affected court members at the time, he did say that it “created an atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust.” We persevered through it, and our task was completed last year. This year, I believe we’re attempting to return to normal operations as much as possible… But it was detrimental.”

The report stated that Chief Justice John Roberts directed the marshal of the Supreme Court to investigate the leak, and she released her findings in January: “Investigators have been unable to determine at this time, using a preponderance of evidence standard, the identity of the person(s) who disclosed the draft majority opinion.”

Alito told the outlet that the marshal “did a good job with the resources that were available to her” and that he agrees the evidence was insufficient to warrant a public accusation.

“The investigation has determined that it is unlikely that the Court’s information technology (IT) systems were improperly accessed by a person outside the Court,” the marshal’s report issued in January said. “After examining the Court’s computer devices, networks, printers, and available call and text logs, investigators have found no forensic evidence who disclosed the draft opinion.”

More on this story via Conservative Brief:

In response to left-wing commentators who claimed that the leak likely came from a conservative justice, Alito told the WSJ: “That’s infuriating to me.” CONTINUE READING…