Federal prosecutors have opened a criminal grand jury probe into who leaked the 2022 Supreme Court draft that ended Roe v. Wade, according to reports, because the Court’s own search never found the leaker.
Story Highlights
- The Justice Department is running a criminal investigation into the 2022 leak of the draft Dobbs opinion, according to people familiar with the matter.
- U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office in Washington, D.C., is leading the case, with career prosecutors doing most of the work, sources say.
- Prosecutors have sent grand jury subpoenas to people who worked at the Court in 2022, according to reports.
- No one has been charged, and no suspect has been named. The Justice Department declined to comment.
- A grand jury subpoena is a court order that makes a person testify or hand over records.
Justice Department Pursues Criminal Investigation Into Dobbs Leak
Reports surfaced on Thursday, November 5, that the Justice Department is treating the Dobbs leak as a possible federal crime. The probe aims to find the person who handed a draft of the ruling to a news site in May 2022, about two months before the Court released its final decision. The Court’s own internal search ended in January 2023 without naming anyone, and the leaker has never been publicly identified.
A Justice Department spokesperson said the department “would neither confirm nor deny the existence of an ongoing investigation.” Pirro’s office also declined to comment, and a Supreme Court spokeswoman did not respond to questions, according to reports. Pirro, a former judge and TV host, is the top federal prosecutor in the nation’s capital. She has put a top deputy, prosecutor Carlton Davis, and several career prosecutors on the case, according to reports.
What a Grand Jury Does
A grand jury is a group of ordinary citizens who meet in secret, hear evidence from prosecutors and decide whether there is enough to charge someone with a crime. It does not decide guilt. A grand jury subpoena is a court order that makes a person testify or hand over records. Prosecutors have sent these subpoenas in the weeks before the news broke and have asked for information from people who worked at the Court when the draft leaked, according to reports.
Moving the case to a grand jury gives prosecutors tools the Court never had. Reports say the probe could reach Court staff and tightly guarded records, possibly including files on the justices’ private talks in the abortion case.
What the Supreme Court’s Own Inquiry Found
Chief Justice John Roberts called the leak “a singular and egregious breach” of trust and ordered the Court’s Marshal, Gail Curley, to investigate. The Marshal is the Court’s chief security officer. Her team interviewed 97 employees with access to the draft, and employees signed sworn statements denying they leaked it. Investigators also checked the Court’s computers, networks, printers and the call and text logs they could get.
The Court’s January 2023 report said it was unlikely that an outsider had hacked the Court’s systems. But investigators could not identify the leaker by “a preponderance of the evidence,” which means they could not show it was more likely than not that any one person did it.
What Prosecutors Would Have to Show
Prosecutors have not said what law they believe was broken. Legal experts have pointed to a federal law against theft of government property, which carries up to 10 years in prison, according to reports. Prosecutors could also look at whether anyone lied under oath during the Court’s inquiry. Some of the laws that might apply give prosecutors five years to bring charges, which would run out in the spring of 2027, according to reports.
Some legal scholars have raised concerns. Cornell law professor Michael Dorf warned that an investigation without a solid legal basis could amount to the executive branch harassing the courts. On the other side, Justice Amy Coney Barrett has described the unauthorized release of certain Court materials as illegal, according to reports.
Why Conservatives Should Care About This Breach
The Court’s work depends on justices being able to debate in private, without outside pressure. After the draft leaked, protesters gathered outside some justices’ homes. In June 2022, an armed man, Nicholas Roske, was arrested near Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home and was later sentenced to more than eight years in prison for plotting to kill him.
President Trump said in July that “that person should be found.” The FBI said in May 2025 that it had made the case a priority. With a grand jury in place, the hunt for the leaker has moved from an internal review to a formal criminal investigation. Anyone the grand jury looks at is presumed innocent unless charged and convicted.
Sources:
nypost.com, washingtonexaminer.com, nytimes.com, supremecourt.gov, abajournal.com
