US Supreme Court Marshal Gail Curley said she questioned each of the nine justices while investigating the leak of a draft opinion overturning abortion rights and concluded she had no information implicating either them or their spouses.
(Bloomberg) — US Supreme Court Marshal Gail Curley said she questioned each of the nine justices while investigating the leak of a draft opinion overturning abortion rights and concluded she had no information implicating either them or their spouses.
“The justices actively cooperated in this iterative process, asking questions and answering mine,” she said in a statement issued by the court. “I followed up on all credible leads, none of which implicated the justices or their spouses.”
Curley’s comments came a day after the court released a report indicating investigators working under her had failed to identify the culprit. The report said the probe focused on employees, raising questions about whether investigators had looked into the possibility that a justice or spouse was responsible.
Curley said she “did not believe that it was necessary to ask the justices to sign sworn affidavits,” something that was required of the 97 employees who were interviewed in the probe.
Curley said Friday she “spoke with each of the justices, several on multiple occasions.” The statement didn’t say what types of questions Curley asked or whether investigators examined the justices’ computers and phone records, as happened with court employees.
The failure to find the culprit after an eight-month investigation spurred a fresh round of doubt about the institution’s chances of rebuilding the public trust that has sunk to record lows.
The June 24 ruling overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide. Politico published the draft opinion on May 2 and said it had at least the tentative support of five justices.
The final opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, was virtually identical to the draft except for new sections that responded to the dissenting and concurring opinions. Five conservative justices voted to overturn Roe while a sixth, Chief Justice John Roberts, said he would have upheld a 15-week Mississippi ban while leaving at least some right to get an abortion.
The court said Thursday that the investigative team “has to date been unable to identify a person responsible by a preponderance of the evidence.”
(Adds details about ruling in eighth paragraph.)
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