Trump says ‘go to the reporter’ to find source of SCOTUS leak

Former President Trump suggested the Supreme Court look to the journalists at Politico who broke the bombshell story last month that a draft opinion penned by Justice Samuel Alito would overturn Roe v. Wade, to find who leaked the document.

The story, written by reporters Josh Gerstein and Alexander Ward, hinged on a leaked draft ruling from the court that sent shockwaves across the political and media landscape. The draft outlined the conservative majority’s decision to overturn Roe, a landmark case that ruled abortion was constitutional.

In the days that followed Politico’s report, which was reportedly the most-viewed story in the history of the news organization, congressional Republicans and conservative media figures expressed outrage that the opinion had been leaked before the court handed down its official decision on the matter and demanded the person responsible for the leak be found and punished.

“The U.S. Supreme Court must find reveal and punish the leaker,” Trump wrote in a post on his new startup social media website, Truth Social, on Wednesday.

Trump suggested finding the source of the leak to Politico would be “very easy to do.”

“Go to the reporter who received the leak,” Trump said, adding “this is a tremendously serious matter that has never happened, to anywhere near this extent, before.”

Confidentiality between sources and journalists is key to the way reporters conduct their journalism and obtain information officials do not publicly provide. Courts have ruled that in most cases government officials cannot legally compel journalists to reveal their sources.

Chief Justice John Roberts directed the marshal of the Supreme Court to launch an investigation into the source of the leak shortly after the Politico story was published.

“This was a singular and egregious breach of that trust that is an affront to the Court and the community of public servants who work here,” Roberts said at the time. “To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it will not succeed.”