Trump calls for imprisoning reporters after Supreme Court fails to identify Dobbs decision leaker

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday called on authorities to arrest the reporters who released a draft opinion of the Supreme Court's landmark Dobbs v. Jackson ruling to identify the individual who leaked it after the high court announced it had failed to do so.

In June of 2022, the Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that established a constitutional right to abortion. The final release of the Dobbs opinion, however, was preceded by the leak of a draft version of the ruling, an unprecedented event in the court's history.

After a months-long investigation, the court announced on Thursday that its investigators had failed to identify the source of the leak, which had prompted intense protests at the private homes of Supreme Court justices and an assassination attempt on Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

In response, Trump offered his own solution to find the leaker on Truth Social.

"The Supreme Court has just announced it is not able to find out, even with the help of our 'crack' FBI, who the leaker was on the R v Wade scandal," he wrote. "They'll never find out, & it's important that they do. So, go to the reporter & ask him/her who it was. If not given the answer, put whoever in jail until the answer is given."

Politico reporters Josh Gerstein and Alexander Ward published the initial story. Trump did not explicitly name either individual.

"You might add the publisher and editor to the list," Trump added. "Stop playing games, this leaking cannot be allowed to happen. It won't take long before the name of this slime is revealed!"