(CNN) Justice Samuel Alito said he had a “pretty good idea” who was responsible for the unprecedented disclosure of a draft opinion of a Supreme Court decision last year, suggesting it was someone who opposed the amendment in Roe v. Wade precedent that protects abortion rights across the country.
In an interview published Friday by The Wall Street Journal in its opinion section, Alito rejected the idea that the draft was leaked by one of the five conservative justices who were in the majority of the decision.
“That’s infuriating to me,” said Alito about the speculation. “Look, this makes us targets for assassination. Would I do that to myself? Would that be the five of us on our own? It’s unbelievable.”
He acknowledged in the interview, which took place in mid-April, that he did not have the level of proof about who was behind the leak that would make it worth naming the person he thought was responsible. The final opinion overturning Roe in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization largely tracked the draft.
“This is part of an effort to prevent the Dobbs draft … from becoming a court decision,” Alito said. “And that’s how it’s been used for six weeks by people outside – as part of a campaign to try to intimidate the court.”
Alito first condemned the leak, as did other justices. The Supreme Court in a statement in January called the disclosure a “gross attack on the judicial process.”
The statement was issued in a public version of a report summarizing the leak investigation conducted by the court marshal, Gail Curley. The release said the investigative team “so far has not identified a person responsible by a preponderance of the evidence.”
Politico obtained and published the draft in early May, weeks before the court issued its final opinion at the end of its term.
In his latest comments to the Journal, Alito said the marshal “did a good job with the resources available to him” and agreed with his decision not to make public a reason. He condemned the threats and outrage the court has faced, including an alleged assassination attempt against Justice Brett Kavanaugh last summer.
Alito took swipes in the interview at those he said criticized the court as “unfair,” and he lamented how some pockets of the legal profession are playing a role in criticizing rather than defending the high court.
“The idea has always been that judges don’t have to respond to criticism, but when the courts are unfairly attacked, the organized bar comes to their defense,” he said, adding, “If anything, they participate in some. degree of these attacks.”
Alito declined to weigh in on the public scrutiny that Justice Clarence Thomas is under for alleged ethical lapses, but he defended Kavanaugh’s handling of accusations during his confirmation process that he, as a high school, sexually assaulted a teenage girl.
“After Justice Kavanaugh was accused of being a rapist during his Senate confirmation hearings, he made an impassioned speech, made an impassioned scene, and criticized him because it wasn’t fair, it wasn’t right behavior for a judge to speak in terms. . I don’t know — if someone calls you a rapist?” Alito said.