Supreme Court Under Criminal Probe by DOJ—Which Laws May Have Been Broken

Newsweek · Amanda Castro · 2026-11-05 19:47 UTC

DOJ is investigating the 2022 Supreme Court abortion ruling leak, with prosecutors issuing new subpoenas.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is pursuing a criminal investigation into the 2022 disclosure of a draft Supreme Court opinion that foreshadowed the end of the constitutional right to abortion, with prosecutors reportedly issuing grand jury subpoenas as they try to determine who gave the document to Politico.

The investigation has accelerated more than four years after the extraordinary breach, even though the Supreme Court's own inquiry failed to identify the person responsible and no federal statute specifically makes leaking the court's internal deliberations a crime.

The renewed investigation could subject former court employees to questioning and potentially expose sensitive information about the Supreme Court's internal operations, while forcing prosecutors to establish not only who disclosed the draft but whether that person committed a federal offense.

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