Trump's week in review: Vows to use veto power, cut $4B aid to Israel and Melania brokers ceasefire

5. DOJ begins an investigation into who leaked the draft Dobbs decision

The New York Times reported Thursday that the U.S. Department of Justice is leading an investigation into who leaked a draft decision of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson decision to Politico in May 2022. The leak of the draft Dobbs decision, which claimed that the justices were going to rule that the U.S. Constitution does not contain a right to abortion, led to a wave of violence against churches and pro-life pregnancy centers. 

More than four and a half years later, the person who leaked the draft Dobbs opinion to Politico remains at large. Key personnel on the case include Judge Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, and one of her office's prosecutors, Carlton Davis. The investigation is expected to examine the justices’ personal internal records on the Dobbs decision, as a Supreme Court staffer has long been suspected as the source of the leak. 

In addition to leading to violence against churches and pregnancy centers, the leak of the draft Dobbs decision prompted an assassination attempt on Justice Brett Kavanaugh, one of the justices who signed on to the majority opinion. Law enforcement intercepted the would-be assassin, Nicholas John Roske, outside Kavanaugh’s home before he could carry out his plan.