Even Supreme Court justices should be considered when trying to find the person who leaked the draft decision overturning Roe v. Wade, former Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker told Newsmax on Monday.
Whitaker appeared on "Wake Up America" and was asked whether one of the high court's liberal judges could have been the leaker.
"Yeah, when I was dealing with leaks at the Department of Justice you always first go to who benefits from the leak," Whitaker told co-host Rob Finnerty. "Who is going to be the person that is motivated to leak this, and I think the investigation should go right to those people and their staff, because ultimately, this was a very damaging leak. It undermined the court in a significant way.
"These leak investigations are very hard, having participated in many leaks as an investigator and as a leader, I've seen how hard. You can narrow it down to a small group but it's very hard to get the evidence to put it on one person."
The Supreme Court said Thursday it has not determined who leaked a draft of the court's opinion overturning abortion rights in May, but that the investigation continues.
"Everyone should hold [the Supreme Court justices] in high esteem and [they] should be above reproach because of their position in our society," he said, "[and the court] has essentially became like the rest of the government, just a bunch of leakers and liars."
Whitaker said that even if the leaker were a justice, proving so likely would be difficult.
"It's hard. If you read the report, usually there's a little hat tip or a suggestion in an investigative report one way or another, and we didn't get that in this report that I can read," Whitaker told Finnerty.
"I think they might have a pretty good idea. Again, applying Occam's razor that the most likely explanation is the explanation, but I don't think they have the evidence to pin it on one person."
The former acting attorney general also said he was surprised that Supreme Court printers did not produce useful logs to investigators.
"Yes, very much so," Whitaker said. "Obviously, you have billing codes at law firms and all sorts of ways to make sure you know who's using your equipment. I just think it boils down to trying to figure the electronics on the thing and who had access to it. Basic block and tackling investigation, but I think they did that and still don't have an answer."
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