White House Rips Trump For Demanding ‘Arrest’ Of Journalists And Publisher For Dobbs Leak In Scathing Denunciation
L: AP Photo/Andrew Harnik R: AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File
President Joe Biden’s White House tore into former President Donald Trump for demanding the “arrest” of everyone at Politico who had a hand in the leaked Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization draft.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court released the results of its investigation into the identity of the person who leaked the draft opinion that predicted the Supreme Court decision effectively overturn Roe v. Wade in a 5-4 ruling in Dobbs in late June.
The upshot? According to the investigation report, the team investigating the leak “has to date been unable to identify a person responsible by a preponderance of the evidence.”
Trump greeted that news by demanding arrests in order to coerce the identity of the leaker.
“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. 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. You might add the publisher and editor to the list. Stop playing games, this leaking cannot be allowed to happen. It won’t take long before the name of this slime is revealed!” Trump wrote on his social media platform.
“Arrest the reporter, publisher, editor – you’ll get your answer fast. Stop playing games and wasting time!” he added.
On Friday morning, Deputy White House Press Secretary and Senior Communications Adviser for Strategic Response Andrew Bates ripped Trump in a statement emailed to Mediaite in response to Trump’s rant.
“The freedom of the press is part of the bedrock of American democracy. Calling for egregious abuses of power in order to suppress the Constitutional rights of reporters is an insult to the rule of law and undermines fundamental American values and traditions. Instead, it’s the responsibility of all leaders to protect First Amendment rights. These views are not who we are as a country, and they are what we stand against in the world,” Bates wrote.
The Dobbs leak and decision accompanied a reversal in Democrats’ political fortunes heading into the midterms, which had been shaping up to be a Republican landslide, but wound up much closer than expected in the House.
