Politico’s executive editor, Dafna Linzer, said Sunday that the outlet has not been contacted by the Supreme Court or authorities investigating the leak of the majority opinion draft on striking down Roe v. Wade, nor does she expect Politico to be contacted.
Following Politico’s bombshell report on the draft, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts called the leak “egregious” and directed the Marshal of the Court to investigate the matter.
Asked by CNN’s chief media correspondent Brian Stelter if anyone had reached out to Politico in regards to the investigation, Linzer said they had not and “honestly we don’t know more about the investigation than has been made public so far.”
“The [Chief Justice] did not mention publication in his statement and we don’t see any evidence of a crime here,” she later added.
Stelter chimed in: “Because you obtained a document, you published it, it’s legit.”
During the interview, Linzer was careful not to reveal details about the timeline of the reporting or how reporters Josh Gerstein and Alex Ward sourced, but said they were 100% certain the draft was authentic before they published.
She told Stelter that she thinks everyone ahead of publication was “fully aware of just how unprecedented something like this is to be able to peek inside internal deliberations of the Supreme Court, which is not exactly the most transparent branch of government.”
“I think we understood that this was a story — very much a Politico story actually — because it is as meaningful and as important to people across the political spectrum, that people feel as passionate and invested in the outcome of this case regardless of their party affiliation,” Linzer said.
Watch above, via CNN