Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Tuesday demanded a probe and, if appropriate, criminal charges to rectify the Supreme Court’s leak that revealed Roe v. Wade may be overturned.

“This lawless action should be investigated and punished as fully as possible. The Chief Justice must get to the bottom of it and the Department of Justice must pursue criminal charges if applicable,” McConnell wrote. “All nine Justices should tune out the bad-faith noise and feel totally free to do their jobs, following the facts and the law where they lead.”

“Last night’s stunning breach was an attack on the independence of the Supreme Court. By every indication, this was yet another escalation in the radical left’s ongoing campaign to bully and intimidate federal judges and substitute mob rule over the rule of law,” McConnell said.

McConnell’s statement comes after Politico published what it claims to be a draft of the Court’s opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade. Breitbart News reported:

The document published by Politico that claims to be a draft opinion appears to be authentic, but it is not a binding decision of the court unless at least five justices sign it, and this looks like a transparent and unprecedented betrayal by one of the 45 or so people with access to a draft Supreme Court opinion to prevent this decision from becoming law by scaring off moderate justices and attempting to whip the political left into a frenzy.

After the leak was made public, the establishment media accused Republicans of using the leaked document to create a political backlash.

The New York Times claimed Republicans could have “orchestrated putting it out, seeking to soften the impact of the decision by getting Americans used to the idea before it happened — and clouding the importance by raising the distraction of a debate over the propriety of the leak.”
Absolving far-left wrongdoing, The Washington Post was quick to clarify that nobody knows the identity or motivations of the leaker. Republicans “cast the leak as an attempt to intimidate justices,” the paper wrote before using the leak to slam Republicans for causing “political backlash.”
Republicans had a different opinion of the leak. “The Supreme Court’s confidential deliberation process is sacred & protects it from political interference,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) said. “This breach shows that radical Democrats are working even harder to intimidate & undermine the Court. It was always their plan. The justices cannot be swayed by this attack.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said he believes the left leaked the document to intimidate justices. “The next time you hear the far left preaching about how they are fighting to preserve our Republic’s institutions & norms remember how they leaked a Supreme Court opinion in an attempt to intimidate the justices on abortion,” he said.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter and Gettr @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.