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Ted Cruz Predicts A Clerk Representing Sonia Sotomayor Leaked The SCOTUS Draft, Says He Has ‘No Evidence’

[Screenshot/YouTube/Verdict with Ted Cruz]

Nicole Silverio Media Reporter
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Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz predicted a law clerk for Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor leaked the draft of the Supreme Court majority opinion during Thursday’s “Verdict with Ted Cruz.”

The senator said he believes the most likely scenario is that a liberal law clerk in the Supreme Court leaked the draft opinion to Politico, narrowing it down to 12 potential suspects.

“It is likely to be someone who is a hard partisan and who was willing to burn the place down because he or she was so upset about what happened,” Cruz told host Michael Knowles. “If I were to guess the most likely justice for whom the law clerk is clerking is Sonia Sotomayor … because she is the most partisan of the justices and so she’s the most likely the higher wild-eyed partisan as clerks. I have no evidence of that, I’m just making an inference.”

The senator said the Supreme Court has forensic files where a person can trace where the document was printed out from, but disclosing that information will require retrieving an actual copy of the draft. A law clerk is able to print out an opinion and read it, but they are required to place it in a “burn bag” under the desk where it is then shredded twice and then burned to protect the confidentiality of the Court. (RELATED: ‘Gravest, Most Unforgivable Sin’: SCOTUS Leak Decried By Court Watchers)

He said the question still remains as to the leaker’s connection with the Politico reporters who published the story Monday, but that there is likely a “personal trail.” The Texas senator added he is “confident” the perpetrator would be fired and disbarred from their position.

“One question we don’t know, was this individual… how smart a crook were they?” Cruz said. “We know the reporters who published the story. One of the natural inquiries is going to be, particularly of the 12 likely suspects, what contacts did they have with those reporters? Did they know the reporters, did they go to school with the reporters, did they have emails with the reporters, do they have phone calls with the reporters, do they have texts with the reporters?”

Chief Justice John Roberts launched an investigation into the matter led by the Marshal of the Court in a Tuesday announcement calling the release of the document a “betrayal.” Cruz said if the clerks lie to federal officers, they would be committing a felony and would risk jail time. (RELATED: Liberals Cheer On SCOTUS Leaker Who Shattered Court Norms As ‘Hero’)

“If they lie in the course of the investigation, I think they should be prosecuted and they should serve the maximum prison time possible,” Cruz said. “If they don’t lie it’s a little more complicated whether they’ve in fact violated a criminal prohibition or not. … I think, regardless, the penalty should be as significant as possible, because the damage to the Court will be far-lasting. It is going to make it incredibly difficult for the justices to trust the process of deciding cases in a collaborative manner, sharing drafts, going back and forth.”

In a Tuesday interview on Sirius XM’s The Megyn Kelly Show, former Attorney General Bill Barr suspected the perpetrator could be prosecuted for obstruction of justice.

MSNBC host Chris Hayes speculated in a Tuesday tweet that a conservative may have leaked the document “to freeze the majority in place and head off inroads Roberts was making.”