Trump says reporters who broke Roe v Wade story should be jailed until they reveal identity of leaker

One-time president earlier suggested possibility of prison rape to draw ‘leaker’ out

Speaking to Salem media group, Trump said the leaking of the ‘Roe v Wade’ verdict was a ‘terrible thing’ that put ‘our judges at tremendous risk’ (AP)

Donald Trump seemed to suggest that the journalists who leaked the Supreme Court’s Roe v Wade verdict should be jailed until the identity of the person who leaked the information is revealed.

Speaking to the Salem media group, a conservative news channel, Mr Trump made a rambling remark in which he said the leaking of the Roe v Wade verdict was a “terrible thing” that put “our judges at tremendous risk”.

“How come they don’t do this with the leaker? The leaker of the Supreme Court. If you went and got to that reporter... that’s a terrible thing that happened, it put our justices at tremendous risk and that continues.”

This is not the first time the former president has called for the jailing of journalists behind the leak, despite it not breaking any laws.

Earlier in October, Mr Trump suggested publishers should be threatened with the possibility of prison rape to draw out the “leaker” for a violation that does not exist.

“They say, ‘We’re not going to tell you.’ ‘You’re going to jail.’ And when this person realizes that he is going to be the bride of a prisoner very shortly, he will say, ‘I very much would like to tell you exactly who that leaker is,’” he said.

A draft of the opinion authored by conservative US Justice Samuel Alito was published in Politico in May, several weeks before the court issued the landmark opinion in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which struck down a half century of constitutional protections for abortion care.

The ruling revoked the constitutional right to abortion care, allowing states to enact severe restrictions on care or outlaw abortion altogether, triggering a wave of protests and litigation across the US. More than a dozen states have since effectively outlawed most abortions.

An ongoing internal investigation at the court seeks to identify who or what was responsible for the opinion’s “leak”.

Chief Justice John Roberts has called the leak “absolutely appalling” and a “singular and egregious breach of that trust that is an affront to the Court and the community of public servants who work here”.