The critical Dobbs draft decision was leaked, as Jen Psaki admitted, and the Biden administration attempted to divert attention by calling the reporting on the leak “historic” and “incredible.”
Psaki made the remarks to writer Emily Ramshaw while being interviewed as a part of the Texas Tribune Festival.
Psaki added, “I was there on the evening the Politico news aired, and that was one of my final weeks in the White House.”
“The news,” she recounted, “broke late at night, and we had to decide what, if anything, we were going to say that night given that it wasn’t the official ruling, it was a leaked report which of course proved out to be totally correct.”
And, according to Psaki, “I believe the coverage in that instance was remarkable, historic in so many ways.”
“But as the White House, you’re actually considering your responsibilities to refrain from interfering with a Supreme Court decision that hasn’t yet been made. Additionally, there isn’t much precedent for it,” she said.
As a result, Psaki said, “that night, we were trying to figure that out, and then during the days that followed, we thought about how to explain to the public the range of alternatives we had available without overpromising what could be accomplished if this judgement were to be issued.”
“We discussed, and really tried to redirect the focus on what the consequences would be associated with that decision, if that judgment were to be delivered, instead of who leaked it or how the leak occurred, the “whodunnit” of all of this,” she said.
The May decision draft leak has been referred to as an extraordinarily grave violation of the sanctity of the nation’s top court. Liberal Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan described the leak as “awful” and “shocking,” while conservative Justice Clarence Thomas claimed that some confidence in the court had been permanently damaged.
Kagan also said that the justices would soon receive some of the findings of the investigation into the leaker.
Psaki got a contract with MSNBC shortly after she left the White House, and starting in January she will host her own show there as a contributor.
