Morning Joe host says Roe memo more likely to have been leaked by conservative than liberal

Joe Scarborough said the most ‘Machiavellian’ possibility was that a conservative leaked the documents to pressure the Supreme Court justices

After a draft Supreme Court decision showing its intent to overturn Roe v Wade was leaked to Politico, Republicans immediately leapt on the leak as an "egregious" breach of court norms, calling for an investigation.

In the minds of individuals like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Ted Cruz, the leak was clearly the work of a liberal, and they called for a criminal investigation into the event.

However, others — including MSNBC's Joe Scarborough — think it is just as likely that the leak was the work of a conservative who hoped to use the resulting outrage as pressure to ensure none of the justices backed down on their draft decisions.

"If you are just looking at this in the most Machiavellian way possible, it makes far more sense it was a fanatical law clerk on the right who leaked a document to stop one of the conservative members of the court from going away from Alito's position and closer to Roberts' more nuanced path towards a still-radical destination," Scarborough, a former Republican congressman, said.

"You hear all of this, all of this rambling on from the far right yesterday and, you know, when it first broke, you said, oh, okay, somebody was pissed off on the left. Then I actually stopped and thought the thought, wait a second, that's not what happened."

He claimed he spoke with conservatives who follow the courts who apparently told him they believed one of the justices was drifting from Justice Samuel Alito's position and closer to that of Chief Justice John Roberts. He said he thought it possible a conservative leaked the memo to pressure the justices to stay put.

"Most conservatives, people who follow the court and know how the court works were telling ... me throughout the day, this looks like somebody was moving away from Alito's harsh position, and they were trying to be nailed down by holding up this February opinion going, look, look, it's done," he said. "This right wing turgid opinion on abortion, this is going to be the law of the land. Don't even think of moving away from this position."

He ultimately said the true story was not really about the leak, but about the ramifications of the ruling should the Supreme Court overturn the landmark decision.

Should the Supreme Court overturn the ruling, it would leave abortion rights to be determined at the state level, with nearly half of the US ready to ban abortion as soon as it happens. It also opens up a pathway for Republican lawmakers to attempt to pass federal legislation banning abortion across the country.

"It's not about the leak," he added. "The story's actually about this radical decision, and it's later in the summer, it's closer to the election, and it motivates people that much more. Of course that makes perfect sense, but, of course, there is nothing that made sense about right wingers' argument yesterday."