Inside Politico’s Roe v. Wade Scoop

Politico’s top editors and executives spent Sunday mornings drinking Bloody Marys and munching on bite-sized waffles and sausages while chatting with top Washington officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, at an annual brunch. which was hosted in the opulent Georgetown home of Robert Allbritton, a founder of Politico.

What wasn’t discussed: Politico was on a massive scoop, one that would rattle the country less than 36 hours later.

By the time of brunch, Politico was working on a story about a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion that would hit Roe v. Wade, according to two people with knowledge of the trial in the newsroom. The awareness of the document and the article about it was limited to a very small group.

The article, published Monday night, immediately placed Roe v. Wade and the court’s direction in the nation’s political debate. But it also spotlighted Politico, an organization that has reshaped Washington’s coverage with its general reporting on all things politics since it was founded 15 years ago.

The news organization is now at the center of a debate over who leaked the document and why, including rampant speculation about the motives of Politico’s sources. It is extremely rare for an important draft opinion within the Supreme Court to leak to the press.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court confirmed that the draft advice was authentic. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said in a statement that he had instructed the court marshal to investigate the leak, which he described as “a singular and egregious breach” of trust.

Politico has said little about the coverage behind the article, written by reporters Josh Gerstein and Alexander Ward, or deliberations before publication. The spokesperson declined to comment on this article. Politico editor-in-chief Matthew Kaminski has said he would let the article speak for itself. The article said the document had been provided by “a person familiar with the court’s proceedings”, and that the person had provided additional details to help authenticate the document, but did not state what those details were.

In the hours before the article was published, Dafna Linzer’s editor-in-chief, Mr. Kaminski and Politico, called the editors in chief to let them know that the article was coming up and that a memo about it would be sent to the editors, according to one of the people with knowledge of the process.

Moments after the article was published, Mr. Kaminski and Ms. Linzer warned the editors in an email to defend their decisions.

“After an extensive review process, we are confident of the concept’s authenticity,” they wrote. “This unprecedented look at the judges’ deliberations is clearly news of great public interest.”

News organizations around the world, including The New York Times and The Associated Press, quickly followed Politico’s coverage. In an interview with Mr. Gerstein on “The Rachel Maddow Show” Monday night, Ms. Maddow told Mr. Gerstein that he would “always in your entire life be the reporter who told this story.”

While the views of individual judges have occasionally been made public before the Supreme Court announces a decision, leaking key draft advice is unusual, said Lucas A. Powe Jr., a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin. and a former Supreme Court Clerk who has studied the Supreme Court for more than 50 years.

“Your loyalty is to your justice and to the court, and you just don’t leak stuff,” Mr Powe said of standard practice among Supreme Court officials.

Politico was right in writing about the draft opinion, which is newsworthy and concerns a matter of national public concern, said Marty Baron, the former editor of The Washington Post who oversaw the publication of several high-profile stories, including the leaked documents. in 2013 by Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor.

“This seems pretty simple,” said Mr. Baron. “They got a document. The document was authenticated to their satisfaction and they published.”

The publication provoked a rapid response from pro and anti-abortion rights activists who demonstrated at the Supreme Court in Washington.

On Tuesday, Traci Schweikert, Politico’s chief talent officer, sent an email to employees detailing security measures the company has “proactively” put in place for its offices, such as restricting access to certain floors, “given the increased visibility for Politico after our coverage of the Supreme Court last night.”

“Be aware of everyone entering our elevators with you and the possibility of ‘tailgating’ to our floor,” the email read. Employees were also advised to be mindful of the privacy settings on their social media accounts to avoid potential online harassment.

“If you choose public settings, we strongly recommend that you delete personal information if your social media accounts identify you as a Politico employee,” the email added.

Founded in 2007, Politico was one of a group of media startups that redefined news for the digital age. Urged on by Jim VandeHei and John Harris, two of the founders, to “win the morning,” Politico Washington reporters and editors have covered high and low, giving space in their influential email newsletters to presidential campaigns and more trivial details like birthdays of prominent local figures.

After a meteoric rise to prominence, Politico has faced new competition in recent years, including from sites like Axios, which were founded by Mr. VandeHei and others after he left Politico. Axel Springer, the Berlin-based publishing conglomerate, bought Politico from Mr. Allbritton last year for more than $1 billion, as part of a plan to expand in the United States with a portfolio of titles including Insider and Morning Brew.

This year, Politico announced that Goli Sheikholeslami would become the new chief executive, replacing Patrick Steel, who left in 2021.

The executives, as well as Axel Springer’s chief executive Mathias Döpfner, were all in attendance at Sunday’s Politico brunch, which serves as a bookend for the flurry of events surrounding Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

It was sort of an introduction to Ms. Linzer, formerly a top editor at NBC News and MSNBC, who began her new role as executive editor of Politico on April 25.

Ms. Linzer is married to journalist Barton Gellman, now at The Atlantic, who led the Washington Post’s coverage of the Snowden documents.

The scoop seemed to impress Mr Döpfner, who praised Politico’s coverage in an email to staff on Tuesday. “I admire how you have carefully outlined the facts, putting the reader’s interest first in an unbiased manner,” he said, according to a copy of the email viewed by The New York Times.

Politico also praised the scoop internally. A collection of newspaper clippings shared with Politico employees showed that the Supreme Court story ran cable news programs, dominated news websites and “had taken over Twitter.”