John Roberts calls release of draft Roe v. Wade reversal a ‘singular and egregious breach’ of trust and orders an investigation

(CNN) -- Chief Justice John Roberts says the Supreme Court will investigate the release of a draft opinion that would strike down Roe v. Wade and called the episode "a singular and egregious breach" of trust.

"This was a singular and egregious breach of that trust that is an affront to the Court and the community of public servants who work here. I have directed the Marshal of the Court to launch an investigation into the source of the leak," Roberts said in a statement Tuesday.

"To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it will not succeed," Roberts said. "The work of the Court will not be affected in any way. We at the Court are blessed to have a workforce -- permanent employees and law clerks alike -- intensely loyal to the institution and dedicated to the rule of law. Court employees have an exemplary and important tradition of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial process and upholding the trust of the Court."

The court's public affairs office confirmed the document published by Politico is "authentic," but stressed that "it does not represent a decision by the Court or the final position of any member on the issues in the case."

According to the draft authored by Justice Samuel Alito, the court would overturn Roe v. Wade's holding of a federal constitutional right to an abortion.

It appears that five justices would be voting to overturn Roe. Roberts did not want to completely overturn Roe v. Wade, meaning he would have dissented from part of Alito's draft opinion, sources tell CNN, likely with the court's three liberals.

That would mean that the five conservative justices that would make up the majority overturning Roe are Alito and Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

The court did not comment on the potential breakdown of how justices would vote. Roberts did not respond to questions from CNN at his house Tuesday morning.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

The-CNN-Wire
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