At this point, the person who leaked the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court decision on abortion has not been identified. How, then, did any of the following West Virginia Republicans know who revealed the decision?

First up was WV’s Treasurer, Riley Moore. Without any evidence, Moore quickly blamed the Democrats. (Notice his definitive tone.):

A leftist clerk leaked a SCOTUS decision for the first time in history.

This politically motivated leak is an unprecedented violation of protocol and puts the safety of Justices at risk.

The leaker must be held accountable, or we risk further erosion of our democratic norms.

— Riley Moore (@RileyMooreWV) May 3, 2022

Representative David McKinley was not far behind:

Leaking the draft decision is an unprecedented and clear attempt to intimidate the Justices to reconsider their vote. This is unacceptable and reflects the extreme lengths the far-left is willing to go to influence the high court.

— David B. McKinley (@RepMcKinley) May 3, 2022

And here’s Senator Shelley Moore Capito:

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, https://t.co/69UuwCQ3AD., said Thursday the leak of a U.S. Supreme Court opinion that indicates the court will overturn Roe vs. Wade was designed to rally Democrats and that is “shameful.” https://t.co/GDZjVswzIs

— Blfd Daily Telegraph (@BDTonline) May 6, 2022

Okay, Republicans, where’s the evidence? On the other hand, Hawaii’s Democratic Senator, Mazie Hirono, saw the the decision as far more important:

My Republican colleagues are “stunned” about this leak. What BS.

What’s stunning is that the Supreme Court is ready to reverse 50 years of precedent and take away a woman’s right to control her own body.

— Senator Mazie Hirono (@maziehirono) May 3, 2022

Without any evidence, the Republicans have implicated the Democrats. But, a case that the leak came from Republicans, can just as easily can be made as Jonathan Chait in New York Magazine did earlier this week:

. . . . all this conservative rhetoric simply assumes that the leaker is a liberal — even though absolutely no evidence exists to support this conclusion.

Chait continues:

The [Wall Street] Journal’s editorial on Tuesday denouncing the leak frames it like this: “The question to ask in a leak case is always, cui bono? Who benefits?” Nine paragraphs later, apparently having forgotten the question it raised, the editorial casually asserts the likely beneficiaries would be conservatives: “Our guess is that the leak is likely to backfire at the Court. A Justice who switched his or her vote now would be open to ridicule for wilting under pressure.”

Chait doesn’t discuss it, but others have pointed out that the leak also shifted the focus from the actual decision (which, if the polls are correct, is unpopular) to the leak, itself.

Unlike West Virginia’s Republican leadership, I do not know the source of the leak; their rush to judgement does strike me as curious, however.

Here’s the Daily Show’s take on the leak:

To those upset about the Supreme Court leak: sorry this decision to colonize every vagina in America wasn't given the respect and dignity it deserved. pic.twitter.com/ZcJYibJCfx

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) May 4, 2022