It would not have been difficult, the source suggested, for someone with access to the non-public area of the court to access sensitive documents. But some burn bags were simply left in the hallway outside of chambers, presumably so that they could be taken to the basement. Others simply filled them to capacity and left them near their desks.
The source said some colleagues would staple a burn bag shut. Kavanaugh says he's 'optimistic' about the Supreme Court and trashes US News law school rankingsĪnother source questioned how the burn bags were handled before they were collected. (Photo by Erin Schaff-Pool/Getty Images) Erin Schaff/Pool/Getty Images WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 23: Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh stands during a group photo of the Justices at the Supreme Court in Washington, DC on April 23, 2021. According to a source familiar with the court’s security practices, employees have the option to use the burn bags which are later taken to the basement of the building and emptied into locked bins so that they can be retrieved by a shredding company. Instead, the justices each have their own protocols. There was no uniform rule that established a procedure for these paper bags with red stripes. A burn bag is a security bag that holds sensitive documents which will ultimately be destroyed by fire or shredding. Three former employees told CNN of loose security around burn bags that are supplied to chambers to deal with sensitive documents. In her report last month, Supreme Court Marshal Gail Curley noted that the “court’s current method of destroying court sensitive documents has vulnerabilities that should be addressed.” However, the court did not disclose Chertoff had been paid at least $1 million in recent years to perform security assessments for the court. The 20-page report and its still secret “Annex A” raised some questions as to whether the entire investigation should have been outsourced to someone without close ties to the court.įormer Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff reviewed and endorsed the Supreme Court’s internal investigation into the leak. The report and the new revelations of weak protocols come as the court is trying to protect its own legitimacy after an embarrassing leak and allegations (prompted by the recent rash of high profile cases breaking along familiar ideological lines) that it has simply become another political branch. Michael Chertoff John Roberts Getty ImagesĮxclusive: Supreme Court did not disclose financial relationship with expert brought in to review leak probe In a statement attached to the final report, the court called the leak a “grave assault” on the court’s legitimacy and the marshal of the court issued a road map to improve security. The justices were “not masters of information security protocol,” one former court employee told CNN. Such behavior meant that justices weren’t setting an example to take security seriously. The problem with the justices’ use of emails persisted in part because some justices were slow to adopt to the technology and some court employees were nervous about confronting them to urge them to take precautions, one person said.
“This has been going on for years,” one former employee said. Supreme Court employees also used printers that didn’t produce logs – or were able to print sensitive documents off-site without tracking – and “burn bags” meant to ensure the safe destruction of materials were left open and unattended in hallways. New details revealed to CNN by multiple sources familiar with the court’s operations offer an even more detailed picture of yearslong lax internal procedures that could have endangered security, led to the leak and hindered an investigation into the culprit. Wade, some Supreme Court justices often used personal email accounts for sensitive transmissions instead of secure servers set up to guard such information, among other security lapses not made public in the court’s report on the investigation last month.
Long before the leak of a draft opinion reversing Roe v.
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