President Joe Biden’s chief of staff leaked Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer’s plan to retire to “a limited group” on Wednesday, a top Democrat told reporters.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard Durbin told reporters he received a “surprise” call on Wednesday morning from White House chief of staff Ron Klain, who “said that President Biden wanted [Durbin] to know that Stephen Breyer was about to announce his retirement from the court.”
Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said Klain told him to keep the news a secret and that Breyer planned to make an official announcement on Thursday.
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Breyer, 83, was apparently blindsided Wednesday when the news leaked about his retirement and was widely reported by the media.
Breyer made his own announcement on Thursday, a day after Klain’s call to Durbin’s office.
“They were telling a limited number of people and that I should be keep it confidential,” Durbin said. “The official announcement will be made on Thursday. I said, of course I would.”
No one has specifically been connected with leaking the news to the media, and Durbin said he kept it mostly confidential, telling only his wife.
Two hours later, the media broke the story.
“That’s what confidential on Capitol Hill leads to, I guess,” Durbin said.
According to reporting by the Washington Examiner and other outlets, Breyer was not ready to make the announcement.
Fox News reported that Breyer was “blindsided,” while sources told the Washington Examiner that Breyer was just beginning the standard process of scaling back, with plans to announce his retirement at the end of the current term in several months.
“He is a by-the-book stickler for following protocol. You announce your retirement at the end of terms, not in the middle,” one insider told the Washington Examiner. “He did not plan for this to leak out. He was just beginning the standard process of winding down,” added the source.
The story was first reported by several news outlets. NBC said it obtained the information from “people familiar with [Breyer’s] thinking.”
Breyer was under intense pressure to step down to ensure that Biden could appoint a liberal replacement who could be confirmed by a Democrat-led Senate.
Biden intends to announce a nominee to fill Breyer’s seat at the end of February, and the process is likely to take weeks before a final vote on confirmation.
Biden has promised to select a black woman, and this time, Durbin said, he’s not in the loop.
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Klain told Durbin it would be up to Biden, who has not decided yet.
“So I left it at that,” Durbin said.
