The White House has condemned former President Donald Trump’s call Thursday to jail journalists as an assault on the Constitution.

Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform that the POLITICO reporters, editor and publisher behind reporting in May on a leaked draft majority opinion striking down the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling should be arrested. In June, the Supreme Court officially overturned Roe v. Wade, which protected the national right to abortion for nearly 50 years.

The Supreme Court said Thursday an investigation has failed to identify who leaked the draft. 

A report from Gail Curley, the Supreme Court marshal, said investigators conducted more than 125 interviews with nearly 100 employees, “all of whom denied disclosing the opinion.”

“No one confessed to publicly disclosing the document and none of the available forensic and other evidence provided a basis for identifying any individual as the source of the document,” the report reads.

Trump, who is running for president again in 2024, responded to the news by writing: “They’ll never find out, & it’s important that they do. So, go to the reporter & ask him/her who it was. If not given the answer, put whoever in jail until the answer is given. You might add the publisher and editor to the list. Stop playing games, this leaking cannot be allowed to happen. It won’t take long before the name of this slime is revealed!”

In another post, Trump said: “Arrest the reporter, publisher, editor - you’ll get your answer fast. Stop playing games and wasting time!”

That drew a swift and scathing rebuke from the White House. In a statement to POLITICO, deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said jailing journalists would be an “egregious abuse of power.”

“The freedom of the press is part of the bedrock of American democracy,” Bates said. “Calling for egregious abuses of power in order to suppress the Constitutional rights of reporters is an insult to the rule of law and undermines fundamental American values and traditions. Instead, it’s the responsibility of all leaders to protect First Amendment rights. These views are not who we are as a country, and they are what we stand against in the world.”