U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito says that the unprecedented leak of the draft Dobbs decision in May 2022 put his conservative colleagues in danger of being murdered.

“It was a grave betrayal of trust by somebody,” Alito told the Heritage Foundation at a public event Tuesday evening about the not-finalized document then published by Politico. “And it was a shock because nothing like that had happened in the past. So it certainly changed the atmosphere at the court for the remainder of last term.”

He continued: “The leak also made those of us who were thought to be in the majority, in support of overruling Roe and Casey, targets for assassination because it gave people a rational reason to think they could prevent that from happening by killing one of us.”

Alluding to the armed suspect who showed up near Brett Kavanaugh’s residence, Alito explained that “we know that — a man has been charged with attempting to kill Justice Kavanaugh. It’s a pending case, so I won’t say anything more about that.”