California Attorney General Kamala Harris faced conflict-of-interest accusations after launching a raid on pro-life activist David Daleiden’s apartment even as she campaigned for the U.S. Senate on a pro-Planned Parenthood platform. Ms. Harris, a longtime Planned Parenthood supporter seeking the Democratic Senate nomination at the time, included on her campaign website a petition asking voters to “take a stand and join Kamala in defending Planned Parenthood.” “Voting to strip federal funding from an organization that provides vital health services to 2.7 million Americans is the epitome of dysfunction,” says the Harris petition.
Meanwhile, agents from her office searched Mr. Daleiden’s apartment in Orange County, seizing his laptop and multiple hard drives while attempting to take his phone as he was speaking to his attorneys, according to sources close to Mr. Daleiden, lead investigator for the pro-life Center for Medical Progress. The center ignited an outcry last year with the release of hidden-camera footage showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing the harvesting of and billing for fetal tissue obtained from abortions for medical research.
What Daleiden knows now is that Kamala Harris at the explicit instruction of Planned Parenthood had targeted Daleiden to enforce the California video recording law against him and to punish him for speaking the truth about her powerful campaign donors at Planned Parenthood. Just two weeks prior to the search at this home, Kamala Harris had a secret meeting in Los Angeles with Planned Parenthood leadership. The leadership of Planned Parenthood demanded Daleiden’s video and video equipment be seized in order to shut him up.
The search warrant was issued for materials related to the video footage of Dr. Deb Nucatola, Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s senior director of medical services, and Dr. Mary Gatter, president of PPFA’s medical directors counsel, according to the Daleiden camp. In an undercover video released last year, Dr. Nucatola said that she would use different, “less crunchy techniques” to obtain intact fetal tissue better suited for medical research, even though federal law forbids any alteration of the “timing, method or procedures used to terminate the pregnancy … solely for the purposes of obtaining the tissue.”
Harris, a pro-abortion Democrat, chose to focus her investigation on Daleiden and his associates rather than Planned Parenthood, even though the video footage so far released by Daleiden’s Center for Medical Progress shows clear evidence that Planned Parenthood was illegally altering abortion procedures to endure intact organs targeted for harvesting then selling the organs for profit.
As reported by The Washington Times, emails accessed via a Public Records Act request show Beth Parker, chief legal counsel for PP, sending multiple drafts of AB 1671 to Jill Habig, the then-special counsel to Harris. The email chain extended from March 8 until April 14.
On March 8, 2016, Parker wrote Habig: “Attached is the language for AB 1671, proposed amendments to Penal Code section 632. I look forward to your thoughts about this.” Eight days later, Parker sent a revised draft of the legislation, adding “Here’s the rewrite of the video tape bill. Let me know what you think.” On April 5, Harris launched her raid on Daleiden’s’s apartment.
Ronald D. Rotunda, a professor of jurisprudence at Chapman University, slammed Harris, saying she is a “tool of Planned Parenthood,” adding that she was “working with Planned Parenthood to protect it from criminal prosecution … The state attorney general is supposed to represent the people of California, not a particular industry in California. What would people say if the attorney general would be working with the local slaughterhouses to help them cover up instances of cruelty to animals?”
Steve Cooley,who represents Daleiden, ripped Harris, asserting,
“It is common to work on legislation pending before the California state legislature — the attorney general’s office does occasionally weigh in. It is extraordinary to collaborate with a particular entity on what is clearly legislation of specific benefit to them.” He stated that there is a “pattern” of collaboration between PP and Harris’ office, surmising that PP “played a major role in supplying probable cause” for the search warrant for the raid on Daleiden’s apartment. He concluded, “This is going after an individual, a single person who was operating as a citizen journalist. And all the activity and the timing of it all strongly suggests a real partnership between the attorney general and Planned Parenthood.”
The reaction from Mr. Daleiden’s corner was swift, with one of his attorneys, Matt Heffron, describing the raid as “an oppressive abuse of government power.” “To storm into a private citizen’s home with a search warrant is outrageously out of proportion for the type of crime alleged. It’s a discredit to law enforcement, an oppressive abuse of government power.”
In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Daleiden said:
“The very worst baby body parts violations and Planned Parenthood’s baby body parts harvesting program took place in California. Those clips your viewers just saw were all filmed with Planned Parenthood representatives and Planned Parenthood business partners in the state in California. But instead of investigating them, and instead of going after them, Attorney General Kamala Harris (D), who’s running for Senate, and fundraising on her website off of Planned Parenthood, receives money from Planned Parenthood, just invaded my home the other day, and took all of the video footage, including unreleased video footage. …They took everything, including footage that has not seen the light of day yet.”
Another conservative known for his hidden-camera investigations, Project Veritas’s James O’Keefe, came to Mr. Daleiden’s defense, arguing that the “retaliation” by Ms. Harris “represents a direct attack on journalists who speak truth to power.” “It is no secret that Harris is in bed with Planned Parenthood,” Mr. O’Keefe said. “Her 2014 AG campaign received donations from multiple Planned Parenthood PACs and her 2016 U.S. Senate race has already received personal donations from senior Planned Parenthood players.”
Mr. Daleiden challenged Ms. Harris’s objectivity, calling her the “bought-and-paid-for AG” who has “refused to enforce the law against the baby body parts traffickers in our state, or even investigate them — while at the same time doing their bidding to harass and intimidate citizen journalists. I guess ‘Crush below, crush above, and see if I can get it all intact’ and ‘less crunchy techniques’ of abortion for baby parts harvesting have the full support of Attorney General Kamala Harris in California.”
Supporters of Planned Parenthood cheered when Mr. Daleiden and a second investigator were indicted in January by a Texas grand jury on charges related to their undercover investigation into Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast. A Texas grand jury indicted Daleiden and another pro-life activist, Sandra Merritt, behind the videos. Instead of prosecuting Planned Parenthood for selling aborted baby parts, Daleiden was indicted for buying them. Both have pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the use of fake driver’s licenses for purposes of the investigation, and Mr. Daleiden has also denied a second charge of attempting to procure human organs.
In January 2019, the Federal Judge eluded to the fact that Planned Parenthood might lose their case. He told Daleiden’s lawyers:
“I think your arguments may very well have force at the end of the day. If the things you laid out in your briefing turn out to be the only links, then there may be some real problems with the damages plaintiffs asserted and maybe with some of the plaintiffs themselves.”
Harris, who became attorney general thanks in part to Planned Parenthood’s support, had an all too apparent bias in favor of the pro-abortion organization. It’s no wonder then that she wanted to conceal any evidence that proves it is a money hungry business that only feigns to support women’s health. After Harris’ search and seizure, pro-life groups want her out of the public square.
The Susan B. Anthony List was one of the first to demand Harris’ letter of resignation (which did not happen):
“To use the heavy hand of her office for personal political gain in a Senate campaign is the epitome of conflict of interest and abuse of power,” said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser in a press release. “Ms. Harris should resign from her Attorney General post and end her bid for the U.S. Senate. She has abused her government office and no longer deserves the public trust.”
Students for Life demanded more of the same and Concerned Women for America’s Penny Nance also denounced Harris’ “abuse of power”:
“Kamala Harris is engaged in the highest level of corruption and abuse of power. While she uses her KGB-like tactics to seize personal property of an innocent American citizen, she’s simultaneously running for U.S. Senate and using her campaign web site to promote and defend Planned Parenthood and its atrocious practice of harvesting, trafficking and selling baby parts.”
Sources:
- https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/apr/6/kamala-harris-california-ag-behind-daleiden-raid-s/
- https://townhall.com/tipsheet/cortneyobrien/2016/04/07/after-raiding-prolife-activists-home-california-ag-pressured-to-resign-n2144998
