Nine years ago, two undercover journalists bravely exposed abortion giant Planned Parenthood’s alleged fetal body part trafficking scandal.
In 2015, David Daleiden, founder of the Center for Medical Progress, along with journalist Sandra Merritt, attended the National Abortion Federation’s commercial trade show in San Francisco. They posed as laboratory wholesalers inquiring about buying baby body parts from abortion providers. Their disturbing, eye-opening conversations with Planned Parenthood executives were captured on camera.
The bone-chilling footage was posted and viewed millions of times.
Consequently, Daleiden and Merritt were targeted by the California attorney general. At the time, this was former Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris relentlessly targeted the duo for obtaining the footage of Planned Parenthood executives showing interest in selling body parts from aborted children.
Of course, Harris did not go after Planned Parenthood for their involvement in possibly selling baby body parts.
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That’s not all. Even last year, the Center for Medical Progress released more videos that were captured nine years ago showing Planned Parenthood executives interested in selling baby body parts, as Townhall covered.
In a stunning turn of events, the court battle surrounding the footage that lasted almost ten years came to an end this week.
California has agreed to drop all charges against Daleiden and Merritt (via the Center for Medical Progress):
The agreement—a negotiated settlement with zero punishment—is in exchange for a new “no contest” plea by Daleiden and Merritt on a single video recording charge. It involves no jail time, no fines, no admission of wrongdoing, and no probation. The new “no contest” plea—which cannot be used adversely—will be entered into judgment as a misdemeanor in 6 to 12 months, and then converted to a “not guilty” plea, dismissed, and expunged.
7 of the 14 video recording charges initially brought in this case were dismissed halfway through as unsupported by probable cause. Other litigation continues about the constitutionality of antiquated state video recording laws like California’s.
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CMP’s undercover reporting at issue in the case led to a $7.8 million settlement in which two companies admitted illegally selling aborted fetuses from Planned Parenthood in southern California, a settlement with disgorgement of profits from the sale of aborted fetal organs in Arizona, and the disqualification of Planned Parenthood from state and federal funding in Texas for violations of medical standards and ethics documented on the undercover footage—where Planned Parenthood now faces a nearly $2 billion federal False Claims Act case from the disqualification.
“After enduring 9 years of weaponized political prosecution, putting an end to the lawfare launched by Kamala Harris is a huge victory for my investigative reporting and for the public’s right to know the truth about Planned Parenthood’s sale of aborted baby body parts. Now we all must get to work to protect families and infants from the criminal abortion-industrial complex,” Daleiden said in a statement.
“Taking the San Francisco case off the board allows me to focus fully on CMP’s mission to report on the injustices of taxpayer-funded experiments on aborted babies and continue to expand our groundbreaking investigative reporting,” he added.
“In my 5 decades as an attorney, 40 years of which were as a prosecutor, I have never seen such a blatant exercise of selective investigation and vindictive prosecution. The California Attorneys General who initiated this case and pursued it for nearly 10 years should be ashamed for weaponizing their office to pursue people who were merely exposing illegality associated with the harvesting and sale of fetal body parts,” Hon. Steve Cooley, Los Angeles County District Attorney, 2000-2012, who led Daleiden’s legal defense team throughout the high-stakes case, added.
