Central OC Times

Then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris (D) in 2016 prosecuted undercover journalists who uncovered Planned Parenthood’s illegal selling of fetal tissue, while choosing not to prosecute Planned Parenthood.

Undercover journalists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt recorded videos showing Planned Parenthood in California illegally profiting from fetal tissue sales. Daleiden and Merritt were both charged with 15 felony counts for recording confidential communications without consent.

After investigators searched Daleiden’s Orange County home, seizing his personal laptop and multiple hard drives, Susan B. Anthony List and Concerned Women for America asked Harris to resign as attorney general and stop her campaign for U.S. Senator, which she ended up winning, reported Politico.

“The fact that Ms. Harris is seizing private property of a pro-life California activist who has exposed horrific practices conducted by Planned Parenthood, which donated thousands to her last campaign, while her Senate campaign promotes and defends them — the nation’s largest abortion provider — is a conflict of interest and abuse of government power,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony List, said in a statement. “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.”

Daleiden and Merritt were both charged with 15 felony counts for recording confidential communications without consent.

No charges were filed against Planned Parenthood.

A civil case initiated by Planned Parenthood and other plaintiffs in 2019 after the criminal case ended with a verdict awarding Planned Parenthood and other plaintiffs $2.2 million in damages, with Daleiden instructed to pay $500,000 in compensatory damages and $870,000 in punitive damages to Planned Parenthood. Daleiden has appealed the case. 

In May of 2020, Daleiden filed a civil rights lawsuit against California Attorney General Xavier Berecca and former Attorney General Harris, claiming that the office of California Attorney General conspired with Planned Parenthood and used the California eavesdropping law to suppress journalism. Daleiden was the first journalist to be criminally prosecuted under the law. 

Harris, who was elected as the first female Vice President, has become the presumptive Democrat nominee for the upcoming presidential election after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed her in an X post on July 21. Before being elected as Vice President, Harris served as the District Attorney of San Francisco, the Attorney General of California, and as a U.S. Senator from California.