After nine years of “unprecedented political prosecution,” the state of California has agreed to drop all charges against two pro-life activists for their release of undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing the acquisition and selling of aborted babies’ body parts.
David Daleiden, founder and president of the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), and CMP undercover journalist Sandra Merritt, said Monday the criminal cases against them have ended, with the California Attorney General’s office agreeing to a plea deal that includes no prison time or fines, Live Action reported Monday.
Videos released by Daleiden and Merritt in 2015 exposed the Planned Parenthood scandal after they went undercover at various locations, including the National Abortion Federation’s 2014 and 2015 convention and trade shows. The videos, some of which were also taken from inside Planned Parenthood offices, reportedly showed Planned Parenthood executives in heated discussions with companies like StemExpress over the prices of organs and tissues taken from aborted children, some of whom were allegedly born alive before their hearts were harvested.
The NAF filed suit in response to the videos, and Planned Parenthood claimed that the videos were deceptively edited even though the videos were also released in their entirety.
The videos caused widespread condemnation and led to a renewed push to have the federal government defund Planned Parenthood as well as multiple investigations into whether the nation’s leading abortion provider was violating federal law.
After some videos were released, rather than investigate Planned Parenthood, then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris met with the organization’s officials in 2016 and subsequently ordered criminal investigations into Merritt and Daleiden. Harris’ successor, Attorney General Democrat Xavier Becerra, charged Daleiden and Merritt with violating California’s recording law. The state had never criminally prosecuted undercover journalists for recordings made in the public interest, according to Liberty Counsel, a Christian legal group representing Merritt.
The state charged Merritt and Daleiden with 14 felony counts each of unlawfully recording a conversation and one felony count of criminal conspiracy. “Seven of the 14 video recording charges initially brought in this case were dismissed halfway through as unsupported by probable cause,” the CMP statement said.
According to the state’s plea deal agreement, Daleiden and Merritt will make a “no contest” plea agreement with the California Attorney General’s office. They will receive 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,” explained CMP.
Liberty Counsel said that according to Merritt’s deal, she will plead no contest to one felony charge, which after a one-year probationary period will be reduced to a misdemeanor and then expunged from her record. The state will drop all remaining felony counts.
“The deal is essentially a complete victory for Merritt in this politically motivated criminal case,” Liberty Counsel said in a news release.
“Sandra Merritt did nothing wrong,” said Mat Staver, founder and chairman of the legal group. “She did the right thing by exposing the depravity of the abortion industry. This plea agreement ends an unjust criminal case by dropping these baseless criminal charges without any prison time, fines or other penalties.
“Murdering human babies to harvest their body parts for profit is evil and there is no excuse for Sandra’s political persecution. This is an extraordinary result for Sandra and the state of California deserves to walk away virtually empty handed.”
Daleiden called the deal a huge victory and said his organization can now get back to the work of protecting families.
“After enduring 9 years of unprecedented 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,” Daleiden said.
“Now we all must get to work to protect families and infants from the criminal abortion-industrial complex. 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.”
Associated Press