The video journalist who rocked the nation with his shocking recordings of Planned Parenthood officials allegedly involved in the sale of aborted baby body parts for profit, says he refuses to back down despite numerous attempts by the “abortion empire” to criminalize his work.
Speaking Friday evening at the Values Voter Summit (VVS) in Washington, DC, David Daleiden summarized what life has been like for him in the two years since he released his series of videos depicting Planned Parenthood officials discussing how to perform abortions to obtain the highest quality baby body parts for transfer to biomedical procurement companies.
The charges brought against him have all been fraught with significant conflicts of interest, he says.
In Harris County, Texas, for instance, charges brought against Daleiden and his colleague at the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), Sandra Merritt, were ultimately dropped in May 2016 when an attorney representing Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast admitted he pressured the Harris County District Attorney’s office to drop an indictment against the abortion provider and instead indict Daleiden and Merritt.
Two pro-choice law professors wrote that the indictment of Daleiden and Merrit amounted to “a stunning act of legal jujitsu” and was a “deeply disturbing” outcome, both for the First Amendment and undercover citizen journalists attempting to expose corruption.
In California, Daleiden and his colleague have been charged with 15 felony counts under California’s law protecting “confidential” conversations. However, Daleiden’s recordings were conducted in public places. Additionally, emails obtained by the Washington Times in September 2016 showed that former California attorney general and then-U.S. Senate candidate Kamala Harris’s office collaborated with Planned Parenthood to produce the legislation that specifically targeted Daleiden.
In March 2017, the new California attorney general, Xavier Becerra, announced a criminal complaint charging Daleiden and Merritt with the felony counts. Both Becerra and Harris have received contributions to their campaigns from Planned Parenthood.
San Francisco U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick III has prohibited Daleiden from releasing any further videos exposing the abortion provider’s alleged involvement in the fetal tissue procurement business.
In September, Orrick fined Daleiden and his attorneys $200,000 for contempt of his order when they published online video footage of abortionists at National Abortion Federation (NAF) trade shows. The footage showed abortionists joking about their work, discussing “the head that gets stuck that we can’t get out” and saying that “an eyeball just fell down into my lap, and that is gross!”
Dr. Lisa Harris, medical director of Planned Parenthood Michigan, is also heard in the video saying, “Let’s just give them all the violence, it’s a person, it’s killing, let’s just give them all that.”
However, Daleiden and CMP have a pending motion that requests the disqualification of Orrick “on the grounds that there is evidence of bias in favor of the plaintiff and prejudice against the defendants.”
The evidence includes that the Good Samaritan Family Resource Center – an entity that is in partnership with a Planned Parenthood affiliate, a member of NAF – has named Orrick as an emeritus member of its board.
In addition, Orrick’s wife’s Facebook account included posted public comments – along with a photo of her and her husband – that indicate support for Planned Parenthood and criticism of Daleiden and CMP.
“A San Francisco federal judge – who used to help run a Planned Parenthood clinic – is purporting to intervene in a state criminal proceeding to fine me and my lawyers just for trying to defend me with the same evidence the attorney general is using to prosecute me,” Daleiden explained to his audience at VVS.
“Welcome to Planned Parenthood’s America,” he announced. “Where the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments do not exist!”
However, the attorneys general of 20 states have filed a brief that urges the U.S. Supreme Court to lift Orrick’s injunction that has barred the release of the undercover videos.
The states’ top law enforcement officials – led by Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich – filed an amicus or “friend of the court” brief. The attorneys general argue Orrick’s ban – which the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld – “hampers law enforcement’s ability to effectively receive information and investigate possible civil or criminal wrongdoing.”
“The decision empowers would-be wrongdoers, especially those engaged in collusion, conspiracy, or other multi-party enterprises, to shroud their actions and hamper investigations,” the attorneys general added.
As a result of Daleiden’s undercover work, both the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives conducted expansive investigations into Planned Parenthood and its partners in the biomedical procurement industry, since the sale or purchase of human fetal tissue is a felony punishable by up to ten years in prison or a fine of up to $500,000 (42 U.S.C. 289g-2).
The Senate Judiciary Committee referred Planned Parenthood to both the FBI and the Justice Department for investigation and possible criminal prosecution.
Based on its findings, the Judiciary Committee’s Majority Staff Report concluded that Planned Parenthood’s partners in the biomedical procurement industry paid the abortion chain’s affiliates for the body parts of aborted babies “and then sold the fetal tissue to their respective customers at substantially higher prices than their documented costs.”
Breitbart News learned in September that an FBI official has sent a letter to the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, informing him the agency is in receipt of the committee’s criminal referrals of Planned Parenthood and its partners in the fetal tissue procurement industry.
“We can confirm the Criminal Investigative Division (CID) of FBI Headquarters received your referrals and sent them to the relevant FBI field offices for review and whatever action is deemed appropriate,” the FBI’s Gregory Brower writes to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA).
Daleiden said he is encouraged by the recent movement on the criminal referrals.
“I promise you, I am not backing down in the face of Planned Parenthood’s attacks,” he said to cheers from his audience at VVS. “I am all in to defeat them in every courtroom and to bring all the videos of their criminality to the public, who have a right to see them.”
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