Center for Medical Progress Leaders Have Been Charged With Committing Crimes

Apparently, in California, when you’re engaged in committing a crime, you’re still afforded the right to privacy while you do it.

The state’s new attorney general, former U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, has announced his office has filed 15 felony counts against the Center for Medical Progress’ David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt in connection with their videos that exposed how Planned Parenthood was profiting from the sale of aborted babies’ body parts. In a press release announcing the charges, Becerra said the videos violated the privacy rights of those who were recorded without their knowledge.

“The right to privacy is a cornerstone of California’s Constitution, and a right that is foundational in a free democratic society,” he said. “We will not tolerate the criminal recording of confidential conversations.”

Daleiden and Merritt are also accused of creating false identities and a fictitious bioresearch company to meet “women’s healthcare providers” and covertly record the private discussions they initiated. Those conversations entailed the means by which Planned Parenthood and other companies were illegally selling the baby body parts and tissues.

The CMP videos launched a national effort to fully “defund” Planned Parenthood, and led to a congressional investigation, which resulted in numerous criminal prosecution referrals in several states. The pro-life investigation organization issued the following statement:

The bogus charges from Planned Parenthood’s political cronies are fake news. They tried the same collusion with corrupt officials in Houston, Texas, and failed: both the charges and the district attorney were thrown out. The public knows the real criminals are Planned Parenthood and their business partners like StemExpress and DV Biologics—currently being prosecuted in California—who have harvested and sold aborted baby body parts for profit for years in direct violation of state and federal law. We look forward to showing the entire world what is on our yet-unreleased video tapes of Planned Parenthood’s criminal baby body parts enterprise, in vindication of the First Amendment rights of all.

Daleiden and Merritt are receiving support from others in the investigative journalism community. James O’Keefe of Project Veritas called the charges “the criminalization of investigative journalism” and a “national disgrace.” {eoa}