Last Wednesday, the San Francisco Superior Court dismissed fourteen of the fifteen charges against David Daleiden for recording undercover exchanges between top Planned Parenthood executives, showing that Planned Parenthood profits off of the sale of aborted baby parts. As the news story broke we quickly posted an update to notify our readers but promised to provide more details. Here they are.
Pro life journalists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt were charged with fifteen felonies on Tuesday, March 28 by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra for the release of undercover videos containing incriminating evidence against the abortion giant Planned Parenthood. The videos show members of the organization negotiating and selling body parts of aborted children, an clearly criminal offense. California has already reported that Becerra has a conflict of interest, as Planned Parenthood has personally endorsed him and made multiple donations to his political campaigns.
Lila Rose, Founder and President of Live Action (which has also released undercover footage of Planned Parenthood employees) wrote on Twitter:
It's unconscionable that CA lawmakers – elected to uphold the law – want to jail journalists who expose potential lawbreaking by @PPact.
— Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) June 23, 2017
Back when the charges were first dropped, Lila Rose said in a statement that “using state power to attack citizen journalists who expose crimes against the defenseless is a severe miscarriage of justice,” according to The Blaze.
In a statement to LifeNews, pro-life attorney Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel, representing Merritt, said, “This is a huge victory to have 14 criminal counts dismissed.”
“We will now turn our attention to dismissing the final count. Sandra Merritt did nothing wrong. The complaint by the California Attorney General is unprecedented and frankly will threaten every journalist who provides valuable information to the public. This final count will also fall,” said Staver.
