David Daleiden | |
---|---|
Born | 1989 |
Education | Davis Senior High School |
Alma mater | Claremont McKenna College |
Occupation | Anti-abortion activist |
David Robert Daleiden (born 1989) [1] is an American anti-abortion activist [2] who worked for Live Action before founding the Irvine, California-based Center for Medical Progress in 2013. [3] [4]
Daleiden says he is the "child of a crisis pregnancy" and grew up "culturally Catholic". [5]
Daleiden graduated from Davis High School in 2007 and later from Claremont McKenna College. [6]
In 2015, Daleiden released videos showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing fees for human fetal tissue and organs. [7] [8] Daleiden, an associate of Lila Rose, ran a Live Action chapter in 2007 and was the organization's director of research "during the early stages" of the project to make secret recordings of Planned Parenthood clinics. [9] [10] He originally registered his Center for Medical Progress [C.M.P.] as a tax-exempt biomedical charity. In furtherance of his plan, he set up a fake biomedical research company called Biomax Procurement Services. Daleiden and his collaborator, Sandra Merritt, posed as employees of Biomax and orchestrated surreptitious recordings of interviews where his associates asked about tissue donation costs, and questioned whether tissue samples could be acquired from African American patients with sickle-cell anemia. [11] After the publication of the videos, Daleiden re-registered his Center for Medical Progress as a journalistic organization. [9] [12] [13]
Planned Parenthood states that they may donate fetal tissue at the request of a patient, but such tissue is never sold. [11] [14] According to Molly Redden of The Guardian , the content of the videos was "broadly considered to be false, the product of aggressive and misleading editing". [15] Fusion GPS, the production company Planned Parenthood hired in the wake of the scandal to debunk the videos, rigorously analyzed them and found what they considered to be "...'substantive omissions' on Daleiden's part. According to the investigation, the reviewers could not determine 'the extent to which C.M.P.'s undisclosed edits and cuts distort the meaning of the encounters the videos purport to document.' But, it said, 'the manipulation of the videos does mean they have no evidentiary value in a legal context and cannot be relied upon for any official inquiries' unless C.M.P. provides investigators with its original material, and that material is independently authenticated as unaltered." [16]
The videos were shown to Republican Congressmen Trent Franks and Tim Murphy two weeks before being made publicly available, leading commentators to note that the timing of the release appeared to coincide with a bipartisan bill to raise money for Susan G. Komen for the Cure. [5] [17] [18]
On July 31, 2015, the National Abortion Federation sued CMP and Daleiden, alleging that Daleiden's campaign violated its members' privacy and threatened their safety. [19]
On January 22, 2016, Daleiden appeared on C-SPAN for a question-and-answer session that included viewer call-ins. He advocated reverting current laws back to the time when all elective abortions were criminal acts. The segment's opposing view was presented by NARAL Pro-Choice America policy director Donna Crane. [20] [21]
As part of the National Abortion Federation's lawsuit against Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress, Federal Judge William Orrick III and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an injunction in July 2015 forbidding Daleiden and CMP from publishing any more videos they had obtained at private professional meetings. [3] In March 2017 a federal appeals court in March upheld Orrick's ruling, but new videos then appeared on the website of Daleiden's attorneys, former Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley and Brentford J. Ferreira. [22] On July 11, 2017, Orrick found attorneys Cooley and Ferreira in contempt of court, saying, "With respect to the criminal defense counsel, they do not get to decide whether they can violate the preliminary injunction". [23]
On July 17, Orrick found Daleiden, the Center for Medical Progress and their lawyers, Steve Cooley and Brentford Ferreira, in contempt of court. [24] Orrick ordered Daleiden to turn over video footage and other materials related to his 2016 preliminary injunction. [25]
On August 31, Orrick found Daleiden and his attorneys, Steve Cooley and Brentford Ferreira, owed $195,359 compensation to the National Abortion Federation for legal fees and increased security for "expenses incurred as a result of the violation of my Preliminary Injunction Order". Orrick wrote that Daleiden's attorneys, Cooley and Ferreira, were included in the sanctions intended to ensure "current and future compliance" with his order. [26]
In November 2019, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Orrick's 2016 injunction, in a 3-0 ruling. [27] : 1 [2] : 1
On January 25, 2016, a grand jury in Harris County, Texas that originally had investigated the Gulf Coast chapter of Planned Parenthood and cleared them of any wrongdoing, [15] : 1 instead indicted Daleiden on a felony count of tampering with governmental records by making and using a fake driver's license, [28] and a misdemeanor charge for emailing an offer to buy fetal tissue for $1,600. [29] [30] [31]
Daleiden turned himself in on February 4, 2016, [32] [33] and appeared in court after posting $3,000 bond. [34] He could have faced a prison sentence of up to 22 years if convicted, according to The Washington Post . [29] He reportedly rejected a plea deal in the case. [35]
The misdemeanor charge of offering to buy fetal tissue was dismissed on June 13, 2016, because of a defect in the indictment. [36] On July 26, 2016, Texas District Judge Brock Thomas dismissed the felony charges by ruling that the grand jury exceeded its authority by indicting Daleiden and Merritt when it was chartered only to investigate Planned Parenthood. [15] : 1 [37]
On March 28, 2017, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed 15 felony charges against Daleiden, alleging that he and associate Sandra Susan Merritt conspired to pose as BioMax employees in order to intentionally record confidential communications between themselves and Planned Parenthood employees in Century City (Los Angeles), Pasadena (Los Angeles), El Dorado (El Dorado), and San Francisco. [38] [39] On June 21, 2017, Superior Court Judge Christopher Hite dismissed fourteen of the charges, with leave to amend, on the grounds that they were legally insufficient because they did not include details such as the names of the alleged victims and the locations and dates of the videoed events. [40] "Leave to amend" means that the prosecutors were allowed the option to re-file the charges with more details; the prosecutors did so some time during the week of July 3, and all fifteen felony charges against Daleiden and Merritt are active again. [41]
On June 30, 2017, state prosecutors refiled the 14 dismissed charges with numerical identifications for each video. [42] [43] On August 24, 2017, the San Francisco Superior Court rejected new defense motions to dismiss the charges and allowed the case to proceed. Daleiden then pleaded not guilty. [43]
In September 2019, a hearing was held in San Francisco to determine whether Daleiden and Sandra Merritt should go to trial for fifteen criminal counts of felony invasion of privacy. [44] In this hearing, Daleiden's attorneys disputed the warrant by which agents with the California Dept of Justice entered Daleiden's home and seized computers, digital storage devices, and phony identification documents, in April 2016. The court, however, denied their claim that Daleiden was protected by California's Shield Law for acting as a citizen journalist, because the Department of Justice had sufficient probable cause of criminal activity to make the seizures. [45]
On December 6, 2019, Judge Christopher Hite ruled that Daleiden and Merritt would stand trial on nine felony counts involving eavesdropping and invasion of privacy. [46] At the February 21, 2020 arraignment, Daleiden and Sandra Merritt pleaded not guilty. [47]
On Daleiden and Merritt's appeal, Judge Suzanne Bolanos decided in July 2020 that prosecutors could try Daleiden on nine counts and Merritt on eight. [48]
Following the September 2019 criminal hearing, Planned Parenthood and others affected by Daleiden's videos initiated a civil jury trial in federal court against Daleiden and Merritt, and also Center for Medical Progress affiliates Troy Newman, Albin Rhomberg, and Gerardo Adrian Lopez. The defendants were accused of fraud, breach of contract, unlawful recording of conversations, civil conspiracy, and violation of federal anti-racketeering law. [49] [50] A verdict awarded the plaintiffs more than $2.2 million on November 16, 2019, and Daleiden was instructed to pay $500,000 in compensatory damages (most of which would be tripled under federal racketeering law), as well as $870,000 in punitive damages to Planned Parenthood. [27] [2] : 1 [51] The Thomas More Society appealed the civil judgment on behalf of Daleiden. In October 2022, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that the videos were not protected under the First Amendment, but reversed the racketeering ruling. [52] In October 2023, the United States Supreme Court declined to take up Daleiden's appeal, leaving in place the 9th Circuit's affirmation of the multi million dollar verdict. [53]
In May, 2020, Daleiden filed suit against California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and former Attorney General Kamala Harris, claiming Harris conspired with Planned Parenthood to violate his civil rights by prosecuting him for his undercover investigation. [54]
Undercover journalism is a form of journalism in which a reporter tries to infiltrate in a community by posing as somebody friendly to that community.
The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), or simply Planned Parenthood, is an American nonprofit organization that provides reproductive and sexual healthcare and sexual education in the United States and globally. It is a member of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).
Anti-abortion violence is violence committed against individuals and organizations that perform abortions or provide abortion counseling. Incidents of violence have included destruction of property, including vandalism; crimes against people, including kidnapping, stalking, assault, attempted murder, and murder; and crimes affecting both people and property, as well as arson and terrorism, such as bombings.
The National Abortion Federation (NAF) is a professional association of abortion providers. NAF members include private and non-profit clinics, Planned Parenthood affiliates, women's health centers, physicians' offices, and hospitals who together perform approximately half of the abortions in the U.S. and Canada each year. NAF members also include public hospitals and both public and private clinics in Mexico City and private clinics in Colombia.
Stephen Lawrence Cooley is an American politician and prosecutor. He was the Los Angeles County District Attorney from 2000 to 2012. Cooley was re-elected in 2004 and again in 2008.
Troy Edward Newman-Mariotti, known as Troy Newman, is an American anti-abortion activist. He is the president of Operation Rescue, which is based in Wichita, Kansas, and sits on the board of the Center for Medical Progress.
Rachelle Ranae "Shelley" Shannon is an American anti-abortion extremist who was convicted in a Kansas state court for the attempted murder of George Tiller by shooting him in his car in Wichita, Kansas in 1993. She was also convicted in U.S. federal court for ten attacks at abortion clinics using arson or acid. At her sentencing in U.S. District Court in 1995, the presiding judge described Shannon as a terrorist and agreed with prosecutors that she was a threat even from behind bars. She served her sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Waseca, Minnesota and was released in November 2018.
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James Edward O'Keefe III is an American political activist who founded Project Veritas, a far-right activist group that uses deceptively edited videos and information gathering techniques to attack mainstream media organizations and progressive groups. Both O'Keefe and Project Veritas have produced secretly recorded undercover audio and video encounters in academic, governmental, and social service organizations, purporting to show abusive or illegal behavior by representatives of those organizations; the recordings are often selectively edited to misrepresent the context of the conversations and the subjects' responses. O'Keefe served as chairman until he was fired from the organization in February 2023.
Lila Grace Rose is an American anti-abortion activist who is the founder and president of the anti-abortion organization Live Action. She has conducted undercover investigations of abortion facilities in the United States, including affiliates of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Live Action is an American 501(c)3 nonprofit anti-abortion organization founded by Lila Rose. Live Action is known for its anti-abortion activism and posting of undercover videos taken at Planned Parenthood. Live Action seeks to outlaw abortion nationwide and to defund Planned Parenthood.
Abby Johnson is an American anti-abortion activist who previously worked at Planned Parenthood as a clinic director, but resigned in October 2009. She states that she resigned after watching an abortion on ultrasound. The veracity of her account and the details and motivation for her conversion have been challenged by investigative reporters, as medical records contradict some of her claims.
William Horsley Orrick III is an American lawyer who serves as a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. He had a long career as a lawyer in private practice in San Francisco, and served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice during the Obama administration.
The Center for Medical Progress (CMP) is an anti-abortion organization founded by David Daleiden in 2013. The CMP is best known for producing undercover recordings that prompted a controversy over Planned Parenthood in 2015; CMP established a fake company to pose as buyers of fetal tissue and secretly recorded Planned Parenthood officials during meetings.
Albin Rhomberg is an American anti-abortion activist and physicist based in Sacramento, California.
In 2015, an anti-abortion organization named the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) released several videos that had been secretly recorded. Members of the CMP posed as representatives of a biotechnology company in order to gain access to both meetings with abortion providers and abortion facilities. The videos showed how abortion providers made fetal tissue available to researchers, although no problems were found with the legality of the process. All of the videos were found to be altered, according to analysis by Fusion GPS and its co-founder Glenn R. Simpson, a former investigative reporter for The Wall Street Journal. The CMP disputed this finding, attributing the alterations to the editing out of "bathroom breaks and waiting periods". CMP had represented a longer version of the tapes as being "complete", as well as a shorter, edited version. The analysis by Fusion GPS concluded that the longer version was also edited, with skips and missing footage. Nonetheless, the videos attracted widespread media coverage; after the release of the first video, conservative lawmakers in Congress singled out Planned Parenthood and began to push bills that would strip the organization of federal family planning funding. No such attempts by Congress to cut federal family planning money from Planned Parenthood have become law. Conservative politicians in several states have also used this as an opportunity to cut or attempt to cut family planning funding at the state level.
On November 27, 2015, a mass shooting occurred in a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado, resulting in the deaths of three people and injuries to nine. A police officer and two civilians were killed; five police officers and four civilians were injured. After a standoff that lasted five hours, police SWAT teams crashed armored vehicles into the lobby and the attacker surrendered.
Fusion GPS is an opposition research and strategic intelligence firm based in Washington, D.C. The company conducts open-source investigations and provides research and strategic advice for businesses, law firms and investors, and political campaigns. The "GPS" initialism is derived from "Global research, Political analysis, Strategic insight".
Amelia Bonow is an American abortion rights activist, and co-creator of the social media campaign #ShoutYourAbortion, along with fellow activists Lindy West and Kimberly Morrison. She is the Founding Director of #ShoutYourAbortion. Bonow's writing has appeared in The New Republic, The Huffington Post, The New York Daily News, and Salon, among others.
The CMP was founded by David Daleiden, an anti-abortion activist who previously worked for the group Live Action, known for its heavily edited undercover videos of Planned Parenthood staffers.
After a monthlong trial, the jurors found that David Daleiden, his employee Sandra Merritt and their collaborators had violated state and federal laws against trespassing, fraud, clandestine recording and racketeering, as well as the nondisclosure agreements the two signed before entering the meetings. Jurors awarded Planned Parenthood more than $500,000 as compensation for the intrusions and $870,000 in punitive damages. Under federal racketeering law, most of the compensation will be tripled.
The case is Planned Parenthood Federation of America Inc. et al. v. Center for Medical Progress et al., case number 3:16-cv-00236, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.