Day 4 of the Preliminary Hearing in the California Attorney General’s case against David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, brought on behalf of Planned Parenthood, moved at a much slower pace than the first three days last week. On the stand for the entire day was the Attorney General’s lead investigator on the case from the California Department of Justice, who participated in serving Kamala Harris’ political search warrant in a political raid on Daleiden’s home.
- The AG’s office attempted to submit into evidence documents entirely irrelevant to the charges brought against Daleiden and Merritt, such as exhibit booth applications from Maryland and documents from Planned Parenthood in Texas. The AG tried to pass off rough draft undercover business cards with Microsoft Word placeholder “Lorem Ipsum” characters as “fake identification” to laughter in the courtroom.
- The prosecution attempted to describe paper print-outs of undercover photo IDs as “counterfeit drivers’ licenses.” The CA DOJ agent admitted on cross examination that the documents were not capable of being used for government purposes and he would not arrest someone possessing them.
- The CA DOJ agent also testified that he spoke to Planned Parenthood lawyers about what kind of evidence to collect from David Daleiden’s home, especially Daleiden’s recording devices.
- California law specifically authorizes recording of even confidential conversations if the purpose is to gather evidence of violent crime. The CA DOJ witness testified that he did not write the footnote in his arrest affidavit for Daleiden and Merritt that disregarded this key provision of the California recording law, indicating it was never investigated at all.
- Although the preliminary hearing is public, the AG’s office filed a last-minute motion to place a gag order on the proceedings, falsely and irrationally alleging some kind of link between David Daleiden’s defense of First Amendment civil rights on Tucker Carlson Friday night, and unconfirmed threats reported by Doe 12 on Thursday night. Doe 12’s credibility is already in question since the inconsistencies in her testimony on Thursday.
Proceedings continue at 9 A.M. Wednesday, September 11, in Department 10 of the San Francisco Superior Court, 850 Bryant St, San Francisco, CA 94103.
