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On October 3, federal civil jury trial began in Planned Parenthood’s retaliatory lawsuit against The Center for Medical Progress, with opening statements on behalf of each of the co-defendants. Highlights included:

• Judge Orrick instructed the 12-member jury that the case “is not about the truth of whether plaintiffs profited rom the sale of fetal tissue or otherwise violated the law in securing tissue for those programs,” and that, “Those issues are a matter of dispute between the parties in the world outside this courtroom.”
• Planned Parenthood’s lead trial lawyer told the jury in opening statement that this case is about an attempt to “destroy” Planned Parenthood using “any means.”
• Harmeet Dhillon, counsel for CMP and its undercover subsidiary BioMax Procurement Services, LLC, stated, “What this case is really about is the story of what happens when a powerful, large corporation gets a little negative publicity that it doesn’t like and responds by hitting back at a small start-up company and a handful of individuals, who are the defendants in this case.”
• Charles LiMandri of Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund, representing David Daleiden, explained that before David went public with the information in CMP’s undercover videos, “he took it to law enforcement, over ten separate contacts with law enforcement and public officials within a one-year period.”
• Paul Jonna, also with FCDF, representing CMP undercover investigator Adrian Lopez, told the jury, “This case is about undercover reporting, the First Amendment, the rights of ordinary citizens to expose unethical and potentially illegal conduct on the part of large and powerful corporations.”
• Horatio Mihet of Liberty Counsel, on behalf of CMP undercover investigator Sandra Merritt, told the jury that “as difficult as it was for Ms. Merritt to hear that evidence [of violent crimes in fetal organ harvesting], she will tell you that she just couldn’t ignore it. She believed that the public had a right to know what Planned Parenthood and others in the abortion industry were doing.”

Proceedings continue at 8 A.M. on Friday, October 4, in San Francisco Federal District Court at 450 Golden Gate Ave, San Francisco, CA 94102, in Courtroom 2 on Floor 17.

After six days of top Planned Parenthood doctors and abortion industry-big wigs making shocking admissions on the witness stand, the California Attorney General’s office has finally rested in their baseless case against CMP investigators David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt. Today’s questioning of Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Doe 10 and CA DOJ Agent Cardwell yielded big revelations:

• In the lunch meeting with Daleiden and Merritt, Doe 10 discusses a “less crunchy” technique to get more whole fetal specimens. When asked by Defense what she meant, Doe 10 said she meant switching between electric vacuum vs manual suction syringe to harvest intact fetal tissue.
• Doe 10 testified yesterday she expected the lunch meeting to be private, yet after prompting by Defense today about communicating her expectation of privacy to parties involved at luncheon, Doe 10 said she never did.
• Defense counsel showed Doe 10 several clips in which she continued her conversation in front of restaurant wait staff, and then asked Doe 10 if she lowered her voice, changed the subject, or paused. Doe 10 said she did not.
• Special Agent Cardwell, the lead investigator on the AG’s case, indicated his focus was finding “potential victims” for the AG’s office to include in prosecution as he was tasked, not investigating the elements of the California recording law.
• Defense attorneys asked Agent Cardwell if he watched all of the CMP undercover videos being used as evidence by the AG’s office to prosecute David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, and he said he didn’t. Defense asked how he could have conducted thorough investigation if he didn’t watch all of the Does’ videos. He responded he was only looking to identify “potential victims” for the AG’s case.
• The California recording law, PC 632, defines “confidential communication” to exclude “any other circumstance in which the parties to the communication may reasonably expect that the communication may be overheard or recorded.” When questioned if he asked Does 6, 7, 11, 13, 14 if they could be overheard, Agent Cardwell said he never asked the Does that question.
• When presenting evidence to judge for AG’s arrest warrant against Daleiden and Merritt, the warrant affidavit did not mention Doe’s 5 statement to Agent Cardwell that she could be overheard or the public setting in which Doe 4 was recorded (elevator and hotel lobby) or explain how these circumstances hold up against CA Penal Code 632.
• Agent Cardwell admitted that in the course of his investigation for the AG’s office he never visited the Westin St. Francis hotel where the 2014 National Abortion Federation annual meeting and the recordings of Does 1 through 8 took place.
• Agent Cardwell testified that when he took statements from the Does in his investigation for the AG’s office, he did not check their claims of “confidentiality” against the elements of the California recording law.
• Deputy Attorney General Johnette Jauron, the lead prosecutor on the case, objected that the CA recording law PC 632 has no definition of confidentiality, to audible laughter in the courtroom. In reality, PC 632 defines “confidential communication” in subsection (c).

Proceedings will continue at 9:00 A.M. on Friday, September 13, in Department 10 of the San Francisco Superior Court, 850 Bryant St, San Francisco, CA 94103.

It was a contentious fifth day at the Hall of Justice in San Francisco. First, Judge Christopher Hite heard arguments on the Attorney General’s request for a gag order against Daleiden, Merritt and their attorneys for the duration of the public hearing. The AG’s request was baseless and Judge Hite ruled against the gag order on First Amendment grounds. Next, StemExpress’ Doe 12 returned for cross examination after her gruesome testimony last Thursday. She was followed by former PPLA Medical Director Doe 10.

• AG’s office not only sought gag order but also sought an unfounded ‘stay away’ order against Daleiden on behalf of Doe 12. Judge Hite ruled against the AG on First Amendment grounds and the lack of any evidence of wrongdoing by the Defendants.
• When the defense asked Doe 12 if her Medical Director, Dr. Ronald Berman, also worked for Planned Parenthood as an abortion provider at the same time he was employed by StemExpress, Doe 12 refused to answer. Later she admitted to knowing her medical director did, at some point, perform abortions at multiple locations.
• The defense presented Doe 12 with the 2010 contract submitted by Planned Parenthood to the U.S. Congress which set out the terms for StemExpress’ purchase of “products of conception” from abortions at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte. Doe 12 questioned the veracity of the document.
• Doe 12 impugned Daleiden and Merritt on the stand several times, enough to be admonished by Judge Hite. She was told to answer only the questions asked of her by defense counsel.
• Shortly after CMP’s videos were released, StemExpress sued CMP. Documents from that lawsuit included a sworn declaration by Doe 12 in which she admitted an NDA was sent to Biomax representatives only after their undercover dinner meeting with StemExpress. When asked about the prior testimony she signed, Doe 12 stubbornly refused to recognize it as her own. Doe 12 accused defense counsel and Daleiden of doctoring documents.
• Doe 10, a longtime Planned Parenthood medical director, stated she expects her “business” meetings in “public” places like restaurants to be private and confidential.
• Doe 10 testified that while she was medical director of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, there were no rules at PPLA against changing abortion “techniques” in order to harvest better quality fetal organs and tissue. She also stated that prior to the release of CMP’s undercover videos, Planned Parenthood did not make a distinction between changing an abortion “method” and changing an abortion “technique” to get better fetal tissue.
• Doe 10 indicated at first that PPLA supplied fetal tissue directly to university researchers, but then after watching an undercover video clip of herself saying the same thing, claimed that PPLA only supplied fetal tissue to middleman company Novogenix Laboratories, LLC.

Proceedings resume at 9:00 A.M. Thursday, September 12, in Department 10 of the San Francisco Superior Court, 850 Bryant Street, San Francisco, CA 94103.

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.

Agitated, bothered, and at times combative, both Doe 9 and 12 came determined to avoid answering difficult and incriminating questions posed by defense attorneys. Yet, gruesome revelations in the sworn testimonies of the two Does in Day 3 of preliminary hearings verified and vindicated CMP’s investigative journalism work.

• The AG’s office and the defense played undercover CMP footage of former PPLA and PPFA official Doe 9. When asked if the videos depicted her conversation with Daleiden and Merritt accurately, Doe 9 said yes.
• Doe 9 refused to acknowledge or explain her statements on the undercover video describing using ultrasound guidance to flip a baby in the womb to breech position in order to extract it with the head intact for brain harvesting and then saying, “We’ve been pretty successful with that, I’d say.” A clearly irritated Doe 9 pretended to not understand the question and refused to give a direct answer about the meaning of her words.
• Defense attorneys moved to impeach Doe 9, twice, for lying under oath in yesterday’s proceedings and contradicting her prior sworn testimony. Doe 9’s prior admissions in her under-oath deposition in the federal civil case against CMP contradicted her sworn testimony on the witness stand in the AG’s state case.
• Doe 12 of StemExpress volunteered information about StemExpress in an answer to the AG’s office, claiming the organization has grown in size over the years.
• Doe 12 claimed her public restaurant dinner meeting with Daleiden and Merritt was private and that StemExpress presented Daleiden with an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) before the meeting which Daleiden and Doe 12 signed. In cross-examination, defense produced the email showing the NDA was sent and signed almost a month after the dinner. Doe 12 stumbled and could not explain the discrepancy.
• After CMP released the StemExpress videos in 2015, StemExpress publicly denied their authenticity to the public and to Congress. But under oath on the witness stand, Doe 12 testified that the documents shown in CMP videos are authentic StemExpress documents.
• Before founding StemExpress, Doe 12 was a tissue procurement technician for Advanced Bioscience Resources, responsible for collecting and harvesting baby body parts from Planned Parenthood. In her sworn testimony, Doe 12 admitted that when a fetal brain is able to be harvested, it is because the baby’s head may still be attached to the body after being pulled out of the womb. When confronted with her statements on undercover video about shipping “intact cases”, she also did not deny that StemExpress harvests and transfers unborn children from completely intact abortions.

Proceedings resume at 9:00 A.M. Tuesday, September 10, in Department 10 of the San Francisco Superior Court, 850 Bryant Street, San Francisco, CA 94103.

Sworn testimony continued with multiple Planned Parenthood witnesses today in the California Attorney General’s unprecedented video recording case against CMP investigators David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt. Key moments included:

• Doe 3, a famous 3rd-trimester abortion doctor, referred to David Daleiden as “an affable young man”
• Doe 3 described herself as a public figure and very open about her controversial late-term abortion work, and was proud of her role in a widely-publicized documentary film about late-term abortion
• When asked about StemExpress, Doe 3 claimed not to remember the company, but when questioned further, she acknowledged that workers from a procurement company that resold fetal organs and tissues made visits to the Planned Parenthood Mar Monte clinic she worked at in Fresno, CA
• Doe 3 testified there was no way to know whether individual representatives at an Exhibit Booth at the National Abortion Federation trade show were pro-life or pro-choice
• The Attorney General’s office, at the sudden prompting of Planned Parenthood, switched the order of witnesses so that Doe 9 would take the stand in the afternoon instead of Doe 10. This last-minute swap appeared orchestrated to interfere with the Defense, who had been preparing for Doe 10.
• Doe 9 refused to give a direct answer to questions about what she meant by her description of a method to obtain intact fetal heads by flipping the position of the baby to feet-first before extraction, the hallmark of illegal partial-birth abortions
• Twitter briefly suspended, and then reinstated, CMP’s Twitter access after Planned Parenthood lawyers falsely described CMP’s tweets reporting on the public hearing as “live streaming” the hearing

Proceedings resume at 9:00 A.M. tomorrow, September 5, in Department 10 of the San Francisco Superior Court, 850 Bryant Street, San Francisco, CA 94103.

Top Planned Parenthood’s top abortion doctors and abortion industry-big wigs descend on San Francisco this week to testify under oath on the witness stand, live and in public, for the first time since CMP’s undercover video series documenting Planned Parenthood leadership harvesting and selling aborted fetal organs and tissues. Key moments in the sworn testimony on Day 1 included:

• The Attorney General’s office, which is prosecuting the unprecedented case launched by now-presidential candidate Kamala Harris, focused almost entirely on the security and application process for National Abortion Federation trade shows.
• But the AG’s primary witness, Melissa Fowler, VP of External Affairs for NAF, admitted she had no responsibility for NAF security or trade show management since she started with NAF in 2006.
• NAF’s Exhibitor Rules and Regulations did not prohibit video recording at the time the undercover videos were filmed. Fowler refused to acknowledge video recording was never mentioned in the Rules and Regulations presented to exhibitors at the time of application.
• Fowler admitted meeting with CA Attorney General’s office in April to discuss questions the prosecutors would ask in the Preliminary Hearing. Fowler also admitted she was being paid as an employee of NAF to attend and testify and NAF was paying for her travel, showing the third-party abortion trade group’s outside interest in the proceedings.
• With more than a decade working with abortion doctors, vendors, and others at NAF, Fowler claimed she does not know what a fetal tissue procurement organization is, even though she recognized StemExpress as a repeat NAF vendor.
• Doe 7, a non-physician who performed surgical abortions for Planned Parenthood Northern California, testified that she provided fetal tissue from the abortions she did at Planned Parenthood as a regular occurrence.
• When asked if she had ever heard of StemExpress, Doe 7 said she had heard of cases in which StemExpress was involved and money was exchanged. StemExpress and Planned Parenthood Northern California are both under ongoing FBI and U.S. Department of Justice investigation for selling fetal organs and tissue against the law.
• The defense presented Doe 7 with video evidence of her conversation with David Daleiden and she admitted numerous third parties could overhear the conversation.
• Doe 7 could not identify Daleiden in the courtroom as the person who spoke with her and claims not to remember him.
• The testimony of Doe 3, a 3rd-trimester abortion doctor, began with the Attorney General’s office playing a nearly 20-minute-long, never before released undercover video of a conversation with her. The Defense will cross examine Doe 3 tomorrow morning about her shocking statements on the video.

CMP founder and project lead David Daleiden notes, “Planned Parenthood abortion providers appeared under oath in court today and admitted supplying the body parts of children in the womb to for-profit brokers like StemExpress. Meanwhile, the Vice President of the National Abortion Federation denied any knowledge of the gruesome trafficking in fetal body parts, despite hosting StemExpress as a major vendor at the trade shows. The first day of testimony confirmed what we have been saying all along—this is a biased attack on First Amendment civil rights and a political prosecution to shield Planned Parenthood from accountability for their crimes against women and children.”

Proceedings resume at 9:00 A.M. tomorrow, September 4, in Department 10 of the San Francisco Superior Court, 850 Bryant Street, San Francisco, CA 94103.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SAN FRANCISCO JUDGE EVISCERATES PLANNED PARENTHOOD LAWSUIT AGAINST UNDERCOVER VIDEOS
Massive Retaliatory Lawsuit Seeking $20 Million In Damages Reduced to As Little As $100,000

Contact: Matille Thebolt, mthebolt@crcpublicrelations.com, 703.683.5004

SAN FRANCISCO, July 18–In a big victory for the First Amendment freedoms of citizen journalists on Wednesday evening, a federal judge in San Francisco indicated his intent to decisively cut back Planned Parenthood’s retaliatory lawsuit against The Center for Medical Progress for the undercover videos documenting Planned Parenthood’s sale of aborted fetal body parts.

In his tentative ruling, which he instructed the parties to treat as if it were substantially final, Judge William Orrick III rejected Planned Parenthood’s false and long-running smear that accused CMP citizen journalists, including David Daleiden, of attempting to incite “threats” and “violence” by publishing the undercover videos, instead of simply publishing a true news story of public interest.

Judge Orrick wrote he was “inclined to exclude from the case all damages that stem from third parties’ reactions to the release of the video recordings as impermissible damages barred by the First Amendment absent a defamation claim.” Judge Orrick left in place only “damages for investigating intrusions” into Planned Parenthood’s space, and “improvements to access-security measures for conferences and facilities,” as well as nominal and statutory damages.

The ruling significantly downsizes Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit, reducing potentially over $20 million at issue to less than $100,000. Most importantly, the ruling affirms that citizen journalists exercising their First Amendment rights to speak and publish cannot be held liable for any bad actions taken by others in the free marketplace of ideas, absent a clear showing of defamation or intent to incite imminent lawless action. Planned Parenthood could provide no evidence or testimony in the case to back up either accusation, and so a lawsuit that was once an avalanche of charges has been reduced to essentially a trespassing dispute.

Judge Orrick previously faced scrutiny presiding over the case because of his history founding, promoting, and donating to a Planned Parenthood clinic in San Francisco run by Plaintiff Planned Parenthood Northern California.

David Daleiden, CMP founder and project lead, notes, “Now that all the facts, evidence, and testimony are in, even Planned Parenthood’s favorite judge refuses to buy into the abortion giant’s fake news and lies about the honest motives and protected speech of pro-life citizen journalists. Planned Parenthood is a government-sponsored crime syndicate selling baby body parts like widgets on an assembly line and should only appear in federal court as a criminal defendant.”

The case is Planned Parenthood Federation of America et al vs. The Center for Medical Progress et al (3:16-cv-00236-WHO), and is scheduled to go to trial on the reduced damages claims beginning September 30. The Center for Medical Progress is represented by Harmeet Dhillon of Dhillon Law Group and Charles Limandri of the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund (FCDF). David Daleiden is represented by Dhillon, FCDF, and The Thomas More Society.

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To learn more about CMP, visit centerformedicalprogress.org

 

CMP’s undercover videos exposed the callousness and barbarism of the nationwide trade in aborted baby body parts from Planned Parenthood and their business partners. President Trump is showing transformative leadership by directing his pro-life administration to end the unconscionable taxpayer funding of fetal experimentation. Americans across the country are experiencing a revolution of consciousness about the human atrocity of industrial-scale, taxpayer-funded abortion and infanticide. Now is the time for the U.S. Department of Justice and regulatory authorities to hold entities like Planned Parenthood who traffic in aborted baby body parts accountable under the law.

A majority of Americans reject subsidizing the abortion industry with taxpayer money, and today the Trump Administration showed decisive leadership by enforcing longstanding law against spending Title X funds on programs where abortion is a method of family planning. CMP submitted key facts about the entanglement of Planned Parenthood abortion programs and public funding during HHS’ comment period, and we applaud the Trump Administration’s groundbreaking move to stop forcing taxpayers to prop up Planned Parenthood’s abortion empire. On the heels of this victory, HHS should continue this good work and end its unethical and illegal experimentation with aborted baby body parts, and the U.S. Department of Justice must do its job and hold Planned Parenthood and their business partners accountable to the law against selling aborted baby parts for profit.