A California judge refused to allow the names of 14 Planned Parenthood and other abortion workers to be released Monday in the case against David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt.
The Center for Medical Progress leaders face 15 felony charges for their undercover investigation that exposed Planned Parenthood’s baby body parts trade.
Brent Ferreira, an attorney for Daleiden, responded to the decision Monday by accusing prosecutors of a “political vendetta,” the Bay City News reports.
“This case is just a mess,” Ferreira said. “It’s not a case. It’s a political vendetta.”
On Monday, at state prosecutors’ request, San Francisco Judge Christopher Hite ruled that the names of 14 abortion workers filmed by Daleiden and Merritt must remain redacted in court filings, according to the report.
California Deputy Attorney General Johnette Jauron claimed the redactions are necessary because the workers’ safety could be in jeopardy.
KVPR News reports Hite agreed and threatened to punish anyone who releases the names.
However, Horatio Mihet, the lawyer for Merritt, said safety is not prosecutors’ real concern, Courthouse News reports.
“The only reason the attorney general wants to have these videos sealed and kept from the public eye is because the videos themselves provide damning evidence that these allegedly confidential conversations were not in fact confidential,” he said. “The videos themselves put the lie to the attorney general’s case and reveal it for the fraud that it is.”
Bay City News reports more:
Hite did not make a decision on two other motions, one to keep the recorded videos private when shown in court and another on whether Planned Parenthood can join the lawsuit against Merritt and Daleiden. …
Regarding Jauron’s claim about the workers’ safety being in jeopardy, Peter Breen, also Daleiden’s attorney, called the claim “disingenuous.”
“These folks are already public… You can go and Google these folks, if you knew their names. You’d see them talking to the New York Times, you’d see them talking to the Washington Post, going out and being proud on social media; so that’s not the issue here,” he said.
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The judge, however, did delay the preliminary hearing after Planned Parenthood filed a last-minute motion to intervene in the case. According to CNS, the abortion chain wants to block the defense from cross-examining four of the 14 people whose names have been redacted, claiming they are “victims” under the state Marsy’s Law.
The report noted that Hite seemed skeptical of the abortion chain’s reasoning, but he did not rule on the matter yet.
Daleiden and Merritt have been defending themselves in court for years after they exposed gruesome baby body parts harvesting practices at Planned Parenthood. Many of the charges against them have been dropped, but the California case (originally started by pro-abortion presidential candidate Kamala Harris) continues.
The Center for Medical Progress investigation exposed numerous atrocities inside Planned Parenthood abortion facilities across the U.S. Its findings prompted investigations by the U.S. House and Senate, as well as a number of states.
The committees concluded by recommending that the Department of Justice investigate Planned Parenthood. Both said they found strong evidence that the abortion chain broke the law. The Department of Justice is investigating.
Planned Parenthood repeatedly has denied all allegations of wrong-doing, and many news outlets now parrot its talking points that the undercover videos were deceptively edited or debunked, even though that is not true. An independent forensics investigation verified that the videos were authentic.
Some undercover videos show how Planned Parenthood employees callously and flippantly negotiated the price of tiny baby hearts, lungs, livers and brains. Other evidence indicates the abortion giant may have broken HIPAA patient privacy laws.
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Author: Micaiah Bilger
