This is unusual and uplifting:
A grand jury convened to investigate whether a Houston Planned Parenthood clinic had sold the organs of aborted fetuses on Monday cleared the clinic and instead indicted the undercover videographers behind the allegations, surprising the officials who called for the probe and delighting supporters of the women’s health organization.
The Harris County grand jury indicted David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, both of California, on charges of tampering with a governmental record, a second-degree felony with a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison. It also charged Daleiden, the leader of the videographers, with the same misdemeanor he had alleged – the purchase or sale of human organs, presumably because he had offered to buy in an attempt to provoke Planned Parenthood employees into saying they would sell.
***“As I stated at the outset of this investigation, we must go where the evidence leads us,” said Anderson, a Republican. “All the evidence uncovered in the course of this investigation was presented to the grand jury. I respect their decision on this difficult case.”
This is a total win for Planned Parenthood. Harris County, TX is the 12th state-level investigation to clear PP of all wrongdoing. What is super remarkable is that this is almost unheard of — usually grand juries hand down the indictment that the prosecutor wants. I’ve never heard them hand down an indictment against the accusers.
But it was not without losses: PP has faced defunding bills, interim charges, and Medicaid eviction.
It is unclear what federal document Daleiden alleged tampered with.
Daleiden’s opinion piece in USA TODAY yesterday made no mention of his impending arrest.
Daleiden and Merritt are also both named in a federal lawsuit filed earlier this month by Planned Parenthood.
The lawsuit accuses the Center for Medical Progress of engaging in illegal conduct in violation of the Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO) and engaging in wire fraud, mail fraud, invasion of privacy, illegal secret recording and trespassing, Planned Parenthood said in a press release.
“The people behind this fraud lied and broke the law in order to spread malicious lies about Planned Parenthood,” said Dawn Laguens, Planned Parenthood’s executive vice president, said in a statement “This lawsuit exposes the elaborate, illegal conspiracy designed to block women’s access to safe and legal abortion, and we filed the case to hold them accountable.”