Happy New Year 2025

Tag: Harris

California ‘lawfare’ case against pro-lifers first brought by Kamala Harris ends after nine years

California authorities on Tuesday announced an end to their nearly decade-long criminal prosecution of an independent journalist and an anti-abortion activist who secretly recorded videos showing Planned Parenthood allegedly selling aborted fetal tissue.

The pair at the center of the legal fight, founder of the Center for Medical Progress David Daleiden and journalist Sandra Merritt, agreed to a “no-contest” plea deal on a single charge, resulting in no fines or prison sentences. California prosecutors had at one point pursued up to 15 felony counts in a case Daleiden said was politically motivated “lawfare.”

“My case is the first and only one that was ever criminally charged by the state attorney general’s office, and it was because of Planned Parenthood’s demand to cover up the information that was on those video recordings about how they’re using partial birth abortions to sell late-term aborted baby body parts at their taxpayer funded mega clinics across the state of California and across the country,” Daleiden told Fox News Digital in an interview on Tuesday.

“I’m no expert, but I definitely think that the election has something to do with it,” Daleiden said when asked why he thinks prosecutors dropped the charges all these years later. Daleiden dubbed the litigation “lawfare,” in a post on X.

TRANS INMATE’S LAWSUIT CHALLENGES TRUMP ‘TWO-SEXES’ ORDER CUTTING OFF TAX MONEY FOR GENDER THERAPY

Founder of Center for Medical Progress, David Daleiden, and pro-life journalist Sandra Merritt had their California case dropped with no prison time or fines on Monday. The pair secretly recorded videos showing Planned Parenthood allegedly selling aborted fetal tissue. (Getty Images)

In a statement provided to Fox News Digital, California State Attorney General Rob Bonta said, “While the Trump Administration is issuing pardons to individuals convicted of harming reproductive health clinics and providers, my office is securing criminal convictions to ensure that Californians can exercise their constitutional rights to reproductive healthcare.”

“We will not hesitate to continue taking action against those who threaten access to abortion care — whether by recording confidential conversations or other means,” he said.

Daleiden and Merritt’s plea agreement requires no contact with victims, no public identification of them, and compliance with all laws, including restrictions on recording, according to Bonta’s office.

“[T]his entire case was an exercise in grotesquely political weaponization of government.” – pro-life activist David Daleiden

As the then-California Attorney General, Kamala Harris initiated an investigation into Daleiden’s Center for Medical Progress, focusing on the legality of their undercover methods and a narrow application of the state’s eavesdropping law following the release of undercover footage. In 2016, a Texas grand jury indicted Daleiden and Merritt on felony charges related to the creation of fake IDs and offering to purchase fetal tissue. These charges, however, were later dismissed.

In April 2016, under then-AG Harris, California authorities raided Daleiden’s home for evidence, prompting questions about her relationship with Planned Parenthood, which has donated to her campaigns and many other Democrats.

Harris was elected to the U.S. Senate months later and resigned as state attorney general in January 2017.

In 2017, California prosecutors under Harris’ successor Xavier Becerra charged Daleiden and Merritt with 15 felony counts, including criminal conspiracy and invasion of privacy, for recording individuals without consent.

“They pursued this case viciously for nine years, because it was such a priority for national Planned Parenthood,” Daleiden said. “But ultimately, it’s a totally weaponized political prosecution. They’re totally wrong on the facts and the law of undercover video reporting in California, all the conversations that me and my team recorded were in public areas where other people could overhear.”

“For the Attorney General’s Office of California to come this far after nine years, and essentially walk away with nothing… just shows this entire case was an exercise in grotesquely political weaponization of government.”

STATE AGS WARN RETAIL GIANT COSTCO FOR DOUBLING DOWN ON ‘DISCRIMINATORY’ DEI

Planned Parenthood is sending a bus to the DNC. (Getty Images)

When the recordings were released, Planned Parenthood maintained it strictly donates the specimens, charging only for transportation and storage costs.

Some of the videos were recorded in 2015 during meetings between Daleiden’s operatives, posing as representatives of a fetal tissue procurement company, and various Planned Parenthood staff members. The hours-long footage published online showed conversations in which Planned Parenthood providers and executives appeared to negotiate prices for fetal tissue and discuss under-the-table procedures for obtaining it.

Merritt was involved in the undercover operation as one of the key figures behind the release of the footage alongside Daleiden.

“Sandra Merritt did nothing wrong,” Merritt’s attorneys at the Christian law firm Liberty Counsel said in a statement Monday. “She did the right thing by exposing the depravity of the abortion industry.”

According to a 2015 Guardian report, Planned Parenthood stopped accepting reimbursements for its fetal tissue donation program following state and federal probes after Daleiden’s undercover videos.

TRUMP’S ‘TWO SEXES’ EXECUTIVE ORDER COMES ON HEELS OF SCOTUS ACCEPTING ANOTHER CHALLENGE TO LGBT AGENDA

North Dakota’s previous restrictions on abortion were challenged in court by what was formerly state’s only abortion clinic. Pictured is an abortion clinic in Idaho. (Darin Oswald/Idaho Statesman/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday, “to end the use of federal taxpayer dollars to fund or promote elective abortion,” reinforcing the Hyde Amendment. As a result, organizations like Planned Parenthood, which provide abortion services, may face funding challenges depending on how the organization receives its funds for elective abortions.

According to a blog post by the organization’s political action fund, “60% of Planned Parenthood patients rely on public health programs like Medicaid and Title X.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Fox News Digital has reached out to Harris and Planned Parenthood for comment.

Jamie Joseph is a writer who covers politics. She leads Fox News Digital coverage of the Senate.

January 28, 2025
Kamala Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff lands law firm gig days after leaving DC

Former Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, landed a private sector job just days after leaving Washington, D.C.

After his wife’s unsuccessful Democratic presidential campaign against President Donald Trump, the former second gentleman is joining the law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP as a partner.

The firm made the announcement on Monday – a week after Trump was sworn in as the 47th president.

The New York-based firm, which employs about 1,200 lawyers around the world, said Emhoff “brings more than three decades serving as a litigator, trial lawyer, and trusted counsel to clients and global business leaders, as well as extensive experience representing the United States around the world, to Willkie’s broad corporate and litigation platforms.”

FORMER VP HARRIS REPORTEDLY ASKING HILLARY CLINTON FOR ADVICE ON WHAT TO DO AFTER LOSING TO TRUMP

Former first lady Jill Biden and former second gentleman Douglas Emhoff look on after President Donald Trump was sworn in at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Jan. 20, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Saul Loeb – Pool/Getty Images)

His practice “will focus on advising corporations, boards of directors, and individuals on their most consequential business challenges, sensitive investigations, and complex litigation, including matters with significant reputational concerns that are international in scope, and emerging legal issues across industries and sectors,” the firm said.

“Doug’s leadership and his service as a trusted counselor to many global business leaders across a broad range of industries, as well as his extensive legal expertise and business acumen, make him a tremendous asset,” Willkie Farr & Gallagher Chairman Thomas Cerabino said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to be adding Doug to the Willkie partnership during this period of transformational firm growth.”

“I am delighted to be joining Willkie, where I am looking forward to working alongside trusted and innovative legal counselors,” Emhoff said. “I couldn’t be more thrilled to join this talented and collaborative team.”

Former Vice President Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff listen as President Donald Trump speaks after taking the oath of office in the U.S. Capitol on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

HOLLYWOOD FINDS FAILURE TO ELECT KAMALA HARRIS ‘UNSETTLING’: ‘NOT THE DRIVER ANYMORE’

Emhoff will split his time between Los Angeles and New York. The firm said the former second gentleman will also continue to serve as an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., teaching a course on entertainment law. Days before leaving office, former President Joe Biden appointed Emhoff to serve on the board of trustees to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

When Harris was selected as Biden’s running mate in August 2020, Emhoff took a leave of absence from one of the country’s largest law firms, DLA Piper. He formally parted ways with the firm before his wife took office.

Emhoff played an influential role in fundraising for his wife’s Democratic bid for the White House against Trump after Biden exited the race. The former second gentleman hosted fundraisers with big law firm donors, as well as his connections in the entertainment industry in California, Reuters reported.

Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff, greet Vice President-elect JD Vance, right, and his wife, Usha Vance, left, upon their arrival at the White House on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

In its announcement, Willkie Farr & Gallagher stressed how Emhoff has practiced law for more than 30 years and “served as a trusted advisor to companies and leaders in business and technology hubs around the world, managing high-profile disputes and solving complex problems across entertainment, media, sports, technology, and business.”

The firm also championed Emhoff’s experience as second gentleman, saying “his broad portfolio included traveling around the world representing the United States, including at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, the Women’s World Cup in New Zealand, and numerous other diplomatic events, and leading the administration’s work combatting antisemitism.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Citing court records, Reuters reported that Emhoff has represented clients including the creators of the movie “American Made,” National Football League wide receiver Willie Gault, as well as the corporations Merck and Walmart.

Danielle Wallace is a breaking news and politics reporter at Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on X: @danimwallace.

January 28, 2025
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith says he feels like a fool for voting for Kamala Harris

ESPN host Stephen A. Smith admitted that he and others who voted for Kamala Harris in November’s election feel like “d— fools,” during an appearance on Real Time With Bill Maher on Friday.

Smith made this declaration when discussing comparisons between Harris’ campaign and Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008. The sports pundit argued that the fact that Harris was not nominated via a legitimate primary, and the fact that she performed so poorly during her short stint in the 2020 Democratic primary, made her undesirable to voters.

Harris dropped out of the 2020 primary in 2019, before even reaching the Iowa caucus. She never received a single primary vote before being anointed the nominee in 2024.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM

Oct. 23, 2024; Inglewood, California: Stephen A. Smith on the ESPN NBA Countdown live set at Intuit Dome. (Kirby Lee-Imagn Images)

“Kamala Harris, who didn’t resonate during the primaries in 2020, couldn’t even get to Iowa, suddenly is the Democratic nominee, then you roll up to the convention in Chicago and everybody is like ‘She’s a rockstar!’ So it’s like ‘How’d that happen?” Smith said.

“Yes I voted for her, a lot of people voted for her, but in the end, we end up feeling like d— fools, because we supported it, we fell for the okiedoke as they say. If you had a primary, the likelihood is she would not have been the Democratic nominee.”

Smith has been a harsh internal critic of the Democratic Party during and after the 2020 election.

During Friday’s appearance on Maher’s show, he scolded liberals for choosing not to campaign on issues that the American people were most concerned about, while admitting that Trump did, and was the closer candidate to the center of the political spectrum.

STEPHEN A. SMITH REGRETS BACKING VP HARRIS, ‘OPEN’ TO VOTING GOP: ‘NOT INTERESTED’ IN THE ‘FEAR MONGERING’

Stephen A. Smith grilled Vice President Harris over her avoiding serious media interviews since the start of her campaign. (Jim Cowsert/NBAE | Andrew Harnik / Staff)

“Here’s the deal: the man was impeached twice, he was convicted on 34 felony counts, and the American people still said, ‘He’s closer to normal than what we see on the left,’” Smith said.

During an interview with Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity days after Election Day, Smith insisted that the results were a referendum of the Democratic Party.

“I think that in light of those results we have to look at this election as a referendum on the Democratic Party. And America’s saying we’re not feeling where you are, we’re not feeling where you tried to go, we want no part of it, we’re not having it – and they made their choice and we all have to accept it,” he said.

During an interview on “The Will Cain Show” on the Thursday after the election, Smith delivered a scathing critique of the Democratic National Committee and its message ahead of Election Day and pointed to transgender issues as one of its weak points.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Smith looks on before the game between the Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks during Game 3 of the 2024 NBA Finals on June 12, 2024 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. (Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images)

“It’s such a strong tilt to the progressive left where we are talking about transgender issues and culture wars and identity politics and all of this stuff. We are sick of all of that. That makes total, total sense to me, and I’m good with it, even though I didn’t vote for [Trump]. I’m not as taken aback and feeling like nothing but gloom and doom and the world is coming to an end because the person I voted for didn’t win,” Smith said.

Smith has said multiple times that he would consider running for public office. After the results of the election, he has been one of the few figures in the liberal media to embrace the outcome of Trump’s victory and has been heavily critical of left-wing figures like Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey and Jimmy Kimmel in their portrayal of Trump.

Smith also did not rule out a possible presidential run for himself during an interview on “The View” the week after the election.

“I have no desire to be a congressional figure or a senator. But if you came to me and you told me I had a legitimate shot to win the presidency of the United States of America, I would definitely consider it,” he said.

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

Jackson Thompson is a sports writer for Fox News Digital. He previously worked for ESPN and Business Insider. Jackson has covered the Super Bowl and NBA Finals, and has interviewed iconic figures Usain Bolt, Rob Gronkowski, Jerry Rice, Troy Aikman, Mike Trout, David Ortiz and Roger Clemens.

January 25, 2025
Former VP Harris reportedly asking Hillary Clinton for advice on what to do after losing to Trump

Former Vice President Kamala Harris’ future remains unclear months after her election loss to now-President Donald Trump.

As she grapples with navigating next steps, Harris has spoken with family and close friends, including the one other person who has been in her exact position: Hillary Clinton, New York Magazine reported. The two have reportedly spoken several times since Harris’ defeat.

Some have speculated that she will stage a gubernatorial run next year in California, as her close friend, Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom, is limited on terms and can’t run again. Others think she still has her eye on the Oval Office and will launch another bid for the presidency. Shortly after the election, Harris reportedly told advisors not to make any plans that would preclude her from seeking the presidency in 2028, according to New York Magazine.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris attends President Donald Trump’s inauguration. (SHAWN THEW/Pool via REUTERS)

The former vice president has not spoken directly about her future, but she has hinted that she’s not done with politics. Last week, just days before the end of her time as then-President Joe Biden’s VP, Harris addressed a room of staff as she participated in the decades-long tradition of signing her desk drawer. During her brief remarks, Harris said she would not “go quietly into the night,” saying that “our work is not done.”

The comments she made to staff echoed a message from her concession speech in which she told supporters, “While I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign.”

Then-Vice President Kamala Harris makes her way to board a plane before departing from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on June 14, 2021. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

HARRIS FORMALLY CONCEDES ONE DAY AFTER TRUMP’S SWEEPING VICTORY

After her 2020 bid for the presidency failed, Harris was given a clear path forward as Biden’s pick to be his running mate. While Biden seemed to imply that he would be a one-term president, he announced his re-election campaign in April 2023.

However, after a disastrous debate that highlighted ongoing issues, Biden made the historic decision to drop out of the race in July 2024. This was just one week after a gunman nearly killed Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Shortly after dropping out of the race, Biden endorsed his VP, moving her to the top of the ticket. Some believed this move could have hurt her prospects, as voters saw her nomination as a coronation, in stark contrast to the “save democracy” message channeled by the Democrats.

Then-Vice President Kamala Harris delivers remarks conceding the presidential election at Howard University in Washington on Nov. 6, 2024. (REUTERS/Mike Blake)

HOLLYWOOD FINDS FAILURE TO ELECT KAMALA HARRIS ‘UNSETTLING’: ‘NOT THE DRIVER ANYMORE’

Harris and Clinton have more than election losses in common. Both were backed by a long list of Hollywood A-listers, whose endorsements ultimately did not help. Not even Taylor Swift could make the “Harris Era” happen.

“The outcome of this election is not what we hoped, not what we fought for, not what we voted for,” Harris said in her concession speech. “But hear when I say … the light of America’s promise will always burn bright as long as we never give up and as long as we keep fighting.”

Rachel Wolf is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital and FOX Business.

January 23, 2025