A federal judge linked to the abortion business says he’ll hold in contempt two lawyers for an undercover investigator who has reported on Planned Parenthood’s baby body parts trade – and likely will announce the same punishment for David Daleiden of the Center for Medical Progress.
Daleiden, along with an employee, visited multiple abortion industry locations undercover to get abortionists themselves revealing how they want to profit from dead babies.
One woman famously argued for higher prices for body parts, confirming, “I want a Lamborghini.”
It was Judge William H. Orrick II who revealed, in a report at Courthouse News, that he will hold lawyers Steve Cooley and Brentford Ferreira in contempt for releasing a video they say needs to be public because it is the basis for California’s criminal counts against Daleiden.
Essentially, Orrick wants the evidence against the abortionists suppressed – even while it is used in a criminal case against Daleiden, allegedly for recording conversations with abortionists without their knowledge.
The conversations that were recorded were in public places, where individuals arguably have no expectation of privacy.
The Thomas More Society has been defending Daleiden in some of the cases launched against its client by an enraged abortion industry caught dealing the body parts of unborn babies. The Thomas More Society said the ruling that keeps the undercover video suppressed is being advanced to the U.S. Supreme Court “as an unconstitutional censorship decree and a ‘prior restraint’ on the free speech rights of Daleiden and his company, the Center for Medical Progress.”
Cooley, who for a decade was the district attorney in Los Angeles County, and Ferreira, who was Cooley’s chief assistant in state office, were represented by Los Angeles attorney Matt Geragos before the infuriated Orrick.
They argued they had released and published the videos in good faith, “believing the publication was needed to mount an effective defense for Daleiden” against the 15 counts filed by the pro-abortion activist, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra.
Becerra claims Daleiden and a partner invaded the privacy rights of “victims” of his undercover videos, in public locations, in violation of California’s eavesdropping law, which bans non-consensual surreptitious recordings of “private, confidential” conversations.
“The defense lawyers argued that they could not adequately defend the charges as the undercover recordings showed that the defendants had numerous conversations with other persons and therefore they could not determine which conversations were pinpointed in Becerra’s felony charges,” the Thomas More organization explained.
Becerra initially filed the charges against Daleiden without providing any information about those making the complaints.
Moreover, Daleiden’s defenders explained the conversations were in public areas where any number of passersby could have heard the discussions.
Federal suppression of the videos’ contents, they argued, would thereby deprive Daleiden of a fair trial and fatally undermine the entire criminal prosecution.
A written opinion from Orrick, who has a longstanding board membership with the Good Samaritan Family Resource Center in San Francisco, which for years has had a Planned Parenthood abortion business on its premises, is expected soon.
Tom Brejcha, president of the Thomas More Society, which has been underwriting Daleiden’s and CMP’s criminal defense, said, “Yet another appeal seems in order here, for as the L.A. Times editorialized, California’s felony criminal prosecution of these pro-life undercover journalists was a gross ‘overreach’ as two massive federal cases were already pending against them in Judge Orrick’s federal court.
“The pendency of simultaneous federal civil cases proceeding side-by-side with such a major state criminal prosecution of multiple felonies was bound to breed the most serious and grave complications, not to mention the miscarriage of justice. Must the pro-lifers’ criminal defense lawyers seek prior federal permission before summoning or cross-examining prosecution witnesses, or introducing videos or other documentary evidence into the trial record? Must the state court judge, Hon. Christopher Hite, consult with the federal judge, Hon. William Orrick, before ruling on objections to evidence? And who is actually directing the criminal case, Attorney General Becerra, or the federal civil plaintiffs, the National Abortion Federation and Planned Parenthood Federation of America, who lobbied him and his predecessor, then Attorney General Kamala Harris, to bring these excessive felony charges? We will carry on with efforts to see that justice is ultimately achieved in these troubling cases.”
Life Legal, which also has been involved in the defense of attacks from the National Abortion Federation, Planned Parenthood and others, pointed out that the NAFÂ demanded that it be given funds raised for Daleiden’s legal defense for its damages.
“Meaning NAF wants to put donor money in their bloodied pockets,” Life Legal said in a statement.
“The National Abortion Federation did not present sufficient evidence that David was involved in the release of the enjoined videos,” said Alexandra Snyder, Life Legal Defense Foundation executive director. “Derek Foran, lead attorney for NAF, said that the videos were released with the hashtag #PlannedParenthoodSellsBabyBodyParts. He called this a ‘horrendous term.’ I agree. The business of tearing babies apart and profiting from the sale of their parts is horrendous.”
In March, Becerra charged Daleiden and employee Sandra Merritt with counts of recording people undercover. Those charges later were dropped as fatally flawed. But Becerra promptly came back with another set of related charges.
Another federal judge, James Donato, recently refused to grant Daleiden’s request that Orrick be taken off the case because of his links to Planned Parenthood, and his donations of some $5,000 to a facility that provides space to the abortion industry leader.
WND reported that Orrick was the judge who just weeks ago issued an order censoring all media everywhere from posting a video in which abortionists joke among themselves about the killing of unborn infants.
Even news outlets not party to the case are barred from posting the video.
WND, however, transcribed for its readers the comments of the abortion-industry figures.
Lisa Harris, medical director for Planned Parenthood of Michigan, says in the video: “Our stories don’t really have a place in a lot of pro-choice discourse and rhetoric, right? The heads that get stuck that we can’t get out. The hemorrhages that we manage.”
Susan Robinson of Planned Parenthood of Mar Monte in San Jose, California: “The fetus is a tough little object and taking it apart, I mean taking it apart, on day one is very difficult.’
Talcott Camp, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Reproductive Health Freedom Project: “I’m like oh my god! I get it! When the skull is broken, that’s really sharp. I get it, I understand why people are talking about getting that skull out, that calvarium.”
Deborah Nucatola, senior director of medical services at Planned Parenthood Federation of America: “You know, sometimes she’ll tell me she wants brain, and we’ll, you know, leave the calvarium in ’til last, and then try to basically take it, or actually, you know, catch everything, and even keep it separate from the rest of the tissue so it doesn’t get lost.”
The video was the work of undercover investigators with the Center for Medical Progress, who since 2015 have released more than a dozen videos of abortionists – mostly from Planned Parenthood – talking about their unborn-baby, body-parts trade, their willingness to adjust an abortion procedure to salvage a particular body part sought by a researcher and more.
Most of the videos have been released to the public, but the National Abortion Federation went to court demanding that videos of its members speaking be removed from the Web.
Orrick was appointed under the pro-abortion agenda of Barack Obama, and remains on the case despite the fact his wife “has also posted public comments, pictured with her husband, that are supportive of Planned Parenthood and critical of these moving defendants.”
A spokeswoman in Orrick’s office, Jean Davis, told WND the judge would refuse to comment on his prior restraint order.
One of the CMP videos showed an official admitting Planned Parenthood sells fully intact aborted babies.
[jwplayer RiJygVb1]
Another has Deborah Nucatola of Planned Parenthood commented on crushing babies.
“We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part, I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact,” she said.
[jwplayer 7pzwagZg]
In the second video, Planned Parenthood’s Mary Gatter discussed how her compensation for organs could rise when she said, “I want a Lamborghini.”
[jwplayer vbPjx8h2]
The fifth video released shows Melissa Farrell of Planned Parenthood’s Houston clinic discussing “intact fetal cadavers”:
[jwplayer 6YZC1nO2]
The seventh video has the testimony of a Planned Parenthood worker who tapped an aborted infant’s heart and saw it start beating.
[jwplayer 5wFzwlF1]
