I think Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson might
be pitching Crooked Hillary Clinton for a VP slot. Why? Anderson shared “sealed
video evidence” with Planned Parenthood, then Anderson swayed a Grand Jury
to indict whistleblowers David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt rather than indict
Planned Parenthood for killing live birth babies for the little human lives’
body parts to sell to research organizations.
JRH 5/27/16
*********************
D.A. Admits Breaking
the Law When Indicting Planned Parenthood Investigator David Daleiden
By CHERYL SULLENGER
May 26, 2016 4:12PM
An attorney representing Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, Josh
Schaffer, has admitted that he pressured the Harris County District Attorney’s
office to refocus a grand jury investigation away from his client and onto
pro-life journalists David Daleiden and his associate, Sandra Merritt, of the
Center for Medical Progress. Schaeffer also confessed that Assistant District
Attorney Sunni Mitchell did an “end around” the State Attorney General Ken Paxton
in order to share sealed video evidence with Planned Parenthood.
The grand jury later returned indictments against Daleiden
and Merritt. Shaffer stated publicly that he was informed by the District
Attorney’s office that no investigation of Planned Parenthood ever took place.
The admissions came in an affidavit filed as an exhibit by
Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson to a brief responding to the
defendants’ motion to quash the indictments against Daleiden and Merritt.
After the release last year of undercover videos taken by Daleiden,
lead investigator for the Center for Medical Progress, and his associate, Susan
Merritt, Paxton ordered Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson to
launch an investigation into allegations that Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast
(PPGC) was illegally selling aborted baby remains for profit and altering
abortion procedures to ensure that marketable organs would be available for
sale.
At the “suggestion” of Schaffer, the grand jury never
investigated Planned Parenthood, but instead turned its attention to Daleiden
and Merritt.
Attorney General Paxton had instructed the Harris County
DA’s office not to share evidence with Planned Parenthood – including CMP
videos – that was obtained through the grand jury process.
Schaeffer stated in his affidavit that he immediately began
to seek the unedited videos taken by the CMP from Assistant Attorney General
Sunni Mitchell. Shaffer stated:
As soon as I made contact with
HCDAO prosecutors in August of 2015, I began requesting the unedited video
footage. Sunni Mitchell, the prosecutor who was leading the HCDAO
investigation, said that she was not opposed to giving me that footage.
However, she said that the HCDAO did not have any video footage other than what
was available on YouTube. I suggested that she request the unedited video
footage from the Attorney General’s Office. In time, I learned that she
obtained it from that Office. However, I was told that the Attorney General’s
Office agreed to give it to the HCDAO on the condition that the HCDAO not give
it to PPGC. Mitchell told me that she would try to obtain the footage by other
means.
“Schaffer essentially has admitted to collusion with the
Harris County District Attorney’s Office, then denied that collusion existed,”
said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue and a founding board member of
the Center for Medical Progress. “He obviously thinks his weak attempt at a
‘Jedi mind trick’ will keep him out of trouble. He’s wrong.”
Mitchell eventually obtained the video from Murphy Klasing,
one of Daleiden’s attorneys, who mistakenly released the video. Once Klasing
realized that the video was under seal in Federal Court, he requested that
Mitchell return the footage. Mitchell informed Klasing that she had already
given it to PPGC and the National Abortion Federation, who was suing Daleiden
in Federal Court.
Mitchell clearly understood that the Attorney General’s
Office did not want the video to fall into Planned Parenthood’s hands. By
requesting it from another source and supplying it to Planned Parenthood, she
knowingly disobeyed the Attorney General’s directive and undermined any attempt
to prosecute them in the future.
Planned Parenthood’s attorney also admitted that at first
Mitchell told him that she did not know the identity of the woman in the CMP
videos that went under the pseudonym of Susan Tannenbaum. Schaffer stated that
it was he who supplied Mitchell with Tannenbaum’s true name, Sandra Merritt,
which enabled Mitchell to obtain indictments against her as well as Daleiden.
“We have always questioned the ability of Devon Anderson and
Sunni Mitchell to conduct unbiased investigations of abortion providers after
they allowed Douglas Karpen to go free in 2013,” said Newman. “In Daleiden’s
case, it is clear that they were working with Planned Parenthood all along to
build a spurious criminal case against pro-life activists in order to protect
Planned Parenthood from prosecution. This makes the indictments against
Daleiden and Merritt irreparably tainted and they should be dropped
immediately.”
Mitchell was tapped by Anderson to lead a 2013 grand jury
investigation into allegations brought by Operation Rescue against abortionist Douglas Karpen that
he had intentionally murdered infants born alive after failed abortions at his
two Houston abortion facilities. Under Mitchell’s direction and despite
eyewitness and photographic evidence, the grand jury controversially failed to
indict Karpen. Operation Rescue later learned that Karpen was represented by
one of Devon Anderson’s closest friends, Chip Lewis, who is also her largest campaign
contributor.
In her responding brief opposing the defense motion to quash
the tainted indictments, Anderson makes one more startling admission. She
acknowledged that her office violated the law when it made public Daleiden and
Merritt’s indictments before they were served or placed in custody or under
bond.
However, Anderson attempts to downplay the violation as
“harmless” and a “technical violation” that is “inconsequential.” She appeals
to the court to simply ignore this violation.
“Any time due process is not followed in the course of a
criminal prosecution, it is anything but ‘harmless,’” said Newman. “It
dangerously erodes the ability of the public to have confidence in the
competency and honesty of the prosecutor’s office.”
Operation Rescue has repeatedly reported on evidence that
raises suspicions of corruption in the Harris County District Attorney’s office
and has called for Devon Anderson’s resignation along with the appointment of an
independent special prosecutor to reopen the case against Planned Parenthood.
A hearing on the motion to quash is set for July 26, 2016.
At that time, Daleiden’s Houston attorney Jared Woodfill plans to put Planned
Parenthood’s Josh Schaffer on the stand.
“The collusion between the DA and Planned Parenthood lawyers
will be flushed out during this hearing,” Woodfill told Breitbart Texas.
“We will put Planned Parenthood’s lawyer on the stand and will expose the witch
hunt that ended up with the indictment of my client but let baby part selling
Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast get off scot-free.”
But whether or not Woodfill’s plan succeeds remains to be
seen. The judge that will oversee that hearing is District Judge Brock
Thomas – Devon Anderson’s former law partner.
“We can only hope and pray that Anderson’s former law
partner isn’t as corrupt as she is,” said Newman.
LifeNews.com Note: Cheryl Sullenger is a leader of Operation
Rescue, a pro-life that monitors abortion practitioners and exposes
their illegal and unethical practices.
_______________________
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