California Agrees To Drop Or Expunge All Charges In Planned Parenthood Undercover Video Case

After eight years of prosecuting Sandra Merritt, the California Attorney General’s office agreed to a plea deal to end this criminal case with no prison time and no fines for her role in the undercover journalism and videos that exposed Planned Parenthood’s trade in aborted baby body parts. Before this unprecedented case, the State of California had never criminally prosecuted undercover journalists for surreptitious recordings made in the public interest. Yet, this courageous grandmother was charged with 16 felonies and faced more than 10 years in prison for shining a light on the abortion industry’s profit from illegal organ harvesting from aborted babies.

Liberty Counsel has defended Merritt for more than a decade against California’s and Planned Parenthood’s two-pronged strategy of criminal indictments and a civil lawsuit. The negotiated plea agreement includes the state dropping all remaining felony counts. Merritt will plead “No Contest” to only one felony charge, which, after a one-year probationary period will be reduced to a misdemeanor at sentencing, and then expunged from her record entirely. Merritt will serve no prison time, will pay no fines, and will have no other penalties imposed for revealing the truth about Planned Parenthood. The deal is essentially a complete victory for Merritt in this politically-motivated criminal case.

California Ends Sandra Merritt Prosecution in Extraordinary Plea Deal - Liberty Counsel

California decided to investigate the journalists rather than investigate Planned Parenthood when the videos were released. Kamala Harris was the acting attorney general of the state of California at the time when the videos were released and the investigation into the pro-life activists was launched. It is a disgrace these people had to endure years and years of litigation for exposing the evil of Planned Parenthood.

 

I suppose drop and expunge have different meanings, so I changed the OP.

 

It does not take a lot of critical thinking skills to understand that not all video-editing is congruent or done with identical intent. There is journalism, and there is propaganda. The difference between the two is intent. One intends to uncover the truth, and one intends to conceal and misrepresent the truth. I don't see anything wrong with video editing as long as it is done in a spirit of true journalism. I did not watch the Super Bowl, but I watched the Super Bowl Highlights. I am very thankful for the video editing done there. I would however take serious offense at a video highlight reel of the Super Bowl that claimed the Chiefs won the game 22-0, and it was full of highlights of defensive stops by the Chiefs and pass completions by Patrick Mahomes.

The video edits of Planned Parenthood are like the Super Bowl highlights that show the explosive plays, critical defensive stops, the turnovers, and the scoring plays. They captured the critical moments that were most important for the audience to know. They uncovered truth about Planned Parenthood. The CBS interview with Kamala Harris was more akin to a Superbowl highlight reel claiming the Chiefs won the game 22-0. The goal of the video editing was to conceal and misrepresent the truth about Kamala Harris to make her look as good as she could possibly look.