Reuters has an eye-opening story on what we blogged about earlier, how Planned Parenthood lawyers turned the tables on those who made the videos exposing the organization’s organ trafficking. By working closely with the Texas grand jury investigating Planned Parenthood, the lawyers were able to frame the case so that the abortionists were no longer accused of a crime but were rather victims of a crime. And because the filmmakers used fake IDs, they had a crime to charge them with. On top of that, with excruciating irony, because the filmmakers said they wanted to buy fetal tissue, the lawyers got the grand jury to charge the pro-lifers with organ trafficking, the very crime Planned Parenthood had been accused of!
Another example of the cynical adage that if you are accused of a crime, all you need is a good lawyer. Read the details after the jump.
From How Planned Parenthood Outsmarted Its Accusers By Turning The Tables On Them, Reuters:
An aggressive legal strategy pursued by U.S. women’s healthcare provider Planned Parenthood may have been critical in turning the tables on opponents who were seeking to prosecute it in Texas for allegedly profiting from sales of aborted fetal tissue.
In a surprise move disclosed on Monday, a grand jury in Harris County not only cleared Planned Parenthood’s Gulf Coast affiliate but also indicted the two anti-abortion activists, David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, who had prompted the probe in the first place.
They have both been charged with using fake driver’s licenses and Daleiden for violating Texas’ prohibition on the purchase and sale of human organs – the same law he accused Planned Parenthood of breaking – when he sent an email to Planned Parenthood seeking to buy fetal tissue. Their lawyers say they have done nothing wrong.
Planned Parenthood’s legal strategy was in some ways similar to how corporations facing major white-collar criminal investigations often cooperate closely with prosecutors to try to influence the outcome.
From the start, Planned Parenthood and its Houston lawyer Josh Schaffer settled on a strategy of cooperating with investigators, said Rochelle Tafolla, a spokeswoman for the affiliate. It included volunteering documents and encouraging prosecutors to interview employees, as well as giving prosecutors tours of the Houston facility, according to Schaffer.
“We certainly began the process as suspects of a crime, and the tables got turned and we ended up victims of a crime,” Schaffer told Reuters in an interview. . . .
Although what happened during the grand jury’s secret deliberations may never be known, Schaffer said it did not vote on whether to indict Planned Parenthood.
That is because the grand jury’s focus shifted to a case against the anti-abortion campaigners, Schaffer said on a conference call with reporters, citing information he said he received from a prosecutor.
Planned Parenthood said that Daleiden and Merritt used fake driver’s licenses in April 2015 when they posed as executives from a fictitious company to secretly film conversations at the Houston facility. That led to the charges they used fake government documents with the intent to defraud.
[Keep reading. . .]
HT: Jeremiah Oehlerich, via Facebook
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