Posted on 07/24/2017 12:42:25 PM PDT by John Semmens
Judge William Orrick levied a fine of $137,000 against David Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) for violating his "gag" order in the case against them related to their undercover investigative report on Planned Parenthood (PP). Dalieden and the CMP produced a number of covertly recorded videos of PP officials engaging in illegal sales of aborted baby parts.
"Mr. Daleiden may imagine himself a journalist going undercover to snare criminals," Orrick said. "However, he is not a recognized member of any established journalistic outlet—neither TV, radio, print nor electronic. He is, to all intents, just a private citizen invading territory that belongs to outlets like CNN and the Washington Post. There is no constitutional protection for the eavesdropping he and his confederates did."
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who is currently prosecuting Daleiden and others on 15 counts of "felony eavesdropping," called CMP's video evidence of crimes committed by PP officials "irrelevant. Even if we were to concede that selling baby parts is illegal, CMP's videos were obtained through illegal means and are, thus, inadmissible. CMP personnel portrayed themselves as fellow criminals in their interactions with PP personnel to negotiate the sales of baby parts. As such, PP had a reasonable expectation of confidentiality. CMP's publication of the videos breached the implied criminal compact and unfairly exposed PP to negative publicity. The damages could easily run into the billions. That cannot be allowed to go unpunished."
The money from Judge Orrick's $137,000 fine was turned over to the National Abortion Federation as compensation for attorney's costs incurred in defense of PP, including "an exhaustive search of the Internet for all traces of CMP's scurrilous videos."
if you missed any of this week's other semi-news/semi-satire posts you can find them at...
http://www.gopbriefingroom.com/index.php/topic,272810.msg1393699.html#msg1393699
“Mr. Daleiden may imagine himself a journalist going undercover to snare criminals,” Orrick said. “However, he is not a recognized member of any established journalistic outlet—neither TV, radio, print nor electronic. He is, to all intents, just a private citizen invading territory that belongs to outlets like CNN and the Washington Post. There is no constitutional protection for the eavesdropping he and his confederates did.”
The First Amendment denies the government the right to say who is and is not a journalist. It also does not protect corrupt progressives from being investigated.
And this judge knows that.
I can’t tell if this is satire or not.
But activists that break security to get into farms and meat processing plants are protected by judges in California. The hypocrisy of the left is overwhelming.
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