David Daleiden Has Filed a Defamation Lawsuit Against Planned Parenthood for its 5 Year Smear Campaign

David Daleiden, who came to national prominence as the undercover investigative journalist who exposed Planned Parenthood’s alleged illegal sale of preborn remains, has filed a defamation suit against the abortion business in New York City.

It’s the latest step in the five-year-long legal battle between the pro-life activist and Planned Parenthood and its allies.

Part of the basis for this legal filing is that while Planned Parenthood publicly stated that Daleiden’s videos were doctored and untrue, it was an entirely different situation once the abortion business and its employees were under oath.

In an official statement on the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) website, Daleiden said, “Planned Parenthood admits my videos are true when under oath in federal court, but when speaking to the public, Planned Parenthood lies and calls the videos fake. I have put my life on hold for five years to report, with video evidence, the trafficking of aborted infants that I and others witnessed at the highest levels of Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry. It is time for Planned Parenthood to face the truth.”

Peter Breen, Vice President and Senior Counsel for the Thomas More Society, is Daleiden’s lead attorney and spoke with The Daily Citizen about the case.

“Planned Parenthood made these outrageous statements about his project, saying that it was manufactured and a false smear campaign,” Breen said. “Those statements are utterly untrue, and they are damaging to David and the CMP and the work that they’ve been doing and totally the opposite of what Planned Parenthood admitted in court. They conceded that the videos accurately depicted what the Planned Parenthood staff said to David during his undercover investigation. That’s the genesis of the case.”

“With this defamation case, we want to establish the truth—that David’s project and the CMP work is not just true, it is fully accurate and the furthest thing from a manufactured smear campaign.”

But doing so comes at the price.

Daleiden has been sued and investigated numerous times, especially in California, over his undercover investigation. Though he has been convicted, most of his cases have been overturned on appeal. These cases not only represent a hindrance to Daleiden’s mission with the CMP, but also a threat to the future of investigative journalism.

“The federal case against David was allowed to proceed by the district judge, despite the fact that those claims could apply to any other investigative journalist undercover on any topic anywhere in the country,” Breen explained. “If that verdict is allowed to stand, run of the mill investigative journalism would essentially end in the country because it would be too expensive to pursue and ruinous for any reporter or news organization that decided to engage in that undercover project.”

“It is much broader than just the issue of abortion,” Breen said. “No matter what your biggest concern, whether it is corrupt politicians, medical ethics, animal rights or the environment. Investigative journalists going undercover have been vital to ensuring that bad practices are rooted out. Without brave citizen journalists and professional media doing this work, our country is a much poorer place, more corrupt place.

“What David is fighting for, and what we’re fighting for on David’s behalf, is not just for his right to expose the wrongdoing of Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry, but the right of every journalist to expose wrongdoing no matter the topic.”

Since David released his undercover videos, politicians, especially in California under the leadership of former Attorney General now vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris and current Attorney General Xavier Becerra, have utilized their positions of power not to fight for the right of independent journalists but to protect a specific political organization.

“What Kamala Harris did to David, was to apply her political views, to turn his undercover journalism techniques into state level felonies,” Breen said. “The California Attorney General’s office has never prosecuted an undercover journalist for illegal taping until David Daleiden.”

Though the continued legal challenges take up an enormous amount of David’s time, it also allows him to continue to expose Planned Parenthood for its lies.

“We’re going to go in and establish the truth, that Planned Parenthood did grave wrong, and that they should be held accountable for it. And to ensure that when Planned Parenthood lies about the good work being done by David and his collogues, that it’s addressed within a court of law,” Breen said.

Daleiden also has additional videos filmed at the National Abortion Federation Conferences that have never been released due to court injunctions. Per Breen, “It’s explosive and incredible material.”

Photo from Stringer/REUTERS

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