This Wednesday, San Francisco Superior Court dismissed all fourteen charges out of fifteen charges that California Attorney General Xavier Becerra had filed against the founder of the Center for Medical Progress and Sandra “Susan” Merritt, his associate, for publicly releasing undercover videos that highlighted employees of Planned Parenthood negotiating the pricing of body parts of aborted fetuses.
It is has been highlighted by sources that that Becerra, a former Democratic member of Congress had accepted a large sum in campaign contributions from Planned Parenthood
The persecution had argued that the video featuring fourteen people, were filmed with their consent and that it was an act of “criminal conspiracy to invade privacy.”
The judge dismissed the charges, as they were not sufficient enough.
However, the state has been given time until the 17th of July to file a revised version of the complaint, that discusses the issue in greater depth.
“Following the defense’s complaint that there are too many surreptitious recordings to know which ones the California Department of Justice is relying on, the Judge requested more specificity in the charging document, specifically to identify the videos that are the basis of the charges. The California Department of Justice has ten days to amend the complaint and will be making the requested changes,” says a spokesperson for the California Department of Justice, as per The Blaze.
Mat Staver, the founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, an organization representing Merritt, stated, “This is a huge victory to have 14 criminal counts dismissed, we will now turn our attention to dismissing the final count. Sandra Merritt did nothing wrong. The complaint by the California attorney general is unprecedented and frankly will threaten every journalist who provides valuable information to the public. This final count will also fall.”
