WND EXCLUSIVE
BABY BODY-PARTS INVESTIGATORS STAY ON TRAIL OF EVIDENCE
Fighting effort in Washington state to keep deal participants private
Bob Unruh
The undercover videos exposing the baby body-parts trade of Planned Parenthood and others have been investigated, and a number of the executives caught on video have been referred to the Department of Justice for investigation and possible prosecution.
Think the fight’s over?
Not by a long shot.
The latest, according to the Thomas More Society, is an attempt by individuals and groups in Washington state to conceal details about their trade in body parts.
The sting exposed the sale by abortionists of various baby body parts to companies that resold them to researchers. The issue is the apparent profit in the transactions, and some abortionists said they could modify abortion procedures to salvage desired body parts.
Both actions are illegal under federal law.
Now Thomas More Society officials are contesting in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals a lower court’s decision that lets publicly funded groups, such as universities, censor materials that should be public records.
David Daleiden of the Center for Medical Progress, which released the videos, had asked for access to certain public records in Washington state regarding the body-parts trade.
Officials at the University of Washington and personnel at abortion clinics who corresponded with them protested that they did not want their job titles and work locations disclosed, even though they were in public records.
It all stems from Daleiden’s efforts to review the work of the UW’s Birth Defects Research Laboratory.
The abortion business and university employees sought restraining orders and court injunctions to remain anonymous, and when a lower court issued a preliminary injunction, Daleiden took the case to the appeals court.
The lower court decision, the legal team contended, “would have a chilling effect on transparency in government – allowing publicly funded organizations to heavily redact materials that, until now, have been considered open public records.”
“The implications of this case are far-reaching,” said Peter Breen, Thomas More Society special counsel. “These records relate to government programs, performed by government employees, on government computers. Public employees and institutions have a responsibility to be accountable and transparent about how taxpayer money is being used. They have no right to scrub their records of key information or to otherwise hide the work they are doing from the very public they are supposed to be serving.”
WND reported earlier in December when several Planned Parenthood affiliates were referred by a Senate committee to the Department of Justice for investigation and possible prosecution for their involvement the sale of body parts that was exposed in 2015 through the video sting operation.
The videos contained interviews with Planned Parenthood and other abortion industry officials in which they negotiated over the price of the body parts of aborted infants, one famously suggesting higher pay because, “I want a Lamborghini.”
The U.S. House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives also previously recommended a contractor, StemExpress, an organ procurement company, be cited with contempt for refusing congressional requests for information about the scandal.
It was in a letter from Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, to Attorney General Loretta Lynch and FBI Director James Comey, posted online by Operation Rescue, that details were provided.
“In the summer of 2015, the Senate Judiciary Committee began an inquiry into paid fetal tissue transfers involving Planned Parenthood. The committee has since obtained and reviewed more than 20,000 pages of information from the organizations involved, and engaged in detail discussions with the attorneys for those organizations,” Grassley wrote.
“The report documents the failure of the Department of Justice, across multiple administrations, to enforce the law that bans the buying or selling of human fetal tissue … with even a single prosecution,” the letter said, referring to a 547-page report by the Senate committee.
“It also documents substantial evidence suggesting that the specific entities involved in the recent controversy, and/or individuals employed by those entities, may have violated that law. Moreover, that evidence is contained in those entities’ own records, which were voluntarily provided to the committee and are detailed in the report.
“I am referring the paid fetal tissue practices of the following organizations … to the FBI and the Department of Justice for investigation and potential prosecution,” the letter said.
In addition to the multiple divisions of Planned Parenthood, also listed were StemExpress, Advanced Bioscience Resources and Novogenix Laboratories.
“In addition … it appears that the Planned Parenthood Federation of America learned that its affiliates engaging in paid fetal tissue programs were not following the policies and procedures it had put in place to ensure compliance … However, instead of exercising its oversight procedures to bring them into compliance, it contacted the affiliates involved and then altered those oversight procedures in a manner that allowed the affiliates’ conduct to continue,” Grassley said.
Daleiden and Operation Rescue’s president, Troy Newman, a founding CMP board member, continue to fight a federal lawsuit from Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation, who are trying to prevent the release of additional information.
“These criminal referrals of Planned Parenthood and their partners in the organ procurement business are the result of independent investigations that corroborate the information gathered by the CMP investigators. With a new administration about to take office in Washington, D.C., my hope for successful prosecutions of these crimes are higher than ever,” Newman said.
He noted the half-a-billion dollars Planned Parenthood takes from U.S. taxpayers each year.
When the House panel voted on a contempt citation for StemExpress, Democrats on the committee walked out.
“Let me have the record reflect the Democrats are refusing to participate in this illegitimate and unsanctioned effort to seek criminal contempt (charges),” said Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill.
“We refuse to sanction or endorse this exercise by continuing to participate,” she said then.
The stunt, however, had no impact on the outcome. The committee continued with its vote, approving a report recommending StemExpress and CEO Cate Dyer be held in contempt of Congress.
They have failed to comply with “lawfully issued subpoenas,” the committee determined.
See Schakowsky’s statement:
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2016/12/baby-body-parts-investigators-stay-on-trail-of-evidence/#8QgdQbZSJ4BBGvP7.99
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