The two-week preliminary criminal hearing begins today in the San Francisco Superior Court as Sandra Merritt defends against 15 felony charges brought against her by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra. Liberty Counsel is defending Merritt for her undercover journalism work which exposed Planned Parenthood’s trade in baby body parts.
Merritt and Merritt’s co-defendant, David Daleiden, the founder of the Center for Medical Progress, are the first undercover journalists to be criminally prosecuted in the history of the state. Liberty Counsel has shown that, to date, no other citizen journalist or journalism organization has ever been charged with a crime for undercover recordings made in the public interest. Together, the weight of the evidence demonstrates that the prosecution against Merritt is selective and discriminatory.
Liberty Counsel’s Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Sandra Merritt did not violate any laws. The evidence will demonstrate that California’s first-ever prosecution of an undercover journalist is selective and discriminatory. It is time to pull the mask off the unseemly collusion between Planned Parenthood and the attorney general that is ultimately responsible for this political prosecution,” said Staver.
