The maker of undercover videos of Planned Parenthood officials discussing aborted fetuses is fighting criminal indictments against him, saying that prosecutors leaked grand jury documents.
David Daleiden filed the motions on Thursday in an attempt to quash an indictment brought by a Houston-area grand jury for a felony charge of tampering with a government record and a misdemeanor related to the purchasing of human organs.
Daleiden charges in the latest court filings that the Harris County district attorney worked with Planned Parenthood’s legal team. He also says prosecutors leaked grand jury documents to “unauthorized persons,” but doesn’t go into detail of who those people were.
The motion says prosecutors gave some or all of the evidence given to the grand jury to the local Planned Parenthood chapter that the panel was supposed to be investigating.
He also argues that the prosecutor never called a witness from Planned Parenthood before the grand jury.
Daleiden pointed to comments from Planned Parenthood’s legal team during a press conference after the indictments were announced. A Planned Parenthood attorney confirmed that he “explicitly pushed prosecutors” to charge Daleiden.
Daleiden posed as an employee with a small biotech firm and caught Planned Parenthood officials on tape discussing the harvesting and donation of aborted fetal body parts.
Daleiden and his group the Center for Medical Progress have released more than a dozen of the videos.
In January, a Houston grand jury was investigating whether Planned Parenthood broke any laws through collecting or supplying aborted fetal tissue. It instead indicted Daleiden presumably over the use of a fake ID to gain entrance to Planned Parenthood offices and the other charge related to the purchase of fetal body parts.
District Attorney Devon Anderson said the matter will be reviewed by a judge and jury.
“I am confident that the actions of the DA’s office in this case will withstand any scrutiny,” she said.
