The dismissal fulfills the terms of a January 2025 settlement in which California dropped all chargesagainst Daleiden and undercover reporter Sandra Merritt. The agreement required no jail time, no fines, no admission of wrongdoing and no probation.
In exchange, the pair entered a “no contest” plea to a single misdemeanor video-recording charge, which was to be entered as a judgment in six to 12 months, then converted to a “not guilty” plea, dismissed and expunged.
Seven of the original 14 charges had previously been dismissed for lack of probable cause.
The prosecution began under then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris after Daleiden’s 2015 videos were released. In the January 2025 statement marking the initial settlement, Daleiden described the case as political lawfare.
“After enduring 9 years of weaponized political prosecution, putting an end to the lawfare launched by Kamala Harris is a huge victory for my investigative reporting and for the public’s right to know the truth about Planned Parenthood’s sale of aborted baby body parts. Now we all must get to work to protect families and infants from the criminal abortion-industrial complex,” he said.
Defense attorney Steve Cooley, former Los Angeles County District Attorney, sharply criticized the long-running effort.
“In my 5 decades as an attorney, 40 years of which were as a prosecutor, I have never seen such a blatant exercise of selective investigation and vindictive prosecution. The California Attorneys General who initiated this case and pursued it for nearly 10 years should be ashamed for weaponizing their office to pursue people who were merely exposing illegality associated with the harvesting and sale of fetal body parts,” Cooley said.
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Choose life.
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It took 11 years defending himself over one story. This is what they do to people who hold them accountable.
Nobody is held accountable because the people who have the power to do so are afraid of the retaliation. But David is different. His love of truth was greater than his regard for himself.