The Patriot Post® · Pro-Life Journalists Indicted

A grand jury in Harris County, Texas, has indicted two pro-life journalists, David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, with the Center for Medical Progress (CMP). As you no doubt recall, CMP is the group responsible for the disturbing undercover videos that exposed Planned Parenthood’s trafficking in baby body parts.

The grand jury was initially formed to investigate whether a Houston Planned Parenthood clinic had illegally sold fetal body parts. Instead, it cleared Planned Parenthood and somehow ended up indicting the journalists for attempting to illegally purchase baby body parts.

How can someone buy something without a seller? Daleiden faces one year in prison for that alleged offense.

The grand jury also charged Daleiden and Merritt with a second crime — falsifying a government document, which carries a 20-year prison sentence.

The Center for Medical Progress issued a statement denying it broke any laws, saying that it “uses the same undercover techniques that investigative journalists have used for decades in exercising our First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and of the press.”

Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups are claiming a moral victory, suggesting that the indictments vindicate their work.

Really? Let’s roll the tape.

Here’s one in which a Planned Parenthood executive talks about how she illegally manipulates abortion procedures so they get the right parts “intact.” “I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact,” the doctor says.

Here’s another video featuring a Planned Parenthood executive haggling over the price of aborted tissue and joking that she’d like a Lamborghini.

Responding to the news of the indictments, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said, “Nothing about today’s announcement in Harris County impacts the state’s ongoing investigation. The State of Texas will continue to protect life, and I will continue to support legislation prohibiting the sale or transfer of fetal tissue.”

Poll Position

We’re just six days away from the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses, and polling shows the Democrat and Republican contests are neck-and-neck.

A new poll by Iowa State University and WHO-HD finds Hillary Clinton leading Bernie Sanders 47% to 45% among likely Democrat caucus-goers.

The same poll finds Ted Cruz leading Donald Trump 26% to 19% among likely Republican caucus-goers. Dr. Ben Carson was third with 13%, followed by Marco Rubio at 12%. No other candidate received double-digit support.

But there is a big caveat — Iowa voters are notorious for making up their minds late in the game. And this poll found that more than a third of voters were still undecided.

Fighting Fraud

Kudos to the Public Interest Legal Foundation. As the 2016 elections begin, the group recently sent statutory notice letters to dozens of local officials in six states demanding that they clean up their voter registration rolls.

Their research found that dozens of counties have “an implausible number of registered voters compared to the number of eligible living citizens.” They are focusing on five counties in Colorado, seven in Florida, two in Nevada, 12 in North Carolina, six in Pennsylvania and five in Virginia.

J. Christian Adams, president of the foundation, warns that “Corrupted voter rolls provide the perfect environment for voter fraud.” For example, if someone casts an absentee ballot for a deceased voter, it is unlikely that the dead person will come forward to complain.

The left mocks the idea of voter fraud and fights popular measures like voter ID laws tooth-and-nail. But the problem is very real and the integrity of our elections deserves serious attention.

Terror Mega-Merger

A Sharq al Awsat, a London-based Arabic news outlet, reports that the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS and Al Qaeda are considering a “mega-merger” in Libya. The Islamic supremacist groups are attempting to prevent the formation of a unity government as the nation struggles to recover.

Normally, the Obama administration fights mergers. It remains to be seen whether it will do anything to stop this one. After all, it’s just the JV team merging with a couple of little league outfits. Nothing to worry about here.