Matt C. Abbott
Schneiderman, Daleiden, Planned Parenthood, Fusion GPS, Marquette University
By Matt C. Abbott
The following is an update "from the desk of Tom Brejcha," president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Society, one of my favorite pro-life organizations.
I have important news to give you about David Daleiden's battles against the abortion Goliath Planned Parenthood and his other anti-life persecutors. But first I need to tell you about the unjust persecution of 10 law-abiding Christian heroes who save babies from abortion at a major abortion center in Queens, New York. These 10 innocent heroes are on trial this month, and our legal team is in the thick of the fight to get justice for them!
Their persecutor is the fanatical, pro-abortion Attorney General of New York, Eric Schneiderman. He hates any pro-life presence at the entrance of a baby-killing center. He won't tolerate it. Yet the 10 innocent pro-lifers have persuaded countless pregnant mothers over the years to choose life for their babies. They do this by offering real help and support to the mothers.
The 10 pro-lifers offer their kindness, charity, prayers, and helpful information about the beauty of the child in the womb and the ugliness of abortion. They also appeal to the pregnant mothers with effective signs that show babies in the womb. One sign says, "Am I Not Human? Were You Not Here Once Yourself?" Another sign says, "The body inside your body is not your body." Another shows an aborted baby's photo with the caption: "This is not healthcare."
It's perfectly legal to display these baby-saving signs and pass out pro-life literature on a public sidewalk. After all, America is a free-speech zone. And the public sidewalk is a "quintessential public forum" for exchange of ideas!
Incredible as it sounds, Schneiderman is so fanatical at promoting abortion that he even volunteered to help kill babies at an abortion center. In fact, when he was a young man, he volunteered at the very same abortion provider in Queens where the 10 Christians he's now harassing have been saving babies for years.
Believe it or not, Schneiderman even considers it harassment when a pro-lifer gently approaches a pregnant mother and asks, "What can I do to help you choose life for your baby?" Only someone with a deeply biased and closed mind would call that "harassment." Rather, it's the purest essence of altruism – Christian charity!
For Schneiderman, this courtroom battle, just begun as this letter goes to press, in federal court in Brooklyn, is personal. For all of us, and especially our team of attorneys now embattled on site in New York City, the battle is also personal. That's because we know what's at stake.
You see, babies will die if Schneiderman shuts down the 10 pro-lifers with a harsh injunction, or slaps our clients with stiff fines. God forbid, if our 10 pro-life clients lose at trial, it would set a horrible precedent that could discourage pro-lifers far beyond New York City from peaceably saving babies at the killing centers.
Schneiderman is bringing his vicious lawsuit under the federal, state and city FACE Acts. The federal FACE Act is an unjust law signed by President Bill Clinton that makes pro-life sit-ins, blockades, and threats a federal crime. FACE stands for Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances, but Schneiderman is misusing this law. The 10 pro-lifers he's prosecuting have never blocked any entrances or made any threats!
Worse, the New York law that Schneiderman is invoking purports to outlaw "harassment" of women seeking abortions. But we're arguing – so far, persuasively – that this prohibition is unconstitutionally vague and overbroad. At a recent hearing, the Judge asked, "What is it? This is a little troubling. I don't know what it is."
One of Schneiderman's assistants then quoted Webster's definition of "harassment" as "repeated or persistent behavior that annoys or alarms someone." But the Judge (paraphrasing) retorted, "If harassment means being 'annoying,' then I could sue all of you [lawyers] here today." Such judicial quips give us hope!
Yet, when you're sued, it throws a scare into you. It's even scarier to be hauled into court to face a federal trial on false charges, when clever, slippery government lawyers are attacking you and smearing you by name in pro-abortion media (e.g., Huffington Post). That's why one of the 10 Christians we're defending in New York shed tears of joy on finding out that we would defend them pro bono.
Please support these 10 pro-life heroes from New York with your prayers...
And here's updated news about Daleiden's cases.
The lawyers for National Abortion Federation (NAF) are trying to avoid or postpone a fight with us before the U.S. Supreme Court as long as possible. Why are they dragging their feet?
You may well recall that when we first filed our petition to get rid of Judge Orrick's unconstitutional gag order against David, the abortion lawyers scoffed at our appeal, formally waiving their right to file a brief in opposition. Their message was an arrogant one, namely, that our petition was too trivial to bother with. But their tactic backfired!
The U.S. Supreme Court found it odd that the abortion lawyers hadn't replied, so the Court ordered them to submit a responsive brief. Then, as the deadline loomed, the abortion lawyers pleaded that they needed an extension. The Supreme Court gave them what they wanted, even though the abortion lawyers already had had nearly six months since our petition had been filed last August to formulate their reply.
Late last month, the abortion lawyers – from one of America's biggest law firms, Morrison & Forester – asked for yet another extension, citing illness, travels abroad, burdens of other cases, and "professional courtesy." So, they got what they asked for – another delay in responding until late this month. Our opponents seem to find it difficult to defend the gag order!
You've probably heard about Steven Spielberg's new movie "The Post," which is about the Pentagon Papers case. Maybe you've seen the film, starring Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks. The whole case revolves around the question whether, if at all, a "prior restraint" (gag order) on free speech should be tolerated in a free society. After all, in our supposedly self-governing American democracy, We The People profess to rule. But how can we rule when the truth is concealed from us?
In David Daleiden's federal RICO cases, NAF and Planned Parenthood have prevailed on an unduly sympathetic (indeed, biased!) federal judge to suppress videos revealing key facts about their illegal business dealings. His ruling is a flagrant insult to our First Amendment, an outrageous prior restraint on free speech.
But there's yet another aspect of this outrageous censorship of David's videos. The man that Meryl Streep once called "God" (the disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein) relied on non-disclosure agreements with his sexual assault victims to keep them from reporting his crimes to law enforcement. Other sexual predators have used the same tactic for the same reason – to escape criminal sanction.
Similarly, the National Abortion Federation also required David to sign non-disclosure agreements before allowing him to attend their annual conventions in 2014 and 2015. Judge Orrick cited these non-disclosure agreements as the basis for his gag order. But the judge's gag order was fatally flawed in that a private contract cannot be enforced whenever it deeply offends public policy – especially, the public policy that strongly favors citizens who report crimes to law enforcement.
No wonder the Attorneys General of 20 states signed on to a powerful Friend of the Court brief supporting our petition to get rid of Judge Orrick's unconstitutional gag order. They insist that the gag order throws "sand in the gears of investigations (wasting precious resources)" and foils "law enforcement's ability to efficiently gather information and protect the public." Covering up crime is itself a crime!
When David Daleiden first released his undercover videos, Planned Parenthood hired a pro-abortion research group called Fusion GPS to "evaluate" his videos. Their orders were to try to discredit the videos' accuracy and authenticity.
You may recognize the name, Fusion GPS, as it has been thrust into the national news spotlight, having been exposed in the recent controversy over the "secret dossier" containing unverified, fabricated smears about President Trump.
With funds provided by Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, Fusion GPS hired a former British spy to dig up dirt from Russian sources on then-candidate Donald Trump. These funds were funneled through one of Planned Parenthood's many mega-law firms, namely, Perkins Coie. This law firm is based in Seattle but has lawyers all over the U.S., against whom we have been fighting for years.
Clinton's allies high up in the FBI and the Justice Department (USDOJ) presented this unverified dossier ex parte (that is, secretly, in a one-sided legal proceeding) to a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court, claiming it was reliable. Fusion GPS used the dossier to get a warrant to spy on Trump associates.
Here's the rub. Given their past reliance on Fusion GPS, we're concerned that the FBI and USDOJ act properly in their recently announced investigation of the criminal referrals from Congress, targeting Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry. Those referrals were squarely based on the evidence in David's videos.
David has pointed out that under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the USDOJ has been prosecuting Native Americans in South Dakota for the illegal sale of bald eagles' body parts – at prices similar to the prices charged for human body parts at Planned Parenthood and body parts broker Stem Express. In a press release, the USDOJ said, given evidence of eagles' body parts selling at a "market value" of $350, that the South Dakota defendant "basically was a chop shop for eagles."
By contrast, Stem Express (whose Los Angeles lawsuit against David was dismissed last year) sold human body parts from Planned Parenthood for $595 apiece. So, we wonder why we have yet to see a USDOJ press release, not to mention any federal criminal indictment, complaining about "a chop shop for baby body parts"!
Indeed, the latest release of text messages between the FBI's senior official Peter Strzok and his mistress Lisa Page, also a top FBI official, reveals how they were complaining about "offensive video screens" during the 2016 March for Life in Washington, D.C., capped with the comment: "I truly hate these people."
Ouch! We pray that Attorney General Sessions will cut any residual ties between USDOJ and Fusion GPS, will get rid of federal prosecutors and investigators who have been tainted by anti-life bias, and that he will take fair and aggressive action against Planned Parenthood and others who have flouted the criminal laws.
Bottom line: David Daleiden should have the right to publish ALL of his video evidence – not only for the public but also for law enforcement authorities. If we can win a hearing and prevail before the U.S. Supreme Court and get rid of Judge William Orrick's gag order, we should also get rid of the $195,359.04 contempt fine against David, his group, and our criminal defense co-counsel.
We're also fighting hard to defend David against 15 false felony charges in California criminal court and pressing other appeals on David's behalf in the San Francisco racketeering cases and in the Seattle Public Records Act Case.
When we heard about the unjust firing of a distinguished, tenured law professor at Marquette University in Milwaukee, we had to support his appeal.
A graduate teaching assistant was teaching a class on ethics when she rebuked a student for speaking up in favor of traditional marriage. She thundered that "homophobic comments will not be tolerated!" She made it clear that the student wasn't welcome in her class, so he dropped out.
A tenured law professor, Dr. John McAdams, heard about the problem and attempted to intercede for the student, asking the radical teaching assistant (T.A.) to explain her side of the story. But the T.A. ignored his polite request. Instead, she complained to Marquette administrators, calling Dr. McAdams a "moron," "a flaming bigot, sexist and homophobic idiot," and "a creepy homophobic person with bad argumentation skills."
Marquette, supposedly a "Catholic" institution, fired Dr. McAdams and banned him from even setting foot on the campus because he blogged about the incident and criticized the T.A. What did he do wrong? In our view, nothing at all! We're filing a solid Friend of the Court brief before the Wisconsin Supreme Court to support his appeal, especially as his contract guaranteed him "academic freedom"....
No matter what, please join me in praying for victory for the innocent pro-life clients who rely on us. We need your prayers to beat the godless Planned Parenthood abortionists and their lawyers in court.
May God bless you and your loved ones, in His own best way.
Yours faithfully,
Tom Brejcha
Founder and President
Thomas More Society
© Matt C. Abbott
March 8, 2018
The following is an update "from the desk of Tom Brejcha," president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Society, one of my favorite pro-life organizations.
I have important news to give you about David Daleiden's battles against the abortion Goliath Planned Parenthood and his other anti-life persecutors. But first I need to tell you about the unjust persecution of 10 law-abiding Christian heroes who save babies from abortion at a major abortion center in Queens, New York. These 10 innocent heroes are on trial this month, and our legal team is in the thick of the fight to get justice for them!Their persecutor is the fanatical, pro-abortion Attorney General of New York, Eric Schneiderman. He hates any pro-life presence at the entrance of a baby-killing center. He won't tolerate it. Yet the 10 innocent pro-lifers have persuaded countless pregnant mothers over the years to choose life for their babies. They do this by offering real help and support to the mothers.
The 10 pro-lifers offer their kindness, charity, prayers, and helpful information about the beauty of the child in the womb and the ugliness of abortion. They also appeal to the pregnant mothers with effective signs that show babies in the womb. One sign says, "Am I Not Human? Were You Not Here Once Yourself?" Another sign says, "The body inside your body is not your body." Another shows an aborted baby's photo with the caption: "This is not healthcare."
It's perfectly legal to display these baby-saving signs and pass out pro-life literature on a public sidewalk. After all, America is a free-speech zone. And the public sidewalk is a "quintessential public forum" for exchange of ideas!
Incredible as it sounds, Schneiderman is so fanatical at promoting abortion that he even volunteered to help kill babies at an abortion center. In fact, when he was a young man, he volunteered at the very same abortion provider in Queens where the 10 Christians he's now harassing have been saving babies for years.
Believe it or not, Schneiderman even considers it harassment when a pro-lifer gently approaches a pregnant mother and asks, "What can I do to help you choose life for your baby?" Only someone with a deeply biased and closed mind would call that "harassment." Rather, it's the purest essence of altruism – Christian charity!
For Schneiderman, this courtroom battle, just begun as this letter goes to press, in federal court in Brooklyn, is personal. For all of us, and especially our team of attorneys now embattled on site in New York City, the battle is also personal. That's because we know what's at stake.
You see, babies will die if Schneiderman shuts down the 10 pro-lifers with a harsh injunction, or slaps our clients with stiff fines. God forbid, if our 10 pro-life clients lose at trial, it would set a horrible precedent that could discourage pro-lifers far beyond New York City from peaceably saving babies at the killing centers.
Schneiderman is bringing his vicious lawsuit under the federal, state and city FACE Acts. The federal FACE Act is an unjust law signed by President Bill Clinton that makes pro-life sit-ins, blockades, and threats a federal crime. FACE stands for Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances, but Schneiderman is misusing this law. The 10 pro-lifers he's prosecuting have never blocked any entrances or made any threats!
Worse, the New York law that Schneiderman is invoking purports to outlaw "harassment" of women seeking abortions. But we're arguing – so far, persuasively – that this prohibition is unconstitutionally vague and overbroad. At a recent hearing, the Judge asked, "What is it? This is a little troubling. I don't know what it is."
One of Schneiderman's assistants then quoted Webster's definition of "harassment" as "repeated or persistent behavior that annoys or alarms someone." But the Judge (paraphrasing) retorted, "If harassment means being 'annoying,' then I could sue all of you [lawyers] here today." Such judicial quips give us hope!
Yet, when you're sued, it throws a scare into you. It's even scarier to be hauled into court to face a federal trial on false charges, when clever, slippery government lawyers are attacking you and smearing you by name in pro-abortion media (e.g., Huffington Post). That's why one of the 10 Christians we're defending in New York shed tears of joy on finding out that we would defend them pro bono.
Please support these 10 pro-life heroes from New York with your prayers...
And here's updated news about Daleiden's cases.
The lawyers for National Abortion Federation (NAF) are trying to avoid or postpone a fight with us before the U.S. Supreme Court as long as possible. Why are they dragging their feet?
You may well recall that when we first filed our petition to get rid of Judge Orrick's unconstitutional gag order against David, the abortion lawyers scoffed at our appeal, formally waiving their right to file a brief in opposition. Their message was an arrogant one, namely, that our petition was too trivial to bother with. But their tactic backfired!
The U.S. Supreme Court found it odd that the abortion lawyers hadn't replied, so the Court ordered them to submit a responsive brief. Then, as the deadline loomed, the abortion lawyers pleaded that they needed an extension. The Supreme Court gave them what they wanted, even though the abortion lawyers already had had nearly six months since our petition had been filed last August to formulate their reply.
Late last month, the abortion lawyers – from one of America's biggest law firms, Morrison & Forester – asked for yet another extension, citing illness, travels abroad, burdens of other cases, and "professional courtesy." So, they got what they asked for – another delay in responding until late this month. Our opponents seem to find it difficult to defend the gag order!
You've probably heard about Steven Spielberg's new movie "The Post," which is about the Pentagon Papers case. Maybe you've seen the film, starring Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks. The whole case revolves around the question whether, if at all, a "prior restraint" (gag order) on free speech should be tolerated in a free society. After all, in our supposedly self-governing American democracy, We The People profess to rule. But how can we rule when the truth is concealed from us?
In David Daleiden's federal RICO cases, NAF and Planned Parenthood have prevailed on an unduly sympathetic (indeed, biased!) federal judge to suppress videos revealing key facts about their illegal business dealings. His ruling is a flagrant insult to our First Amendment, an outrageous prior restraint on free speech.
But there's yet another aspect of this outrageous censorship of David's videos. The man that Meryl Streep once called "God" (the disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein) relied on non-disclosure agreements with his sexual assault victims to keep them from reporting his crimes to law enforcement. Other sexual predators have used the same tactic for the same reason – to escape criminal sanction.
Similarly, the National Abortion Federation also required David to sign non-disclosure agreements before allowing him to attend their annual conventions in 2014 and 2015. Judge Orrick cited these non-disclosure agreements as the basis for his gag order. But the judge's gag order was fatally flawed in that a private contract cannot be enforced whenever it deeply offends public policy – especially, the public policy that strongly favors citizens who report crimes to law enforcement.
No wonder the Attorneys General of 20 states signed on to a powerful Friend of the Court brief supporting our petition to get rid of Judge Orrick's unconstitutional gag order. They insist that the gag order throws "sand in the gears of investigations (wasting precious resources)" and foils "law enforcement's ability to efficiently gather information and protect the public." Covering up crime is itself a crime!
When David Daleiden first released his undercover videos, Planned Parenthood hired a pro-abortion research group called Fusion GPS to "evaluate" his videos. Their orders were to try to discredit the videos' accuracy and authenticity.
You may recognize the name, Fusion GPS, as it has been thrust into the national news spotlight, having been exposed in the recent controversy over the "secret dossier" containing unverified, fabricated smears about President Trump.
With funds provided by Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, Fusion GPS hired a former British spy to dig up dirt from Russian sources on then-candidate Donald Trump. These funds were funneled through one of Planned Parenthood's many mega-law firms, namely, Perkins Coie. This law firm is based in Seattle but has lawyers all over the U.S., against whom we have been fighting for years.
Clinton's allies high up in the FBI and the Justice Department (USDOJ) presented this unverified dossier ex parte (that is, secretly, in a one-sided legal proceeding) to a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court, claiming it was reliable. Fusion GPS used the dossier to get a warrant to spy on Trump associates.
Here's the rub. Given their past reliance on Fusion GPS, we're concerned that the FBI and USDOJ act properly in their recently announced investigation of the criminal referrals from Congress, targeting Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry. Those referrals were squarely based on the evidence in David's videos.
David has pointed out that under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the USDOJ has been prosecuting Native Americans in South Dakota for the illegal sale of bald eagles' body parts – at prices similar to the prices charged for human body parts at Planned Parenthood and body parts broker Stem Express. In a press release, the USDOJ said, given evidence of eagles' body parts selling at a "market value" of $350, that the South Dakota defendant "basically was a chop shop for eagles."
By contrast, Stem Express (whose Los Angeles lawsuit against David was dismissed last year) sold human body parts from Planned Parenthood for $595 apiece. So, we wonder why we have yet to see a USDOJ press release, not to mention any federal criminal indictment, complaining about "a chop shop for baby body parts"!
Indeed, the latest release of text messages between the FBI's senior official Peter Strzok and his mistress Lisa Page, also a top FBI official, reveals how they were complaining about "offensive video screens" during the 2016 March for Life in Washington, D.C., capped with the comment: "I truly hate these people."
Ouch! We pray that Attorney General Sessions will cut any residual ties between USDOJ and Fusion GPS, will get rid of federal prosecutors and investigators who have been tainted by anti-life bias, and that he will take fair and aggressive action against Planned Parenthood and others who have flouted the criminal laws.
Bottom line: David Daleiden should have the right to publish ALL of his video evidence – not only for the public but also for law enforcement authorities. If we can win a hearing and prevail before the U.S. Supreme Court and get rid of Judge William Orrick's gag order, we should also get rid of the $195,359.04 contempt fine against David, his group, and our criminal defense co-counsel.
We're also fighting hard to defend David against 15 false felony charges in California criminal court and pressing other appeals on David's behalf in the San Francisco racketeering cases and in the Seattle Public Records Act Case.
When we heard about the unjust firing of a distinguished, tenured law professor at Marquette University in Milwaukee, we had to support his appeal.
A graduate teaching assistant was teaching a class on ethics when she rebuked a student for speaking up in favor of traditional marriage. She thundered that "homophobic comments will not be tolerated!" She made it clear that the student wasn't welcome in her class, so he dropped out.
A tenured law professor, Dr. John McAdams, heard about the problem and attempted to intercede for the student, asking the radical teaching assistant (T.A.) to explain her side of the story. But the T.A. ignored his polite request. Instead, she complained to Marquette administrators, calling Dr. McAdams a "moron," "a flaming bigot, sexist and homophobic idiot," and "a creepy homophobic person with bad argumentation skills."
Marquette, supposedly a "Catholic" institution, fired Dr. McAdams and banned him from even setting foot on the campus because he blogged about the incident and criticized the T.A. What did he do wrong? In our view, nothing at all! We're filing a solid Friend of the Court brief before the Wisconsin Supreme Court to support his appeal, especially as his contract guaranteed him "academic freedom"....
No matter what, please join me in praying for victory for the innocent pro-life clients who rely on us. We need your prayers to beat the godless Planned Parenthood abortionists and their lawyers in court.
May God bless you and your loved ones, in His own best way.
Yours faithfully,
Tom Brejcha
Founder and President
Thomas More Society
© Matt C. Abbott
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