Infamous troll Chuck C. Johnson poses with Center for Medical Progress head David Daleiden, October 25, 2015

David Daleiden of the Center for Medical Progress now says his release of a new video featuring National Abortion Federation members did not violate the injunction issued by federal judge William Orrick, because it was recorded at a meeting of the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals — not at an NAF meeting.

The Center for Medical Progress, the group behind the latest video and a string of others released since July, says it’s not flouting U.S. District Judge William Orrick’s preliminary injunction, given in response to a NAF lawsuit.

The latest video identifies three NAF employees. Vicki Saporta, president and CEO of NAF, is shown accepting an award from the American Civil Liberties Union, and two other women are shown speaking at a conference of the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals.

David Daleiden, founder of the CMP, says the video shows one of his group’s first encounters with NAF predating later interactions shown in videos the group has released. It features “the conversation when NAF first invited us to attend and exhibit a baby parts scheme,” he says. 

CMP members later infiltrated 2014 and 2015 annual conferences of the NAF, whose confidentiality agreements led Orrick to bar the release of footage shot there. 

“It was filmed at an ARHP meeting prior to any NAF meeting we attended,” Daleiden says of the latest release, and therefore is not covered by the injunction that the anti-abortion group plans to appeal, claiming it violates the First Amendment.

We’ll see how the judge reacts to what is clearly a deliberately provocative act by Daleiden, who is burnishing his credentials with the anti-choice right by making himself out to be a brave resistance fighter.

And his rhetoric continues to be incredibly dishonest, because in the new video he released, they’re invited to attend a meeting not to “exhibit a baby parts scheme;” that’s a ridiculous distortion. In fact, you can clearly see the CMP activist in the video lying about their plans, and representing herself as trying to help researchers obtain fetal tissue samples. Nobody uses the absurd term “baby parts,” of course.

I watched this horrible video and it’s another deceptively edited piece of propaganda; they use clips of NAF head Vicki Saporta speaking long before this pseudo-scandal began, edited to make it seem as if she’s referring to the current case. Daleiden and his cronies are relentless liars.

And even though their videos have now directly inspired at least one fanatic to attack a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs and kill several people, the CMP continues to prominently identify NAF members by name in these videos. It’s hard to see this as anything other than a desire to cause harm to these people.

Keep in mind that despite Daleiden’s attempt to picture what the NAF and Planned Parenthood do as illegal or corrupt, 12 states (Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Washington) have now concluded investigations into Planned Parenthood fetal tissue donation programs, and all 12 investigations have totally exonerated the group of any wrongdoing.

This disgraceful episode does reveal corruption — the corruption of the deliberately dishonest right wing media and operatives like David Daleiden and his phony group, who continue repeating claims that Planned Parenthood is engaged in illegal sale of “baby parts,” even though they’ve been cleared over and over again.