The man who filmed the undercover videos that have sparked a congressional investigation into allegations that Planned Parenthood sells fetal tissue was cleared by a judge Tuesday to hand over the rest of his undercover abortion videos to Congress.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, subpeonaed all of the Center For Medical Progress’s undercover footage related to the abortion industry as part of the investigation into Planned Parenthood.
But this subpoena was halted because the National Abortion Federation (NAF) had already obtained a court order from federal judge William Orrick prohibiting the release of videos related to their organization.
Congress had already been given the now famous Planned Parenthood videos, but separate undercover videos of a NAF event had been kept from Congress by the court order.
Tuesday afternoon, Orrick ruled that the remaining videos can be given to Congress but that they may not be given to the public.
David Daleiden, the Center for Medical Progress undercover operative who took the video, said before the ruling Tuesday he was caught between two conflicting orders from two branches of government.
“There is no serious question that his anticipated disclosure of NAF confidential information is barred by this court’s Orders,” NAF told the judge before the ruling in a letter first obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation. “The court’s TRO [temporary restraining order] expressly prohibits Daleiden and his cohorts from disclosing NAF confidential information to ‘any third party.’”
Clearly, the judge disagreed.
“Congress has the power to investigate, and it is not up to the courts to go beyond the narrow confines of determining that the committee’s inquiry is in its province,” Orrick said in the order.
Congress will hold a hearing Thursday on Planned Parenthood’s practices.
“The National Abortion Federation has gone to extraordinary lengths to keep David Daleiden’s footage of its annual meetings out of the hands of law enforcement and the Congress,” Peter Breen, the conservative Thomas More Society’s special counsel said in a statement. “We will continue to urge the district court to allow David to release more undercover videos featuring the footage from these annual meetings to the public, so that the American people can make their own assessment of the practices of Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation.”
Read the full order here:
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