Four-far left House Democrats sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and California Attorney General Kamala Harris this week, requesting that they open an investigation into the pro-life group that recently released two undercover sting videos of officials from Planned Parenthood discussing the harvesting and sale of aborted baby parts.
Reps. Jan Schakowsky, Zoe Lofgren, Jerry Nadler, and Yvette Clarke want the group, the Center for Medical Progress, investigated to see if it  violated any state or federal laws in the making of their “selectively-edited” videos.
According to press reports, the Center for Medical Progress created a fake limited liability corporation in advance of the meeting it recorded with a Planned Parenthood doctor.  The video was captured by actors using fake identification to pose as buyers from that fake human biologics company.  This elaborate scheme raises serious questions about whether any federal or state laws were violated in securing the LLC or the personal identification that were part of its execution.
The video was also filmed without the consent of the Planned Parenthood doctor, which may violate California law.
There are other questions about possible coordination between the Center for Medical Progress and Members of Congress who knew about the video weeks in advance of its release.
“This is a new low, even for anti-abortion activists who will stop at nothing in their effort to undermine a woman’s right to choose,” said Schakowsky.  “I believe the Center for Medical Progress may have broken the law in developing and executing this unbelievably elaborate and troubling scheme, and all Americans should have concerns about that.  I hope that Attoneys General Lynch and Harris will investigate this case.”
“Planned Parenthood is a well-respected and important organization in my community,” saidLofgren. “One in five women in America has gone to Planned Parenthood at some point in their lives. The recent surreptitiously recorded video is the latest iteration of harassment and partisan attacks on Planned Parenthood which have become far too common, and raises serious legal questions that merit an investigation into whether the so-called ‘Center for Medical Process’ has broken the law.”
“Like the millions of women who access their broad-range of health services every day, we trust Planned Parenthood,” said Nadler. “This video is nothing more than a witch hunt – an elaborate, possibly illegal, scheme to attack Planned Parenthood, undermine their life-saving work and deny the Constitutional and moral rights of women across the country. I urge the Department of Justice and the state of California to investigate the Center for Medical Progress and determine if their activities in planning and making these videos violated state and federal laws. We need to stand up to such bullying tactics and ensure that every woman is free to make her own health care decisions.”
“I am deeply concerned about the allegations that federal and state laws were violated in an attempt to attack Planned Parenthood, an organization that provides critical health care services to more than three million men and women each year, and that the attack was coordinated by conservative activists who want to discredit Planned Parenthood and its work,” said Clarke. “I urge  Attorney General Loretta Lynch and the Honorable Kamala Harris, Attorney General of California, to initiate a full investigation into this incident to determine if any fraud or other illegal activities were committed.”
David Daleiden, the executive director for the Center for Medical Progress, put out the following statement in response:
 Planned Parenthood is trying to use the power of their political cronies to shut down free speech, to silence the freedom of the press, to persecute me, and to save their half-a-billion in taxpayer money and avoid accountability to the law and the American people. Planned Parenthood and their political allies know our investigation has revealed the truth about the gruesome and horrific practices of partial-birth abortions and selling baby parts taking place throughout their organization. They will attack me and my organization all day long, but that does not change the facts about what our investigation has uncovered and what the American people now know — that Planned Parenthood is engaged in an enterprise-wide operation that traffics and sells baby body parts.