The Great Smoky Mountain Journal
Staff, Wire Reports
Posted: Sunday, January 21, 2018 07:28 PM
Justice Department Launches Federal Investigation Into Planned Parenthood's Practices Of Sale Of Fetal Tissue
The Justice Department has launched a
federal investigation into Planned Parenthood’s practices and the sale
of fetal tissue.
In a letter first obtained by Fox News, Justice Department Assistant
Attorney General for Legislative Affairs Stephen Boyd formally requested
unredacted documents from the Senate Judiciary Committee, the same panel
that led the congressional probe into the women’s health organization.
“The Department of Justice appreciates the offer of assistance in
obtaining these materials, and would like to request the Committee
provide unredacted copies of records contained in the report, in order
to further the Department’s ability to conduct a thorough and
comprehensive assessment of that report based on the full range of
information available,” Boyd wrote.
Fox News has learned that last month, the FBI first requested the
unredacted documents from the committee.
Fox News is told that Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and
Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said they needed to receive a
letter and be assured that the documents would be used for investigative
purposes.
The letter, sent to Grassley and Feinstein on Thursday, is a rare
confirmation by the Justice Department of a federal investigation.
“At this point, the records are intended
for investigative use only—we understand that a resolution from the
Senate may be required if the Department were to use any of the
unredacted materials in a formal legal proceeding, such as a grand
jury,” Boyd also wrote.
A spokesman for the committee told Fox News on Friday that they received
the Department's "official request for unredacted copies of its 2016
report and we will work to cooperate fully."
In that final report entitled “Human Fetal Tissue Research: Context and
Controversy” published in December 2016, Grassley referred Planned
Parenthood and other providers to the FBI for investigation.
Grassley said at the time that the committee has discovered enough
evidence that shows how abortion providers had transferred fetal tissue
and body parts from aborted fetuses for research by charging amounts
higher than they actually cost.
“The report documents the failure of the Department of Justice, across
multiple administrations, to enforce the law that bans the buying and
selling of human fetal tissue,” Grassley wrote last December urging the
Justice Department and FBI to investigate. “It also documents
substantial evidence suggesting that the specific entities involved in
the recent controversy, and/or individuals employed by those entities,
may have violated that law.”
Tucker and the executive vice president and chief brand officer of
Planned Parenthood debate the GOP's health care plan's intent to cut
funding over abortion services and its potential impact on the
organization and women nationwide #TuckerVideo
Planned Parenthood EVP: No one will bully, bribe us
Feinstein, however, said in a statement Friday that the 2016 report was
only presented to the "majority," meaning the Republicans on the
committee.
"I hope that there isn't a partisan purpose in taking this action and
that the department handles the chairman's request in a professional and
ethical manner," Feinstein said in a statement.
The now-federal investigation comes after a 2015 undercover
investigation by activists David Daleiden, leader of the pro-life Center
for Medical Progress, and Sandra Merritt, an employee of the group, who
both posed as fetal researchers and made undercover videos of themselves
trying to buy fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood.
The recorded conversations included officials from Planned Parenthood
and StemExpress, a California company that provides blood, tissue and
other biological material for medical research and has received fetal
tissue from Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood, at the time, strongly rejected accusations it
violated any law or acted unethically. The group also “strongly”
disagreed with Grassley’s recommendations to refer the matter to the
Justice Department “especially in light of the fact that the
investigations by three other Congressional committees, and
investigations in 13 states including a Grand Jury in Texas, have all
shown that Planned Parenthood did nothing wrong.”
“Over two years ago, citizen journalists at The Center for Medical
Progress first caught Planned Parenthood’s top abortion doctors in a
series of undercover videos callously and flippantly negotiating the
sale of tiny baby hearts, lungs, livers, and brains,” Daleiden said
Thursday. “It is time for public officials to finally hold Planned
Parenthood and their criminal abortion enterprise accountable under the
law.”
The federal investigation by the Trump administration will reopen the
years-long debate on whether Planned Parenthood and other providers
violated the law with the illegal sale of body parts.
Fox News’ Perry Chiaramonte contributed to this report.
Brooke Singman is a Politics Reporter for Fox News. Follow her on
Twitter at @brookefoxnews.