title:  Grand Jury Indicts Anti-Choice Zealots Who Produced Phony Planned Parenthood Videos
text: Talk about blowback. Last Summer, Texas governor Greg Abbott initiated an investigation into Planned Parenthood following the release of a series of deceptively edited videos claiming to have caught the healthcare provider engaging in fetal organ harvesting and selling the parts to biomedical research facilities via some sort of grisly underground marketplace.But instead of catching Planned Parenthood red-handed, a grand jury has officially indicted the perpetrators of the videos, David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, while also exonerating Planned Parenthood of any wrongdoing.The AP via Talking Points Memo:David Daleiden, founder of the Center for Medical Progress, was indicted on a felony charge of tampering with a governmental record and a misdemeanor count related to purchasing human organs. Another activist, Sandra Merritt, was also indicted on a charge of tampering with a governmental record. It s the first time anyone in the group has been charged criminally since the videos started surfacing last year.Texas becomes the eighth state to exonerate Planned Parenthood, while casting serious doubt on the veracity of the obviously deceptive videos. Yet most of the GOP presidential candidates, along with most of the conservative movement, continues to treat the videos as if they represent hard evidence of Planned Parenthood s allegedly evil motives and illegal activities. Congressional Republicans, along with state Republicans, used the videos as convenient excuses to vote in support of crushing the healthcare clinics.It s entirely likely that Republicans will continue to attach their reputations to the videos in spite of the indictment and the various exonerations.Adding to the irony of the indictment, Daleiden is being accused of attempting to illegally purchase fetus organs   the very practice he was attempting to expose, even though it didn t exist.In a statement announcing the indictment, Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson didn t provide details on the charges, including what record or records were allegedly tampered with and why Daleiden faces a charge related to buying human organs. Anderson s office said it could not provide details until the documents charging Daleiden and Merritt were formally made public, which was expected later Monday.Get ready for the sound of anti-choice heads exploding, as well as the demagoguing of the grand jury itself as somehow an Obama/NARAL/PPFA conspiracy.Featured imaged via video screen grab.