Kamala Harris hit with new plagiarism charges

Kamala Harris is embroiled in a second plagiarism scandal after she was accused of copying a Republican’s congressional testimony.

Last week, the vice president was accused of lifting more than a dozen sections of her book, “Smart Crime Fighting: A Career Attorney’s Plan to Make Us Safer,” from other sources, including a story once told by Martin Luther King.

Now new allegations have emerged that the former prosecutor used more than 1,000 words from the Republican district attorney’s testimony when he was called as a witness before Congress.

The historic allegations date back to 2007, when Ms. Harris testified before the House Judiciary Committee in support of a bill that would have created a loan repayment scheme for state and local prosecutors.

Ms. Harris, then San Francisco’s district attorney, argued that the so-called John R. Justice Act would attract the most talented lawyers to offices like hers. The bill ultimately failed as it never passed the upper house.

Portions of Ms. Harris’ testimony, presented on April 24, 2007, were allegedly copied from Paul Logley, then the prosecutor of Winnebago County, Illinois, who had testified in support of the law before the Senate Judiciary Committee two months earlier. .

Of the roughly 1,500 words Ms. Harris devoted to discussing the legislation, nearly 1,200 of them appeared to be copied verbatim from a statement Mr. Logley, a Republican, presented to a Senate committee on Feb. 27, 2007, the Washington Free Beacon said.

A side-by-side analysis of the two passages by The Telegraph found evidence of strong similarities, with Ms Harris’s evidence sometimes correcting minor grammatical errors, such as replacing the word “who” with “whom”.

The statements use the same language, cite the same sources, and appear to make the same arguments in the same order, with separate paragraphs added. In addition to citing the same evidence, the conclusions they reach also mirror each other almost word for word.

In her written statement, Ms. Harris described how debt-ridden prosecutors are moving into the private sector after years of work, lured by the prospect of higher salaries that will help them pay off their law school debt.

As a result, she said, many district attorney’s offices are understaffed, forcing them to assign relatively inexperienced attorneys to handle complex cases such as those involving child abuse, elder neglect, domestic violence, identity theft and public corruption. society.

By paying off the loans of prosecutors and public defenders through the implementation of a bipartisan bill, Ms. Harris argued, lawyers would have an incentive to remain in public service.

Her conclusion mirrors Mr. Logley’s testimony almost exactly.

Mr Logley told The Telegraph he believed the similarities between the two witnesses’ statements were due to the overworked staff of the National District Attorneys Association, which they both represented.

“If the statements were very similar, I don’t think it’s more an act of plagiarism than a case of people who helped write the statements cutting and pasting them,” he said. “They probably cut corners because they were overextended.

“They probably should have told Kamala what I said in front of the Senate and they probably should have changed the situation, but that’s the staff’s responsibility.”

It comes after the vice president was accused last week of copying more than a dozen sections of the book that helped launch her political career from sources including a Martin Luther King Jr. speech and Wikipedia.

In the book, released in 2009, she appears to have borrowed from King an anecdote from her childhood during the civil rights movement.

The 59-year-old wrote: “My mother laughed when she told the story of how I fussed as a child: she leaned over and asked me, “Kamala, what happened?” What do you want?” and I exclaimed in response: “Freedom.”

The story is very similar to one told by a civil rights leader, as the New York Post previously noted.

“I will never forget the moment in Birmingham when a white policeman attacked a little Negro girl of seven or eight who was going to a demonstration with her mother,” King told Playboy magazine in 1965.

“‘What do you want?’ – the policeman asked her rudely, and the little girl looked him straight in the eyes and replied: “Fi-dom.”

“Serious violations”

Stefan Weber, an Austrian academic dubbed the “plagiarism hunter”, said plagiarism in Ms Harris’s book ranged from “minor violations” to more “serious violations”.

The claims were initially rejected by major news outlets, including The New York Times, which suggested the similarities were “a mistake rather than an intent to deceive.” However, Jonathan Bailey, the “plagiarism expert” quoted in the paper’s article, has since admitted that the allegations were “more serious” than they first appeared.

Addressing the latest allegations, Mr Bailey told The Telegraph: “This is definitely a clear case of plagiarism.

“Politicians and district attorneys copy each other all the time, but very rarely will it be someone from an unrelated field and a political opponent.”

The latest allegations will add fuel to concerns about the integrity of Ms Harris, who has sought to portray herself as an honest candidate in contrast to Donald Trump, who has been repeatedly accused by Democrats of lying to voters.

O. Skinner, former Arizona attorney general, told The Washington Free Beacon: “Being the best lawyer in the state is a real responsibility.”

“It requires attention to detail. When you can’t be bothered to create your own work, it speaks volumes about your approach to your work, which demands the very best from those who work in it.”

Harris’ campaign and Paul Logley have been approached for comment.

Regarding previous allegations of plagiarism regarding the vice president’s book, Harris’ campaign said the claims were the result of right-wing operatives becoming desperate in the face of support for the Democratic presidential candidate.

Spokesman James Singer said: “This book has been in print for 15 years, and the vice president clearly cites sources and statistics in footnotes and endnotes.”

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