A prominent conservative legal organization has launched multiple investigations into Vice President Kamala Harris’s past as a prosecutor and attorney general in California. The investigations come as Harris ramps up her presidential campaign, which leans heavily on her reputation for being “tough on crime.”
America First Legal, a conservative watchdog group, is spearheading the investigations, claiming that Harris’s track record on criminal justice issues warrants closer scrutiny. “From locking up parents whose children had chronically missed school to supporting a bail fund that let violent Black Lives Matter rioters out of jail in 2020, Harris’ approach to criminal justice is facing fresh scrutiny,” Fox News reported last week, highlighting the newly launched probe. America First Legal alleges that Harris “has proven to be the most radically progressive Vice President in American history.”
Dan Epstein, the president of America First Legal, explained to Fox News Digital that much of Harris’s reputation for being tough on crime stems from her time as San Francisco’s District Attorney. However, Epstein argues that their investigation reveals a different picture of Harris’s legal philosophy. “Our investigation, however, makes it very clear that Kamala Harris does not believe much in terms of statutes passed by legislatures, including the Federal United States Congress, as well as the state of California,” he stated.
America First Legal is examining Harris’s tenure through public records requests to the California Attorney General’s Office. The investigation encompasses several issues, such as non-compliance with federal donor privacy laws, failure to enforce federal immigration laws, inadequate pursuit of equal justice, lack of disclosure of conflicts of interest, and failure to address evidence of misconduct. According to the group, these are significant concerns that question Harris’s commitment to the rule of law.
“And so those are really our probes of her not following the rule of law and bending it for a political objective,” Epstein continued. “We also probe numerous kind of potential ethics issues and failures to disclose conflicts of interest, allowing her own staff as attorney general to engage in fraud and not kind of overseeing that.”
Adding another layer to the investigation is Harris’s early career relationship with California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown. Brown, known for his political influence, allegedly helped Harris secure prominent roles on the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and the California Medical Assistance Commission. America First Legal is now probing whether Harris received improper political favoritism and whether she properly recused herself or disclosed any conflicts of interest during her career.
During her 2020 presidential campaign, Harris faced intense criticism over her prosecutorial record. Critics argued that her “tough-on-crime” stance disproportionately affected low-income families and minorities, further entrenching them in the prison system. One particularly controversial aspect of Harris’s record was her handling of school truancy cases. She supported a 2011 law allowing district attorneys to charge parents with a misdemeanor if their children were chronically absent from school without a valid excuse.
In 2019, Molly Redden of HuffPost highlighted the human impact of Harris’s truancy program in her article, “The Human Costs of Kamala Harris’ War on Truancy.” One case involved Cheree Peoples, an African American mother who was arrested in April 2013 after her child missed 20 days of school. Later, Harris retracted her stance on the truancy crackdown during a 2019 podcast, noting it “never was the intention” to criminalize parents and describing the law as having “unintended consequences,” as reported by Politico.
Beyond truancy, Harris faced criticism for her stringent approach to low-level drug offenses during her tenure as San Francisco’s district attorney and later as California’s attorney general. Critics argued her policies contributed to the mass incarceration of black men, instead of focusing on rehabilitation and criminal justice reform.
In June 2020, Harris supported a bail fund to assist Black Lives Matter protesters in getting released from jail. Despite raising over $41 million, reports indicated that only a small portion went toward bailing out those arrested during the riots. As Fox News reported, the fundraising site was still active and accepting donations as recently as a week ago.
Epstein offered a pointed critique of Harris, connecting her record to broader political issues. “It’s fairly clear that nobody disagrees, nobody disagrees that Trump is a felon because of political prosecution,” he remarked. “And if the standard for Kamala Harris is that the process that led to Donald Trump being convicted is one of justice and one that she follows, then logically, it means that she is a political prosecutor, not a fair honest broker.”
The investigation into Vice President Kamala Harris’s legal career raises important questions about her leadership and approach to justice. As her presidential campaign unfolds, the outcomes of these probes may play a significant role in shaping public perception and determining her political future.
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