Democrats seek to question anti-Planned Parenthood video hoaxster over potentially illegal activities

Democratic members of Congress who support Planned Parenthood are eager to speak to the man behind the recent smear campaign against the health provider and ask him some questions.

BuzzFeed.com reported on a request by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee that is investigating Planned Parenthood to question David Daleiden of the anti-abortion organization, the Center for Medical Progress (CMP).

The committee, headed by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), subjected Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards to a heated interrogation last week. Democrats would like to see the same level of scrutiny applied to Daleiden and his claims.

The Democrats released a list of 21 questions for Daleiden, whose heavily and misleadingly edited videos have touched off a firestorm of controversy and led for calls to shutter Planned Parenthood.

“Mr. Daleiden and his group engaged in a host of potentially illegal activities, including filing false documents with government agencies, falsely impersonating a legitimate business concern, soliciting charitable contributions under false pretenses, and secretly recording Planned Parenthood officials without their consent,” wrote Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD).

Chaffetz has said that he will not summon Daleiden before the committee until he has had a chance to review the complete, unedited videos that the CMP covertly filmed.

The content of the videos has become a hotly-debated topic since Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina claimed to have seen a clip from one of the videos that doesn't exist.

At the second Republican debate, Fiorina claimed that one CMP video showed "a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.”

When Fiorina was called on the lie, her campaign team hastily assembled a video of their own featuring graphic footage of a miscarriage which they falsely identified as a late-term abortion.

Daleiden told BuzzFeed by email that he has handed over the original videos to the congressional committee.

“Yes, all the footage, including from the National Abortion Federation, bathroom breaks and all, is going to the House (Oversight) Committee,” he wrote.