Entertainment
Kamala Harris faces ‘cover-up’ claims over ‘discarded’ and ‘buried’ matters
Kamala Harris is facing ‘cover-up claims’ stemming from her days as a prosecutor.
August 22, 2024, published at 11:05 am ET
Kamala Harris has taken many of her “tough on crime” stances as she runs for the White House.
But RadarOnline.com can reveal the US president-wannabe is facing claims she dismissed prostitution and corruption cases for henchmen of Willie Brown – the political power broker ‘sugar daddy’ she dated in the 1990s.
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Harris is being cheered at the Democratic National Convention after winning power after years as a prosecutor in San Francisco.
The vice president – who began her political career as a prosecutor in California – is also said to have rejected calls from her former legal staff to investigate pyramid scheme behavior at a nutritional supplement company, when her husband Douglas Emhoff worked for the lawyers who investigated the company.
Investigative journalist Peter Schweizer says in his book Profiles in corruption: abuse of power by America’s progressive elite: “As a prosecutor in San Francisco, Kamala Harris enjoyed enormous discretion in handling cases.
‘She often determined which cases should and should not be prosecuted. This was especially the case in very public and politically sensitive cases.
“Over the course of her tenure, a consistent pattern emerged of favoring individuals and institutions that were either her political supporters, closely associated with Willie Brown, or both.
“Some of these cases involved all-too-common cases of big-city cronyism and corruption involving city contracts, but in others they involved disturbing crimes that were covered up.”
Harris’ phenomenal rise to power has been overshadowed by gossip for years. She owes her rise to fixer Brown, now 90, whom she started dating when she was 29 and still a rising lawyer who gave the then 60-year-old… the wandering eye of the old man when he was on a break from his wife.
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Harris showed off her showbiz connections by appearing at the premiere of the 2000 film MILK, starring Sean Penn.
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RadarOnline.com recently revealed the true extent of their long-term relationship — from how he gifted her a BMW when she already had a $100,000-a-year job he got her, to Harris’ use of his vast network of wealthy and powerful contacts to enter the legal corridors of power.
Harris has said for years that she combined criminal justice reforms with a tough-on-crime stance during her more than a dozen years as San Francisco district attorney and then as California’s attorney general.
Schweizer has a different view on how she tackled San Francisco’s vice problem.
He says in his book, which forensically dissects her years as a prosecutor: “Harris’s strange objections to the prosecution of prostitution cases related to (police) raids (on San Francisco sex clubs) have a possible explanation.
“The owner of both the Market Street and New Century theaters was a company called Déjà Vu.
“An owner of Déjà Vu, Sam Conti, had a long history with Willie Brown. Conti had first hired Brown as his attorney in 1977.
They remained friends. At Conti’s funeral in 2009, Brown gave a videotaped eulogy.
‘Harris’ handling of this simple vice case would raise questions about her prosecutorial conduct as it concerned powerful political allies and friends. While she was ready to throw the book to those who had no connections to her, to those who did. powerful allies would often have the charges dropped.
“It was selective enforcement of the law, hardly what you could call ‘blind justice’.”
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Harris failed to prosecute a single priest for abuse during her tenure as prosecutor.
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Police had investigated San Francisco’s adult entertainment clubs and discovered that dancers were taking customers behind closed doors and having sex for money.
After repeated complaints, the city’s strip clubs actually served as prostitution clubs. San Francisco police warned them in a letter that checks would take place — but Schweizer says Harris’ “staff sent the message to hold off on enforcement.”
In response to persistent complaints, officers conducted sting operations in which undercover officers were quickly solicited by female employees for paid sex “within minutes” of entering the seedy clubs.
Despite police considering their evidence as part of “slam-dunk cases,” Schweizer says they were dropped by Harris.
San Francisco Police Department Vice Captain Tim Hettrich is quoted in the reporter’s book saying, “It just leaves me in amazement. It almost legalized prostitution.”
The author publicly added that Harris claimed the problem was that police should focus on arresting “pimps and johns at street level” and not working girls in sex clubs.
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Investigative journalist Peter Schweizer has forensically detailed Harris’ legal history in his book Profiles in Corruption.
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Kamala Harris
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In a statement, Harris claimed there had been “no arrests” from the street, but SFPD investigator Joe Dutto was quoted in Schweizer’s books stating, “That’s an outright lie.”
The author adds that 50 to 70 nationals were arrested in the city every month.
As RadarOnline.com also revealed, Schweizer used his book to highlight how — after replacing Terence Hallinan as San Francisco district attorney in 2003 following a bitter campaign to oust him — she failed to bring pedophile priests into custody. Catholic Church who had been so ruthless. followed by its predecessor.
In his research into her legal history, he adds: “The blind eye to sex abuse by priests was just part of a pattern of cronyism that has permeated Harris’ career as a prosecutor.
“While not as dramatic as the sex crimes, there were numerous instances where she was apparently willing to look the other way to protect politically connected insiders.
“Her actions represent the ultimate form of harnessing power in the criminal justice world and deciding not to pursue criminal charges.”
Schweizer adds that Harris entered the San Francisco attorney general’s office confronted with a “slew of problems that went beyond sexual abuse by priests and strip clubs.”
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Harris is said to owe her rise to power to political power broker Willie Brown.
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He said: “Among them was the rampant corruption that had become so common under her ex-boyfriend and political sponsor, Willie Brown.
“During the bitter campaign, Terence Hallinan had publicly stated that Harris would not be willing to bring corruption charges against Willie Brown’s allies and friends because they were still too close.
“Her record as a prosecutor would prove him right.”
Schweizer says one of the cases Harris dropped was one against real estate attorney Hector Chinchilla.
He had been appointed head of the San Francisco Planning Commission by Willie Brown – shortly after he became mayor.
In 2002, then-prosecutor Terence Hallinan had charged Chinchilla with seven violations of ethics laws.
Schweizer said, “Given how close Chinchilla was to Willie Brown, the case roiled City Hall.
“Barely eight months in office, after a judge dismissed some charges, Harris dropped all remaining charges against Chinchilla.”
Schweizer added that this “would not be the only case in which Harris would drop criminal charges against a Willie Brown ally.”
He mentions the owner of a cement and concrete company who also had a case dismissed during Harris’ tenure.
And he emphasized that she “did not participate” when attorneys generals from 14 other states, including New York, launched a probe in 2015 to investigate food companies for false advertising and mislabeling.
Their targets included Herbalife — about which Harris’ attorney general’s office had received more than 700 complaints.
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Former San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan was replaced by Harris, who was criticized for her record in the role.
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Schweizer said, “In July 2016, the Federal Trade Commission won a $200 million settlement against Herbalife. But Harris never even investigated the company.”
He added: “It is worth noting that the companies in question were all clients of her husband’s law firm, Venable LLP.”
Herbalife was one of Venable’s largest clients, paying its partner Emhoff’s firm for thousands of hours of legal work.
Schweizer said: “In 2015, prosecutors from Harris’ own attorney general’s office, based in San Diego, sent her a lengthy memorandum stating that Herbalife should be investigated.
“They also requested additional resources to further investigate the company and its practices. Harris declined to investigate or provide the resources — and never provided a reason.”
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Willie Brown has been called Harris’ sugar daddy and secret backer.
Schweizer concluded about Harris and her accuser’s record: “The reality of her rise to prominence is far more complicated, and the way she has leveraged her power along the way is troubling.”
‘Harris’ elevation to national politics is closely tied to one of California’s most allegedly corrupt political machines, and investigations into her tenure as prosecutor raise troubling questions about her use of criminal laws in a highly selective manner, presumably to target her friends and financial partners. protect. , and followers.
RadarOnline.com has contacted Harris for comment.
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