A prosecution witness took the stand this week to offer testimony intended to hurt Sandra Merritt badly. Instead, he wound up putting a truck-sized hole in the prosecution's case against Sandra.

See below for details and please know that your generosity now is critical to Sandra's defense. This courageous grandmother is fighting a baseless 15-count criminal indictment that could put her behind bars for more than a decade. Your support now, of any amount, will make a real difference in this fight. And I know she will be enormously grateful for your support! –Mat

Sandra Merritt landed a heavy blow on abortion giant Planned Parenthood four years ago. Now the abortion giant is out for revenge.

Sandra and her colleague David Daleiden went undercover to expose the abortion firm's heinous trade in human body parts harvested from aborted children.

Their sensational undercover videos shocked the nation and sparked congressional investigations. But instead of celebrating Sandra's courage, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, slapped her with a 15-count felony criminal indictment.

AG Becerra—a Planned Parenthood hired gun who has taken in thousands in campaign donations from the abortion firm--charged her with recording people without their permission.

+  +  "God showed up big!"

But the invasion of privacy law she allegedly violated has a critical exception. It exempts recordings of conversations that are not "confidential." And any conversation that can be overheard, the law states, is not "confidential."

And yet the state investigator whose affidavit led to Sandra's arrest utterly failed to ask all but one of Sandra's alleged "victims" whether their recorded conversations could be overheard.

That's just one of the stunning admissions Department of Justice special agent Brian Cardwell made Thursday under grilling by Liberty Counsel attorney Harry Mihet.

"God showed up big!" Harry exclaimed about Cardwell's string of surprising admissions.

+  +  These admissions "essentially gutted the AG's case"

"Cardwell gave us everything and essentially gutted the AG's case, at least as to the 8 [of 14 does] Does." In four hours of cross-examination, Cardwell also admitted . . .

• He’s been an investigator for 19 years, but this was his FIRST investigation of illegal recording under California Penal Code Section 632. He has had no training on how to conduct these types of investigations or what to look for.

• He knows the definition of “confidential communication” under Section 632(c), and knows that it EXCLUDES communications where “the parties to the communication may reasonably expect that the communication may be overheard”

• He agrees that whether a participant to the communication could be overheard by non-participants is an important aspect of a Section 632 investigation

• He asked one Doe victim if she could be overheard by others, and she told him yes. He failed to state this in the affidavit he submitted to obtain the arrest warrants. He admitted he knew he had an obligation to present exculpatory evidence to the judge considering the arrest warrant. But he did not do so.

• After that Doe interview, he failed to ask other Doe "victims" whether they could be overheard. The Doe "victims" told him they "felt" the recorded conversations were "confidential." He didn't probe. He didn't ask questions. He didn't present them with evidence from the videos showing bystanders close by and ask them to explain. He admitted that he did NOTHING to investigate the claims that communication were confidential. He simply accepted the Does' statements as fact, and he presented them in his affidavit for the arrest warrant.

• The above admission came after I asked him whether he has been trained to interview witnesses. He says he has been trained not to accept witness statements as facts, and his experience is that witnesses sometimes lie. He has been trained to ask questions and ferret out the truth. He has done NONE of that here.

• He left out numerous other pieces of exculpatory information from the arrest warrant affidavit. There was one Doe video that was filmed in an elevator. There was a stranger non-party along for the ENTIRE elevator ride. Agent Cardwell never asked that Doe about it. He simply accepted the claim that this communication too was “confidential.” Worse, he never mentioned the elevator-ride-with-stranger-along to the judge in the arrest warrant affidavit, even though it is clearly exculpatory and vitiates that claim.

• He also mentioned that another Doe made a complaint to the Los Angeles Police Department, but completely failed to mention that it was dismissed because the LAPD concluded that the conversation was in a public restaurant and could “easily” be overheard by others. So the “good” information goes to the judge considering the arrest warrant, while the “bad” information is withheld.

+  +  Your help needed now

You can see just how unjust, slipshod, and politically driven all this is. And yet Sandra could go behind bars for more than a decade if convicted on the state's incredibly flimsy case!

We go into week three of Sandra's criminal preliminary hearing Monday and I ask for your help now. Despite the state's flim-flam prosecution, we face an uphill battle. We're in San Francisco and there is no telling how this judge will rule.

The stakes are huge. If convicted, Sandra, now in her 60s, could spend more than a decade behind bars—possibly the rest of her life.

Will you give to help Sandra defeat this legal attack? This is one of the most important pro-life cases in America today. The battle is raging and your gift now will make a real difference! Please be as generous as you can!

Your generosity now will defend Sandra and help us protect life, liberty and the family in courts across America!

Thank you for your prayers and for standing with Sandra in defense of the unborn and freedom!

For life and liberty,

Mat Staver
Chairman