Several paragraphs from Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s 2009 book “Smart on Crime” were found to closely resemble—or exactly match—wording from other sources, leading to accusations of plagiarism against the vice president. Together with ghostwriter Joan O’C. Hamilton, who told the New York Post outlet when contacted on Monday that she was shocked to hear about the alleged copying, Harris, who was the district attorney of San Francisco at the time, penned the book advocating for a reform-minded approach to criminal prosecution. Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist, released the claims on Monday and attributed them to research conducted by Austrian “plagiarism hunter” Stefan Weber. Rufo shared screenshots of five instances on X where the book’s wording closely mirrors other sources. In all instances, the purported source material predated the vice president’s book publication date. The five side-by-side excerpts suggest that Harris may have copied text from a 2008 Associated Press article, a 2008 draft of a Wikipedia article, a 2000 Bureau of Justice Assistance report, a 2004 Urban Institute report, and a 2007 award press release from John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The original verbiage’s source is mentioned in footnotes in at least two of the cases; however, quote marks are not used around the words that seem to have been copied, and in other cases, like the Urban Institute study, passages seem to be completely uncredited.
Nevertheless, politicians have survived similar scandals in the past. For example, former President Joe Biden misappropriated the family background and public statements of British politician Neil Kinnock during his 1987 presidential campaign and plagiarized a paper in his first year of law school. Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts |
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