In an interesting development in the Trump campaign, manager Corey Lewandowski has been charged with battery and has turned himself in. At a Florida campaign event, Lewandowski forcefully grabbed the arm of Breitbart reporter, Michelle Fields. Fields later resigned from Breitbart after she claimed the publication failed to stand by her.
While the grabbing incident is certainly its own saga, the history of Kendall Coffey, one of the attorneys representing Lewandowski is also compelling. Coffey’s history – which includes defending both Planned Parenthood and partial-birth abortion – may provide insight into the kind of people Trump and a possible Trump administration would associate with.
Indeed, Trump’s tendency to surround himself with liberals and abortion advocates is magnified by his campaign manager’s choice of an attorney. On Twitter, Coffey seemed to side with Planned Parenthood instead of the Center for Medical Progress in the video expose that showed the abortion giant harvesting and likely selling baby body parts:
Indicting filmmakers and not Planned Parenthood reminds us that investigations follow the evidence and not the agenda of politicians.
— Kendall Coffey (@Kendall_Coffey) January 26, 2016
As an attorney, Coffey should not have ignored the report that the Harris County grand jury did not even vote on Planned Parenthood’s case. Instead, while the grand jury was marketed as a way to discover what Planned Parenthood was really up to, it turned into a means of punishing the undercover filmmakers. Coffey should also take note of the fact that one of the Harris County DA’s top campaign contributors is the attorney of Douglas Karpen, one of the most dangerous late-term abortionists in the nation. Indeed, the evidence would point a reasonable person to conclude that the agenda of the abortion industry was being followed in the grand jury indictment, and little else.
Even more damning is the amicus brief that Coffey submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2006. Gonzales v. Carhart and Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood – two cases focused on the federal partial-birth abortion ban – were before the Court. Coffey, as a “former federal prosecutor,” submitted a brief in support of the respondents – Planned Parenthood and LeRoy Carhart, another notorious and dangerous late-term abortionist. Notably, Coffey resigned from his job as a federal prosecutor after his was investigated by the Department of Justice for allegedly biting a stripper.
In his brief, Coffey defended at least some D&E abortions (see the video below for a former abortionist’s description of common D&Es). He also stated that “enforcement of such a law [the partial-birth abortion ban] will discourage doctors from performing any type of second trimester abortion procedure at all,” as if that were a negative outcome. He disgustingly argued over what a “living fetus” might mean:
Furthermore, the Ban’s specific provisions, such as the phrase “living fetus,” are hopelessly vague as a legal proscription. As many courts have recognized in considering similar language, “reasonable physicians differ as to the meaning of what is ‘living.”‘ Indeed, courts almost universally have found that the term “living fetus” is unconstitutionally vague. It is unclear whether a “living fetus” must be intact…(“[i]t is not clear whether ‘living fetus’ refers only to an intact fetus with a heartbeat or some other form of ‘life,’ or to a disarticulated fetus with a heartbeat or some other sign of ‘life”‘), or whether “living” is defined by some other criterion, compare Woods…(questioning whether a “living fetus” is simply a collection of living cells) with Planned Parenthood Fed’n of America v. Ashcroft…defining living fetus as “pulsing umbilical cord” or heartbeat). A physician or prosecutor could not possibly know whether a given “overt act” “kill”-ed the fetus under the Ban without having a clear definition of what made it “living.” For these reasons too, the statute is plainly unconstitutional. [Case citations removed for ease of reading.]
This is the kind of attorney Donald J. Trump’s campaign manager chooses. Notably, in addition to being an attorney, Coffey is also the Chair of the Southern District Conference, Florida Federal Judicial Nominating Commission. Clearly, Trump does not stray far from the fold of abortion advocates when legal teams and suggested judicial nominees are considered.
