Planned Parenthood has reached out to Rep. Paul Ryan to ask the newly-elected House Speaker for "fair and impartial" treatment in Congress' ongoing probe into its fetal tissue donation program — an investigation the group says appears to be a political stunt.
As
The Hill reports, the four-page letter from
Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards describes "troubling activity" by House Republicans, many of whom want the group to lose federal funding after a series of undercover videos purported to show the sale of fetal body parts.
She told Ryan that since the inquiry began, Planned Parenthood has provided over 27,000 pages of documents to four congressional committees.
"Four of our staff have been interviewed for a total of more than eight hours, and on Sept. 29, I personally testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee at a hearing lasting over five hours," Richards said.
"Despite our cooperation to date, a number of the investigative practices undertaken by the committees raise concerns about the impartiality and integrity of their investigations."
Richards said a congressional staff member reportedly released investigative materials that were in the custody of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee majority staff — documents provided to the committee only after the order of a federal judge.
She added that previously unreleased "sting" videos were reportedly leaked to a blogger "who has partnered with a hacker based in Macedonia and put them on the Internet."
"The source of the leak is described as ‘a high-ranking congressional staffer who felt morally compelled to have them released.' We have asked Chairman [Jason] Chaffetz to investigate the allegations of this leak by his staff and we hope you will ensure this leak is properly investigated and provide us assurances that other committees will not engage in these unfair practices," Richards wrote.
"To be completely clear: We have nothing to hide, and the facts are on our side. But this leak calls into serious question the objectivity of this investigation, and underscores concerns that this is a political exercise, rather than a fact-finding effort."
The Hill notes that Ryan has said little about the videos, which Planned Parenthood charges were deceptively edited.
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