EXCLUSIVE: Kamala Harris plagiarized at least a dozen sections of her criminal-justice book, Smart on Crime, according to a new investigation. The current vice president even lifted material from Wikipedia.
We have the receipts. 🧵
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo)
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NEW YORK POST
Vice President Kamala Harris is facing allegations of plagiarism after numerous passages from the Democratic presidential nominee’s 2009 book “Smart on Crime” were discovered to closely resemble — or perfectly match — wording from other sources.
Harris, then San Francisco’s district attorney, wrote the book promoting a reform-minded approach to prosecuting crimes alongside ghostwriter Joan O’C. Hamilton — who told The Post when contacted Monday that she was surprised to learn about the alleged copying.
Conservative activist Christopher Rufo published the allegations Monday and credited an investigation by Austrian “plagiarism hunter” Stefan Weber — with Rufo posting screenshots on X of five examples in which the wording in the book closely resembles other sources.
In each instance, the purported source material predates Harris’ book publication date.
The five side-by-side passages indicate that Harris may have lifted wording from an Associated Press article from 2008, a Wikipedia article as drafted in 2008, a Bureau of Justice Assistance report from 2000, an Urban Institute report from 2004, and a John Jay College of Criminal Justice press release describing a 2007 award.
In at least two of the instances, the source of the original verbiage is cited in footnotes — however, quotation marks are not around the apparently copied words and in other instances passages appear to be wholly uncredited, such as the Urban Institute report.
“Oh gosh,” Harris’ ghostwriter told The Post over the phone shortly after the allegations were published.
“I haven’t seen anything,” she added. “I’m afraid I can’t talk to you right now, though, I’m in the middle of something. Let me go try to figure that out.”
A report compiled by Weber and published by Rufo said there were numerous other issues detected in the book.
