The Democratic Party’s 2024 presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, is facing increasing scrutiny over her record as a prosecutor, with legal critics raising questions as to whether Harris ever actually personally prosecuted a case in its entirety.
Former Acting U.S. Attorney General Jeff Clark first raised the question several weeks ago, asking social media users if anyone could find “a transcript of a case that Kamala Harris has prosecuted.” After it appeared no one would take him up on the challenge, Clark posited in a post on X (formerly Twitter): “I’m starting to get doubtful that she EVER prosecuted a case through to trial.”
Harris’s presidential campaign has repeatedly tried framing the Democrat as a tough-on-crime prosecutor.
The question of Harris’ actual prosecutorial experience follows revelations that the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee frequently missed California Medical Assistance Commission (CMAC) meetings during her stint as an appointee on the state government board. Harris, named to the commission by her then-boyfriend Willie Brown—the powerful California Assembly Speaker—missed around 20 percent of the organization’s meetings.
Most instances of Harris’ courtroom experience pointed to by the corporate media are cases in which the California Democrat almost certainly never actually set foot in court. Clark notes that an NPR story from August, which details nine cases from Harris’s past, are all instances in which her role as district attorney or California Attorney General meant she was absent from the day-to-day work.
While Harris’s resume suggests she may have seen some trial time while working on the Alameda District Attorney’s sex offense team, there appear to be few other instances where she would have set foot in a courtroom—let alone prosecuted a case from start to finish.
Original image by Gage Skidmore.
