Kamala Harris has been accused of plagiarism in her first book, with multiple passages being lazily copied from low-quality sources without proper attribution.
This is according to a new report from a plagiarism researcher who scrutinized her work in her book, "Smart On Crime: A Career Prosecutor's Plan To Make Us Safer." The 2009 book used the political slogan she used in her district attorney campaign as the starting point for a plan for reforming the U.S. criminal justice system at large, and it is considered to have helped drive her political career forward and boost her credibility on criminal justice.
Austrian “plagiarism hunter” Stefan Weber pointed to more than a dozen fragments that Harris plagiarized, and she apparently didn't bother to get her information from reputable sources as some of the paragraphs were straight copies from Wikipedia. In all of the matches identified, the sources had been published well ahead of Harris’s book, making it clear that she was the one doing the plagiarizing and not the other way around.
One section of text in her book was taken from a story published by the Associated Press about low graduation rates in 2008, while another had extensive sections that were copied almost verbatim from a press release by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice without providing any attribution.
In another incident, wording was copied directly from a report on West Palm Beach crime statistics by the Bureau of Justice Assistance.
Author and activist Christopher Rufo shared these details on Substack and X, where he compared her passages to the sources side by side to demonstrate the extent of the plagiarism. The parts that were copied were highlighted, and it is clear with a simple glance that the bulk of the material is direct plagiarism that Harris tried to pass off as her own writing.
Americans should take note of Harris's lack of integrity
Rufo called on Harris to own up to her dishonesty, writing: “On that point, one might recall the title of her book: Smart on Crime. There is nothing smart about plagiarism, which is the equivalent of an academic crime. The publisher, as well as the sitting vice president, should retract the plagiarized passages and issue a correction.”
Compare this to Donald Trump's running mate, Senator JD Vance, who is hoping to take over Harris’s job. His own book, Hillbilly Elegy, was well-received across the political spectrum at the time of its release and explored topics affecting poor white communities such as addiction and poverty.
Acknowledging Harris’s plagiarism controversy on X, Vance wrote: “Lmao Kamala didn't even write her own book!” and shared a link to Rufo’s story.
Donald Trump Jr. also weighed in on X, posting: “Yikes! More evidence that Kamala Harris is a fraud!!!”
Harris's publisher won't comment on plagiarism
It’s a serious accusation that has prompted multiple media outlets to request comments from her campaign, but so far, they have largely been shut down. Her publisher is also being cagey; Rufo shared screenshots of leaked internal emails in which representatives from Chronicle Books ordered publicity reps not to respond to inquiries from the press about the matter. The inquiries are being described as “very sensitive” and are being redirected to the highest levels of the publisher.
Rufo posted on X that they are “in damage control mode,” adding: “They know Kamala lied. They know that we know Kamala lied. In America, plagiarism has become a moral pillar of the regime — and they will slander anyone who notices.”
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