WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris has discovered that numerous passages in the Democratic presidential candidate's 2009 book “Smart on Crime” closely resemble or match passages from other sources. and faces allegations of plagiarism.
Harris, then San Francisco's district attorney, co-authored a book with ghostwriter Joan O'Shea promoting a reform-minded approach to criminal prosecution. Reached by the Post on Monday, Hamilton said he was surprised to learn about the alleged copying.
Conservative activist Christopher Rufo announced the charges On Monday, Rufo, crediting the investigation by Austrian “plagiarism hunter” Stefan Weber, posted to X screenshots of five instances in which the book's wording was too similar to other sources.
The five highlighted sentences show Harris quoting from an Associated Press article, a John Jay College of Criminal Justice press release, a Wikipedia article, a Justice Assistance Bureau report, and an Urban Institute report. It shows.
“Oh my god,” Harris' ghostwriter told the Post by phone shortly after the allegations were made public.
“I haven't seen anything,” she added. “Sorry, I can't talk to you right now because I'm in the middle of something. Let's go figure it out.”
The report, compiled by Weber and published by Rufo, found a number of other problems with the book.
“Kamala Harris fabricated source references and made up non-existent page numbers. Self-promotional content from Goodwill Industries was copied verbatim without citing the source. (He was her “main partner” at the time) [sic] “Back on Track'' program),'' Weber wrote.
“In many other cases, even when sources were cited with footnotes, the text was copied and pasted directly without quotation marks. Even outside of academic books, quotation marks are the most It would have been a transparent and honest approach, although the sources were copied, such as replacing the subway owner with a sandwich shop clerk (p. 124) and emphasizing Southeast Asia in relation to the US gang problem (p. 124). Additional signs of fraud may be revealed if certain details change, such as p. 184).
Spokespeople for Harris' presidential campaign and vice president's office did not respond to requests for comment.
Plagiarism allegations are often fatal to the careers of journalists and academics, but politicians have survived similar controversies in the past — most notably with retired President Biden, who plagiarized a paper. In the first year of law schooland exploited British politician Neil Kinnock's family history and public statements while running for president in 1987.
