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During Kamala Harris’ first-ever run for a major office back in 2003, the future vice president was mired in controversy for inflating her prosecutorial record and separately ran afoul of campaign finance rules.
At the time, Harris was vying to be San Francisco district attorney general, and she was eager to fashion herself as a “veteran” prosecutor with “thirteen years of courtroom experience” who could overhaul the DA.
“Kamala has tried hundreds of serious and violent felonies, including homicide, rape, and child sexual assault cases,” a mailer put out by her campaign claimed at the time.
However, she didn’t actually prosecute hundreds of those cases by that point in time, as she was later forced to admit in a debate.
“How many cases have you tried? Can you tell us how many serious felonies you have tried? Can you tell us one?” one of her rivals at the time, criminal defense attorney Bill Fazio, grilled her during a KGO Radio radio debate in 2003.
Harris shot back, “I’ve tried about 50 cases, Mr. Fazio, and it’s about leadership.”
“Ms. Harris, why does your information, which is still published, say that you tried hundreds of serious felonies? I think that’s misleading. I think that’s disingenuous. I think that shows that you are incapable of leadership and you’re not to be trusted,” Fazio then asked.
“You continue to put out information which says you have tried hundreds of serious felonies.”
The future vice president declined to rebut Fazio’s central point about the inflated figure, but countered that she had shown “leadership” throughout her career as a prosecutor.
“Mr. Fazio, leadership…is about working with different communities. As a career prosecutor, I have done that,” she replied, before touting endorsements she received from law enforcement organizations.
Earlier in that exchange, Harris had slammed Fazio’s record in that debate, telling him, “You should be embarrassed as a prosecutor that you’ve had six cases overturned, four of which have been for prosecutorial misconduct.” That drew him to pivot to her campaign’s embellishment.
Harris had also acknowledged to a local Democratic Club around the time that Fazio “definitely tried many more cases” but countered that experience shouldn’t be the deciding factor in the race.
Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson James Singer downplayed the controversy in a statement first given to ABC News.
“Vice President Harris oversaw and was involved in the prosecution of hundreds of serious crimes before she was elected District Attorney of San Francisco,” Singer said. “For more than a decade, she prosecuted child sexual assault cases, homicides, and robberies in Alameda, before overseeing the career criminal unit and served as the head of division on families and children in the San Francisco District Attorney’s office.”
“That is what mattered to voters in San Francisco more than two decades ago and why she was elected District Attorney.”
Ultimately, Fazio’s swipe at Harris failed to cripple her candidacy at the time. She went on to edge him out in the first round of voting and then went on to defeat incumbent District Attorney, Terence Hallinan.
Hallinan had explained in that debate that Harris worked for his office for about “a year-and-a-half.”
“She tried one case. I was satisfied with the way she worked for me. I’m not knocking it. I was sorry she left but she did,” he said.
Harris then accused him of having one of the lowest prosecution rates in the state and cast herself as tough on crime, chiding at one point, “Don’t you understand you’re not a public defender.”
In a separate instance during that election cycle, Harris got slapped with a fine for flouting San Francisco’s campaign finance laws
Back in January of that year, Harris had signed a commitment to stay within a $211,000 spending limit, but her campaign later informed the San Francisco Ethics Commission that she blew past that cap by about $91,446.
As a result, she wound up with a penalty of $34,000, according to the San Francisco Ethics Commission website. That was the second largest fine of its kinda listed on that site.
The panel noted that “the violations appear to be unintentional.” The violation came amid the withering contest for San Francisco’s district attorney post.
She later pledged to spend money on flyers to appraise the public of her violation as a means of rectifying the situation, though Harris later garnered criticism for how a lot of that funding was used for door-hangers and other ads that cast her in positive light with small text acknowledging the error.
“Leadership isn’t about being perfect. Leadership means taking responsibility,” Harris said at the time, per SFGATE. “This agreement (with the Ethics Commission) shows what can happen when a campaign, instead of running from its mistakes, takes responsibility for them.”
Both of her rivals at the time also cast doubt on whether or not the violation was actually unintentional.
Harris’ career in law began in Alameda County when she pursued cases pertaining to homicides, robberies and child sexual assault. She then rose through the ranks to become managing attorney for the Career Criminal Unit in the San Francisco DA office and then at the helm of San Francisco City Attorney’s Division on Families and Children in 2003.
She has publicly described the impetus for her legal career came from one of her best friends in high school, Wanda Kagan, who told her that she was being abused by her step-father.
“That is one of the reasons I became a prosecutor. To protect people like Wanda. Because I believe everyone has a right: To safety. To dignity. And to justice,” Harris proclaimed during her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last week.
Harris later got elected to serve as Attorney General of California in 2010 before amending to the Senate in 2017.
She is poised to square off with former President Donald Trump in ABC News’ Sept. 10 debate in Philadelphia ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election.