Vice President Kamala Harris is under fire after claims of plagiarism have emerged regarding her 2009 book “Smart on Crime,” which was penned while she served as San Francisco’s district attorney. Several passages from the book are said to bear striking similarities, if not exact matches, to text from other sources.

Harris co-authored the book with ghostwriter Joan O’C. Hamilton, who expressed surprise upon hearing about the allegations when contacted by The Post. “I was surprised to learn about the alleged copying,” she remarked when questioned.

The accusations were brought to light by conservative activist Christopher Rufo on Monday, following an investigation led by Austrian “plagiarism hunter” Stefan Weber. Rufo shared screenshots on X (formerly Twitter), displaying five instances where the language in Harris’ book appeared to mirror pre-existing material.

In every case, the material in question was written before the release of Harris’ book.

The five examples Rufo highlighted suggest that content from sources like a 2008 Associated Press article, a Wikipedia page as it appeared in 2008, a 2000 Bureau of Justice Assistance report, a 2004 Urban Institute report, and a 2007 press release from John Jay College of Criminal Justice might have been lifted for the book.

In at least two examples, the sources were credited in footnotes, but quotation marks were notably absent around the borrowed phrases. Other instances, such as material from the Urban Institute report, appear to have gone uncredited altogether.

“Oh gosh,” Hamilton, Harris’ ghostwriter, said upon learning of the allegations. “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.”

Weber’s report, which Rufo made public, pointed to additional concerns within the book.

“Kamala Harris fabricated a source reference, inventing a nonexistent page number,” Weber wrote. “The self-promotional content from Goodwill Industries was copied verbatim without citing the source (Goodwill Industries was her ‘primary partner’ on the ‘Back on Track’ program).”

Weber further noted, “In many other instances, even when a source was cited with a footnote, the text was directly copied and pasted without using quotation marks. Quotation marks would have been the most transparent and honest approach, also in non-academic books. Further signs of dishonesty may be evident when sources were copied but specific details were altered, such as replacing a Subway store owner with a sandwich shop clerk (p. 124) or highlighting Southeast Asia in the context of the US gang problem (p. 184).”

A spokesperson for Harris’ campaign, James Singer, responded to the claims, stating, “This is a book that’s been out for 15 years, and the vice president clearly cited sources and statistics in footnotes and endnotes throughout.”

While plagiarism allegations can spell the end for careers in journalism and academia, politicians have often weathered such controversies. One notable example is President Joe Biden, who faced similar accusations during his early political career. Biden was accused of plagiarizing a paper during law school and, during his 1987 presidential campaign, was caught appropriating the life story and public speeches of British politician Neil Kinnock.

{Matzav.com}