Kamala Harris accused of plagiarism in co-authored 2009 book

WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris is facing allegations of plagiarism after numerous passages from the Democratic presidential nominee’s 2009 book “Smart on Crime” were discovered to closely resemble — or perfectly match — wording from other sources.Harris, then San Francisco’s district attorney, wrote the book promoting a reform-minded approach to prosecuting crimes alongside ghostwriter Joan O’C.Hamilton — who told The Post when contacted Monday that she was surprised to learn about the alleged copying.Conservative activist Christopher Rufo published the allegations Monday and credited an investigation by Austrian “plagiarism hunter” Stefan Weber — with Rufo posting screenshots on X of five examples in which the wording in the book closely resembles other sources.The five highlighted passages indicate that Harris lifted wording from an Associated Press article, a John Jay College of Criminal Justice press release, a Wikipedia article, a Bureau of Justice Assistance report and an Urban Institute report.“Oh gosh,” Harris’ ghostwriter told The Post over the phone shortly after the allegations were published.“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.”A report compiled by Weber and published by Rufo said there were numerous other issues detected in the book.“Kamala Harris fabricated a source reference, inventing a nonexistent page number.

The self-promotional content from Goodwill Industries was copied verbatim without citing the source (Goodwill Industries was her ‘primary partner’ on in [sic] the ‘Back on Track’ program),” Weber wrote.“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...