Harris campaign calls plagiarism claims a partisan attack. Expert says it was ‘sloppy writing’

Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ campaign is dismissing accusations that she and a co-author plagiarized parts of a 2009 book on the U.S. criminal justice system as a desperate attempt by “rightwing operatives” to distract voters ahead of next month’s election. Plagiarism experts and academics who reviewed the claims said some could not be proven, and others were more of a case of sloppy writing than malicious intent. The allegations surrounding the book, “Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor’s Plan to Make Us Safer,” surfaced Monday when a conservative activist posted an article listing a handful of passages he said were copied from other sources without any or adequate attribution.