US Vice President Kamala Harris has been accused of plagiarism in her 2009 book on policing Smart on Crime.
An investigation by Austrian plagiarism researcher Stefan Weber claims that Harris, along with co-author Joan O’C Hamilton, copied at least 24 sections from other sources without proper attribution. The investigation also identified three instances of self-plagiarism involving previous work co-written by Harris.
Weber, who uncovered the alleged instances of plagiarism, said he was uncertain about whether Harris or her ghostwriter was responsible but left it to others to form conclusions. He published a detailed breakdown of the copied fragments on his website.
The accusations were further amplified by conservative activist Chris Rufo, who highlighted several passages from Harris’ book that appeared to closely mirror text from sources such as Wikipedia, NBC News, and official reports from the Bureau of Justice Assistance and John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Rufo criticised Harris for failing to meet basic academic standards and called for her and her publisher to retract the plagiarised sections and issue corrections.
Harris has not directly addressed the accusations, but her campaign has dismissed the claims, emphasizing that the book properly cites sources through footnotes and endnotes.
