US Vice President Kamala Harris is under scrutiny following allegations of plagiarism in her 2009 co-authored book, Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor’s Plan to Make Us Safer. The claims, brought to light by Austrian plagiarism expert Dr. Stefan Weber, accuse Harris and co-author Joan O’C Hamilton of including 27 instances of uncredited copying in the book.
According to a report in ‘Newsweek’, Dr. Weber and his team allege that Harris and Hamilton lifted content from multiple sources, including news articles, studies, and a Wikipedia article, without proper attribution. One notable claim accuses Harris of fabricating a source reference, citing a nonexistent page number and copying promotional content from Goodwill Industries, her partner in a rehabilitation program, without citation.
Weber also points out that while footnotes were occasionally provided, the book’s text often copied passages verbatim without quotation marks, violating standards of transparency. Further allegations claim that some details were altered from their original sources, such as changing the profession of a Subway store owner to a sandwich shop clerk, raising further concerns about accuracy.
In addition, Dr. Weber alleges that passages referencing New York City’s Midtown Community Court mirror the language of a Wikipedia article, which was further copied from a linked PDF. While Harris acknowledged using the report for examples, Weber argues that her failure to provide a URL and the lack of quotation marks still constitutes plagiarism.
The accusations have prompted reactions from public figures, with Senator JD Vance mocking Harris on social media for using Wikipedia as a source. “Lmao Kamala didn’t even write her own book!” Vance tweeted. Donald Trump Jr. also weighed in, calling Harris a “fraud” in light of the new allegations.
Harris has not yet publicly responded to these claims.