A scandal involving stolen drugs from a San Francisco crime lab threatened to derail Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., before she served as attorney general of California nearly a decade ago.
The Washington Post published a lengthy look at the scandal as Harris navigates the early days of her 2020 presidential campaign. She was San Francisco attorney general from 2004-2011, during which she took plenty of heat in the aftermath of a scandal that began in early 2010 when a technician in a crime lab stole cocaine and ended with her closing roughly 1,000 drug cases out of fears they had been tainted because of the theft.
Harris was accused of mishandling the scandal because neither she nor someone from her staff informed defense attorneys of the drug theft when it first occurred. Harris initially pushed back and tried to blame the police, but she ultimately took responsibility for the scandal.
As part of the fallout, according to the Post, Harris dismissed 1,000 drug-related cases in San Francisco — and several of them had already secured convictions.
"No excuses," Harris told the Post in a recent interview. "The buck stops with me."
Harris announced her candidacy for president in late January, and she has already seen her fair share of negative press about her campaign. Stories about sexual harassment settlements and an ICE policy she supported came out before the Post report on the crime lab scandal. Harris is also in favor of reparations for African-Americans.
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