Independent journalist Nick Shirley confronted California lawmakers seeking to criminalize investigative journalism which exposes fraud in a video posted Saturday.
Democratic California State Assemblywoman Mia Bonta, the wife of Democratic California Attorney General Rob Bonta, introduced Assembly Bill 2624 (AB2624) in February. In a 25-minute YouTube video posted Saturday, Shirley interviews multiple lawmakers about the bill, which has moved through the Assembly’s Privacy and Consumer Protection and Judiciary committees.
“It was only until I exposed fraud that they actually cracked down on the fraud and made some arrests here, especially with the hospices. And do you know that, if this bill were to pass, it’d make it illegal for someone to go after fraud, especially if it’s based off of immigrants — for instance, Armenians in California?” Shirley asked one lawmaker.
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“So this bill, A.K.A [as known as] the Stop Nick Shirley Act, tell us about it,” Shirley asked another lawmaker.
“Well, there is no Stop Nick Shirley Act, but the author is not here today, but I hope you can find her,” the lawmaker responded.
While most lawmakers were polite in their interactions with Shirley, Democratic State Sen. Scott Wiener, who is running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, seemingly verbally attacked the independent journalist.
“I think you’re a psycho scam artist,” Wiener said before departing from Shirley.
Republican California State Assemblyman Carl DeMaio dubbed AB2624 the “Stop Nick Shirley Act,” in a Monday statement, framing it as a Democrat effort to prevent exposing fraud and abuse, such as purported day care centers run by Somali migrants.
In March 2017, California charged David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt with 15 felony counts for engaging in undercover journalism in Planned Parenthood clinics and exposing the sale of fetal tissue. After a legal fight stretching roughly a decade, the last charge was dropped April 3.
Shirley thrust the issue of welfare fraud in Minnesota into the national spotlight in December after he posted a 42-minute video featuring his visiting multiple purported day care centers run by Somali migrants. He also posted a 40-minute video in March investigating hospice centers in the Los Angeles area, at one point claiming he uncovered at least $170 million in fraud.
An anti-fraud task force led by Vice President JD Vance suspended federal funding Wednesday to nearly 450 hospices in the Los Angeles area suspected of facilitating fraud. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told the House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday the hospice fraud in Los Angeles cost American taxpayers $5 billion.
In Washington state, one lawmaker introduced legislation to exempt information about day care centers from public records laws after citizen journalists began probing Somali-run day care centers in a similar fashion to Shirley’s investigation in Minneapolis.
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