Here is the problem that the fools (that's you EVA, WTF, and the ilk) won't except; the fact that the prosecutor has charged the pair with wanting to buy fetal tissue (which was part of their cover) also means that PP was willing to sell it to them which is against the law. So the prosecutor is admitting (as does PP) that they did, in fact, intend to sell fetal tissue. They're guilty of breaking a federal law.
Originally Posted by JD Barleycorn
You can read the law, which is public, as will be the indictments (if they are not already public). The law clearly states (emphasis mine) "A person commits an offense if he or she knowingly or
intentionally offers to buy, offers to sell, acquires, receives, sells, or otherwise transfers any human organ for valuable consideration." The law does not require actually buying or selling, but simply offering to do so. A party does not have to be willing to sell for you to offer to buy. There is no admission of wrongdoing by the prosecutor on the part of PP by indicting people for intentionally offering to buy organs.
As for the rest, this is going to be interesting. The prosecutor is going to go with the idea that these two did not work for a real publication therefore could not be reporters and that being the case did not have immunity from any actions that they took in their uncover operation....well, there are a shit load of bloggers out there and on line reporters who will think otherwise. This then becomes a first amendment issue which will crush the local partisan prosecutor. I'll be surprised if the prosecutor keeps their job after this.
I haven't seen the full tapes, so I don't know exactly what was said. But if they did offer to buy from PP, then they clearly broke the letter of the law. The question will be whether intent to actually buy the organs is a requirement of breaking the law. Maybe the law will be considered unconstitutional if actual intent isn't required (doubtful), but no one is going to be losing their job for prosecuting people who clearly broke the letter of the law.