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Daleiden was nearing the end of a 30-month caper, which saw him train a team of undercover activists to help him infiltrate Planned Parenthood by posing as representatives of a fake tissue-procurement company. The goal was to surreptitiously record videos that could prove the organization had illegally sold fetal tissue for profit.

Daleiden and an associate breezed past the building’s metal detector, and allegedly presented as identification a phony California drivers license with the name of an alias, Robert Sarkis. In normal cases, the use of a fake ID would not warrant felony charges; a grand jury would not, for example, throw the book at an underage kid using a phony government ID to pick up a six-pack of beer. But Texas state law includes a provision that elevates this transgression—knowingly using a fake government document—to a second-degree felony if “the intent is to defraud or harm another.” The grand jury decided that Daleiden’s goal was to do just that, by using his cover story to make a covert recording designed to damage Planned Parenthood’s reputation...

The grand jury never even took a vote on whether to charge Planned Parenthood with a crime. Instead, it concluded that Daleiden and his associate, identified as Sandra Merritt, 62, should be indicted...

The additional misdemeanor charge against Daleiden stems from a letter he sent to the Planned Parenthood affiliate a few months after the meeting, according to Josh Schaffer, an attorney for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast. .. Attaching a proposed contract, Daleiden offered to pay up to $1,600 per fetal tissue specimen, according to Schaffer, who suggests the steep price was designed to illustrate profit...

But Schaffer, the Planned Parenthood lawyer, told TIME that Planned Parenthood officials never responded to the offer. “In Texas, the crime is the offer to buy,” he said. “The other party does not have to accept the offer.” More: http://time.com/4194226/planned-parenthood-david-daleiden-felony/