Harris faced criticism for inflating her prosecutorial record in 2003 district attorney campaign

In 2003, during Kamala Harris' run for San Francisco district attorney, her campaign sent out mailers promoting her candidacy that touted her record as a prosecutor with "thirteen years of courtroom experience."

The mailers, copies of which ABC News has obtained, portrayed Harris as "the veteran prosecutor we need to turn around our District Attorney office" and claimed she had a "long track record of being an outstanding public prosecutor."

"Kamala has tried hundreds of serious and violent felonies, including homicide, rape, and child sexual assault cases," the mailer stated.

But during a debate held in the runup to Election Day 2003 on KGO Radio, Harris' then-opponent, veteran criminal defense attorney Bill Fazio, accused her of misleading voters about her record as a prosecutor and deputy district attorney in California's Alameda County.

"How many cases have you tried? Can you tell us how many serious felonies you have tried? Can you tell us one?" Fazio asked Harris, according to audio ABC News obtained of the debate, which also included then-current San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan.

"I've tried about 50 cases, Mr. Fazio, and it's about leadership," Harris responded.

Fazio then pointed out campaign literature where Harris had been claiming a more extensive prosecutorial record.

"Ms. Harris, why does your information, which is still published, say that you tried hundreds of serious felonies? I think that's misleading. I think that's disingenuous. I think that shows that you are incapable of leadership and you're not to be trusted," Fazio said. "You continue to put out information which says you have tried hundreds of serious felonies."

Harris, in response, did not dispute Fazio's claims and instead pivoted, stating that "leadership, working with different communities as a career prosecutor, I've done that, which is why I, not you, have every law enforcement organization's endorsement."

'Tried' versus 'prosecuted'

Harris began her career in Alameda County prosecuting cases involving child sexual assault, homicides and robberies. In 1998, she became the managing attorney of the Career Criminal Unit in the San Francisco district attorney's office, where she was responsible for overseeing the prosecution of repeat offenders.

In 2000, Harris took on the role of head of the San Francisco City Attorney's Division on Families and Children, before entering the political arena in 2003 with her campaign for district attorney.

Fazio's accusation in the 2003 debate did not hurt Harris, and she went on to best him in the election before winning a runoff against Hallinan with 56% of the vote to become the first person of color elected district attorney of San Francisco.

Asked this week about Harris' prosecutorial experience before she became district attorney, a spokesperson for Harris' presidential campaign used slightly different language to describe her record -- saying she was "involved in" hundreds of cases.

"Vice President Harris oversaw and was involved in the prosecution of hundreds of serious crimes before she was elected District Attorney of San Francisco," Harris campaign spokesperson James Singer told ABC News. "For more than a decade, she prosecuted child sexual assault cases, homicides, and robberies in Alameda, before overseeing the career criminal unit and served as the head of division on families and children in the San Francisco District Attorney's office."

"That is what mattered to voters in San Francisco more than two decades ago and why she was elected District Attorney," Singer said.

While some of Harris' 2003 literature said that Harris had "tried" hundreds of cases, other campaign literature at the time said she had "prosecuted" hundreds of cases -- including her campaign website, which used the word "prosecuted" instead of "tried," according to a version of the web page viewed by ABC News via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.

Experts told ABC News that's an important distinction.

"A prosecutor prosecuting the case means that they were the attorney on the case where someone were facing charges. When you have tried a case, that means that case is going to trial," said ABC News legal contributor Brian Buckmire. "So the number of prosecuting cases should be a higher number than trying a case, because you may have a case that doesn't go to trial because the person takes a plea, the case get dismissed, whatever may be, you still prosecute that case. But you only tried a case that has gone to trial."

'An effective prosecutor'

One person who worked closely with Harris when she was California attorney general told ABC News that they believed her 2003 campaign messaging was likely due to an effort to appeal to more of a "layperson's audience."

"I think what the campaign was trying to communicate was that she had stood up in court, presented evidence, had investigated and then prosecuted, including live in court, advocating on behalf of a victim in hundreds of cases," said the person, who asked not to be identified.

But a veteran litigator in San Francisco who knew Harris during her time working as a line prosecutor in the city of Alameda, next to Oakland, told ABC News that the specific claim that Harris had "tried" hundreds of cases was misleading.

"When you say you tried cases, that means you went to the courtroom and took that to trial, either a court trial or a jury trial," the litigator, who asked not to be identified, said, disputing Harris' 2003 claim that she had "tried hundreds" of serious and violent felony cases

Debbie Mesloh, who served as a spokesperson for Harris' 2003 campaign, told ABC News that it was "absurd to parse semantics when you are talking about securing justice for crime survivors."

"Kamala Harris had over 13 years of experience in the courtroom, seeking and getting justice for victims. She was both an experienced trial lawyer and team manager, which is why she was so effective at addressing the root causes of crime and upholding accountability," Mesloh, who went on to serve as Harris' communications director in the San Francisco DA's office, said in a statement. "The bottom line is, does the prosecutor have command of the law, judgment on charging, empathy for the crime survivors, respect of the bench?"

"That is what makes an effective prosecutor and a DA, and that is why San Franciscans chose Kamala Harris to serve as their elected District Attorney," Mesloh said.

'She did the right thing'

ABC News played the debate audio for Fazio, who now supports Harris for president and hadn't heard the recording since the DA contest over twenty years ago.

He recalled that Harris had been "exaggerating her record" on the campaign trail, but described it as the kind of "puffery" that's common among politicians.

"I think we all tend to do that when people run for office. You'll get people who say that they graduated summa cum laude and they didn't, or graduated top of their class, and they didn't," Fazio told ABC News.

Fazio said that looking back on the moment he confronted Harris -- who is set to face off against former President Donald Trump on Sept. 10 at a presidential debate hosted by ABC News -- he now believes Harris did the "right thing" in the moment by pivoting to avoid addressing the inconsistency in her campaign rhetoric.

"She basically didn't answer it. She just proceeded to state that it's all about leadership," Fazio said. "I think that's one of my shortcomings as a politician -- people would ask me a question, and I tended to answer it rather than use it as an opportunity to say what a great person I was or would have been as a DA. As far as debate strategy goes, she did the right thing."

Since replacing President Joe Biden on the campaign trail, Harris has leaned into her career as a prosecutor, in contrast to Trump, who earlier this year was convicted on 34 felony courts in his hush money case and faces multiple outstanding legal issues. The former president, who denies all wrongdoing, has said he will appeal his criminal conviction.

In TV ads, Harris' campaign has said that "as a prosecutor, she put murderers and abusers behind bars" -- a sentiment she's echoed on the stump.

"As many of you know, before I was elected vice president and before I was elected a United States senator, I was an elected attorney general and an elected district attorney. And before that, I was a courtroom prosecutor," the vice president has said in what's become a familiar line on the campaign trail. "So, in those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds. Predators who abused women. Fraudsters who ripped off consumers. Cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say: I know Donald Trump's type."