WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris is facing plagiarism accusations after several sections of her 2009 book “Smart on Crime” were found to closely mirror or exactly replicate text from other materials.

At the time, Harris was serving as the district attorney of San Francisco, and she co-authored the book with ghostwriter Joan O’C. Hamilton, who expressed surprise upon learning about the allegations.

The claims were brought to light by conservative activist Christopher Rufo, who credited an investigation by Austrian plagiarism expert Stefan Weber. Rufo shared screenshots on X showing five instances where the text in Harris’s book closely resembles other works.

In each case, the alleged source material was published before Harris’s book came out.

The five comparable passages suggest that Harris may have borrowed language from various sources, including an Associated Press article from 2008, a Wikipedia entry from that same year, a Bureau of Justice Assistance report from 2000, an Urban Institute report from 2004, and a press release from John Jay College of Criminal Justice regarding a 2007 award.

While at least two of these instances include footnotes citing the original sources, the text does not contain quotation marks around the allegedly copied phrases. Additionally, some sections, like those from the Urban Institute report, appear to lack any attribution altogether.

“Oh gosh,” Harris’s ghostwriter told The Post shortly after the allegations surfaced.

“I haven’t seen anything,” she continued. “I’m afraid I can’t talk to you right now; I’m in the middle of something. Let me go try to figure that out.”

A report created by Weber and shared by Rufo indicated that there were several other concerns found in the book.

“Kamala Harris fabricated a source reference, creating a nonexistent page number. The self-promotional content from Goodwill Industries was copied verbatim without proper citation, even though Goodwill Industries was her ‘primary partner’ in the ‘Back on Track’ program,” Weber stated.

“In many other cases, even when sources were cited with footnotes, the text was directly copied and pasted without quotation marks. Using quotation marks would have been the most transparent and honest method, even in non-academic works. Additional signs of dishonesty appear when sources were replicated but specific details were changed, such as substituting a Subway store owner with a sandwich shop clerk (p. 124) or referencing Southeast Asia in relation to the US gang issue (p. 184).”

Spokespeople for both Harris’s presidential campaign and her vice presidential office did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

While plagiarism allegations can be detrimental to journalists and academics, politicians have navigated similar controversies before—most notably President Biden, who faced scrutiny for plagiarizing a paper in law school and for misappropriating the family history and public statements of British politician Neil Kinnock during his 1987 presidential campaign.