The FBI raided the New York home of James O’Keefe, the head honcho of right-wing sting operation Project Veritas, on Saturday. O’Keefe confirmed the search of his apartment in Mamaroneck on the group’s website.
“I awoke to the news that apartments and homes of Project Veritas journalists, or former journalists, had been raided by FBI agents. It appears the Southern District of New York now has journalists in their sights for the supposed ‘crime’ of doing their jobs lawfully and honestly. Or at least, this journalist,” he wrote.
A spokesman for the FBI told The New York Times the agency had “performed law enforcement activity” in O’Keefe’s building but did not disclose details.
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The day prior, O’Keefe said that the Justice Department was investigating the group in a probe over a diary allegedly stolen from President Joe Biden’s daughter, 40-year-old Ashley Biden.
Project Veritas at one point had possession of the diary after receiving it from unidentified “tipsters” who said they had found it in a room Ashley had stayed in. The group attempted to return it to her, O’Keefe said, but her lawyer “refused to authenticate it,” so the group handed it over to law enforcement.
O’Keefe claimed that his legal team had demonstrated the group’s “lack of involvement in criminal activity” to the Justice Department with “unassailable facts.” Project Veritas did not publish the contents of the diary because the group could not authenticate it, according to O’Keefe.
“In what world is the alleged theft of a diary investigated by the President’s FBI and his Department of Justice? A diary! This federal investigation smacks of politics,” O’Keefe wrote.
Ashley Biden reported the burglary of her house and the theft of several personal items to the Justice Department, which opened an inquiry into the matter, in October last year, the Times reported.
Around the same time, another right-wing site owned by a company named Flyover Media posted pages from the notebook as former President Donald Trump and others attempted to discredit Joe Biden via his family, particularly his son Hunter. Flyover Media is registered to the same Wyoming address as the company of a former British spy, Richard Seddon, contracted to trained Veritas operatives, according to the Times.
The search of O’Keefe’s apartment follows the raid of two of his associates on Thursday as part of the investigation.
O’Keefe called the subpoena and the FBI’s raid an attempt to “silence” him and his associates. He said in the video statement posted Friday, “Our efforts were the stuff of responsible, ethical journalism, and we are in no doubt that Project Veritas acted properly at each and every step.”
Read it at New York Times
