The Intercept, however, wants the complaint dismissed. Oct. 21, 2020. Prince had hired a former MI6 officer to help train the Project Veritas operatives, The Intercept wrote, but it did not identify the officer. But if the case was transferred to New York, that states laws could apply. Mr. And it would - you know, and make an enormous amount of money. And they - you know, I think they - it seemed like they were seeking revenge. And they said, well, you know, she worked for Project Veritas. At the time, Prince was exploring the possibility of mounting a Republican primary challenge to incumbent U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo. James OKeefe, the head of Project Veritas, last year at a White House social media summit. Mr. You know, and each time, you know, money is wired in furtherance of that crime, you know, that's also - that could be a possible count of mail fraud. (SOUNDBITE OF BRUNO COULAIS' "SPINK AND FORCIBLE"). We are speaking with Adam Goldman. officer who went on to win an important House seat in Virginia as a Democrat. Using a different alias the next year, the same undercover operative infiltrated the congressional campaign of Abigail Spanberger, then a former C.I.A. Mr. Last month, Project Veritas made public secretly recorded video of a longtime ABC News correspondent who was critical of the networks political coverage and its emphasis on business considerations over journalism. Blackwater Worldwide founder Erik Prince is considering a Republican primary challenge to Wyoming Senator John Barrasso, a senior member of the Senate GOP leadership team, in a race that could pit the party's establishment against insurgents inspired by allies of President Donald Trump. Once a small operation running on a shoestring budget, Project Veritas in recent years has had a surge in donations from both private donors and conservative foundations. This is FRESH AIR. But he was extremely wealthy conservative in Wyoming named Foster Friess, who had actually run for governor in '18. I have a Wyoming drivers license, I am a Wyoming resident, and exploration is underway, Prince said of his potential Senate bid. And Prince comes up in the special council report - Robert Mueller's report. Prince said he thought hed registered to vote when hed obtained a Wyoming drivers license in October 2017. If Judge Johnson concludes he lacks jurisdiction to hear the case in Wyoming, Princes attorneys say the suit should be transferred to the Southern District of New York, where The Intercept is based. The group has also become intertwined with the political activities of Mr. Trump and his family. As further evidence of his ties to Wyoming and the business he conducts in the state, Princes initial declaration said he owned several operating entities registered to his residence in Wapiti. It's not clear to us why Prince decided to help Project Veritas. Erik Prince, the former head of Blackwater Worldwide and the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, has at times served as an informal adviser to Trump administration officials. Emails sent to Mr. Seddon went unanswered. They used a code name LibertyU for their operative inside the organization, Marisa Jorge, who graduated from Liberty University in Virginia, one of the nations largest Christian colleges. I mean, he - it seems that - it's our understanding that Prince introduced Seddon to Project Veritas. To continue reading, you will need to either log in to your subscriber account, or purchase a subscription. It seems like the Democrats have figured out this party switch deal to their advantage, Mr. Friess wrote in an email obtained by Wyofile, a political news site in Wyoming. The companys principal office is listed as being at the Prince familys ranch in Wapiti, though the mailing address is a property in Virginia. Beyond involving a different pool of jurors and a different judge, Prince may have a better chance of learning the identity of The Intercepts sources if the case stays in Wyoming, where there is no specific shield law protecting the confidentiality of reporters sources. And they - the purpose for - they themselves will launch this undercover operation and then, you know, secretly record you - audio, video - and then make a video out of it and, you know, expose what they describe as wrongdoing. AMY GOODMAN: In Wyoming. For instance, Princes 2014 memoir said he splits his time between homes in Virginia and Abu Dhabi, where he pursues a variety of business ventures.. And that was their logo. But before the parties get to the lawsuits merits, The Intercept is contending, among other arguments, that Wyoming is not the right place for the case to be heard. DAVIES: Now, one of the more well-known operations - because, well, you reported on this - was an effort to embarrass Trump's national security adviser, H.R. WASHINGTON During the summer of 2018, as Richard Seddon, a former British spy, was trying to launch a new venture to use undercover agents to infiltrate progressive groups, Democratic campaigns and other opponents of President Donald J. Trump, he turned for help to a longtime friend and former colleague: Erik Prince, the private military contractor. Mr. Seddon launched his privately funded spying effort after leaving Project Veritas in 2018. He recruited a British commando to help - this guy Gaz Thomas, who I guess had knew Seddon through his days at MI6. I mean, people did shoot guns. You know, she used that to hobnob with people. McMaster? Prince said he wanted the Project Veritas employees to learn skills like how to recruit sources and how to conduct clandestine recordings, among other surveillance techniques. In an archived version of her LinkedIn page, Ms. Jorge wrote she had a deep interest in the conservative movement and hoped one day to serve on the Supreme Court after attending law school. This is when there was the special Senate election in Alabama, right? GOLDMAN: Well, again, this is a little murky. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. It argues the article was not defamatory and the challenged statements would be protected as opinion based on disclosed facts., The dispute over jurisdiction could have a direct impact on the case. GOLDMAN: Well, I think it was - our latest story revealed, you know, at least one person who had been working for the Democrats thought that Sofia likely might have gotten some damaging information about Democratic efforts to help, you know, moderate Republicans. Defendants wrote and published a false and defamatory article about a Wyoming residents Wyoming-based business activities knowing that it would cause harm principally in Wyoming, New York attorney Matthew Schwartz charged in one filing. And so I was able to piece that together. James OKeefe, the head of Project Veritas, declined to answer detailed questions about Mr. The year after the sting, Democracy Partners sued Project Veritas, and its lawyers have since deposed Mr. OKeefe. You know, O'Keefe has clearly raised a lot of money, you know, millions of dollars. Last year, Project Veritas submitted a proposed list of witnesses for the trial over the lawsuit. In more recent years, Prince has remained a mover and shaker and a controversial figure on the international stage. Even if it is true that Prince now genuinely considers himself a Wyoming resident, it cannot be said that [The Intercept] could fairly anticipate being [hauled] into court in Wyoming, the attorneys wrote in a September filing. McMaster. Not saying this is the case with Mr. O'Keefe, but it's sort of hard to fundraise that way if you're only doing one thing a year or if it's - you know, there are long periods of silence between each expose. Prince grew up in Michigan, where their father made a fortune in the auto parts business. - and, you know, that probably in terms of, you know, Iran - not pulling out of the agreement with Iran, the JCPOA, and, you know, McMaster, you know, wanting to keep, I guess, troops in Afghanistan. Prince, the former head of Blackwater Worldwide and the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, has at times served as an informal adviser to Trump administration officials. But the effort is a glimpse of a vigorous private campaign to try to undermine political groups or individuals perceived to be in opposition to Mr. Trumps agenda. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. GOLDMAN: Yeah, I think they nearly tripled the number of people they hired. Princes attorneys responded that, if the judge has any doubts about Wyoming being the appropriate venue for the case, they should be allowed to learn the identity of The Intercepts confidential sources. They targeted NPR. DAVIES: Right. In 2017, Prince invited O'Keefe and Project Veritas employees to his family's Wyoming ranch and arranged for an unnamed former British MI6 officer to provide training for the group, The . Mr. Seddon used other former Project Veritas employees to help with the Wyoming operation, including James Artherton, a British operative code-named kimchi who was involved in a Project Veritas plan targeting an editor for The New York Times in London in 2017. NY Times reporter Adam Goldman describes an undercover effort, headed up by an avid Trump supporter, that trained conservatives in espionage techniques and sent them to dig up dirt on progressives. Prince recruited Mr. Seddon to join the conservative group Project Veritas to teach espionage skills to its operatives and manage its undercover operations. But, yeah, this kind of actual infiltration and spying, I don't think I've run across that. One of the people involved in the McMaster plot was Barbara Ledeen, a longtime Republican staffer on the Senate Judiciary Committee before retiring, she says, earlier this year. Prince invited Project Veritas operatives including Mr. OKeefe to his familys Wyoming ranch for training in 2017, The Intercept reported last year. And it all kind of went south when the Post exposed it. Erik Prince decides that Project Veritas needs something new. GOLDMAN: I was going to say, you know, talking to Republicans, moderate Republicans, I mean, moderate - these guys are pretty conservative, by the way - when we're describing it as moderate Republicans they were targeting. Mr. Seddon wrote that Ms. Jorge copied a great many documents from the file room, and Mr. OKeefe bragged that the group would be able to get a ton more access agents inside the educational establishment.. You'd have to ask Mr. O'Keefe. GOLDMAN: It's not clear they're actually being trained in firearms training. The documents give new details about efforts to manipulate the politics of Wyoming. Did it expand their operations? Wapiti resident Erik Prince is one of several people associated with a Wyoming-based effort to infiltrate political campaigns and get "dirt" to sabotage candidates. But then January 6 happened, you know, the insurrection. But we were unaware of that. The financial document also listed the names of others who gave much smaller amounts to Project Veritas last year. - were directed to make them or reimbursed for them, then that's a potential crime. "He is not registered in Park County or [Wyoming] presently, unless he is not going by Erik Dean Prince and has changed his name," Park County Elections Deputy Pat Cole said in a Sept. 17 email; he said Prince hadn't voted in Wyoming since 2000. Prince noted he owned a home in Wyoming and had been connected to the state since 1992. In a book published in 2018, Mr. OKeefe wrote that Mr. Trump years earlier had encouraged him to infiltrate Columbia University and obtain Mr. Obamas records. Good stuff, Mr. Seddon wrote back. Citing his ties to the state, his attorneys opted to file Princes defamation case against The Intercept in Wyomings U.S. District Court in May. And that one was made public. And, of course, that was an entree into a larger circle of prominent Democrats. Prince have ties to President Trumps aides and family. But in a pending lawsuit, Prince asserts the April 13 story from The Intercept was false, defamatory and aimed at Wyoming. Because of the article, Prince says his reputation and professional opportunities within Wyoming suffered, along with his business interests and reputation in general. And, I mean, they were both active, but she was literally, you know, infiltrating these Democratic groups. And they admitted doing, you know - engaging in political activity while working for these government institutions, which Project Veritas asserted was, you know, wrong or even, you know - I can't remember if they said it was illegal or not. Mr. Seddons recruitment of Mr. The woman was claiming she had been impregnated by the Senate candidate, thinking that The Washington Post would be so excited to get dirt about a conservative that they would publish a bogus story. It's not clear to me how close he is to Trump. Did it help, you know, Project Veritas raise more money? And, you know, there were a whole range of people they went after. According to the documents, Mr. Seddons operatives also aimed to dig up information on Steve Harshman, the Republican speaker of the House in Wyoming at the time, who was also seen by some conservatives as not sufficiently supportive of Mr. Trump. Funneling money surreptitiously to campaigns through other donors known as straw man donations would violate federal campaign finance laws. Mr. Halderman was copied on several messages providing updates about the Michigan operation, and in one message, he gave instructions to Ms. Jorge. Mr. After Mr. Mr. Seddon was not. In a YouTube video, Mr. OKeefe described the lawsuit as frivolous and pointed to a portion of the deposition in which David Hecker, the president of AFT Michigan, said that one of the goals of the lawsuit was to stop Project Veritas from doing the kind of work that it does., Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement: Lets be clear who the wrongdoer is here: Project Veritas used a fake intern to lie her way into our Michigan office, to steal documents and to spy and they got caught. There was a year-long lease that was signed that allowed Project Veritas to put its operatives in that fancy house. Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, a private security contractor firm used extensively by the administration of George W Bush, is said to be "seriously considering" challenging Wyoming. Its among a number of issues and motions that will have to be sorted out before a judge or jury would consider the accuracy of The Intercepts April article. We're still trying to fully understand how Project Veritas, which is founded by James O'Keefe, actually came into contact with Erik Prince. If you're a print subscriber, but do not yet have an online account, click here to create one. And this photo of James O'Keefe, who's, you know, the founder of Project Veritas, firing a weapon with a silencer, apparently, at Erik Prince's ranch - were they being trained in firearms there? You know, you say in one of these stories, this operation's use of spy craft to manipulate the politics of several states over the years greatly exceeds the tactics of traditional political tricks operations. Remind us who he is. Last year, the group received a $1 million contribution made through the law firm Alston & Bird, a financial document obtained by The New York Times showed. }else{ This is FRESH AIR. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. We know that political operatives will gather opposition research as it's called - right? GOLDMAN: I don't know if misrepresenting yourself to - and getting a job at a Democratic organization is a crime. Wagner which The Intercept described as a semi-private military force that operates in countries or conflicts where the Russian government seeks plausible deniability for its activities reportedly turned down Princes offer. You know, again, as when Barbara Ledeen, the staffer for the Senate Judiciary Committee, which was run by Chuck Grassley, you know, was trying to find Hillary Clinton's missing emails, and Prince gets involved in that, too. AFT Michigan sued Project Veritas in federal court, alleging trespassing, eavesdropping and other offenses. if (document.MAX_used != ',') document.write ("&exclude=" + document.MAX_used); And ultimately, it did blow up in their face. Erik Prince doesn't live in the state, he's from the same party as the incumbent, Sen. John Barrasso, and he's best known for founding a private security firm, Blackwater, that was kicked out of . Richard Seddon, trained conservative operatives first at the Prince family ranch in Wyoming, then at a large, $10,000-a-month house near Georgetown University. They had a private security firm. Several of them confirmed their donations. And her picture wasn't her name GOLDMAN: It was a fake name, Maria. According to its latest publicly available tax filing, Project Veritas received $8.6 million in contributions and grants in 2018. Previously, he covered national security for The Washington Post and worked on the investigative team at the Associated Press, where he and his colleagues revealed the New York Police Department's Muslim spying programs. Why were they targeting H.R. From 1986 through the present, hes made roughly 100 contributions totaling more than $630,000 to Republican causes and Congressional candidates, according to Federal Election Commission records. Prince and former British spy Richard Seddon both did work for the organization. Anyone can read what you share. In 2016, a Project Veritas operative infiltrated Democracy Partners using a fake name and fabricated rsum and made secret recordings of the staff. DAVIES: Right. Mr. Adam Goldman reports on the FBI and national security for the Times and was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for national reporting on Russia's meddling in the presidential election. The document is dated December 2018 and said that Mr. Talbott was another of the names of corrupt individuals from Marti.. 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