Far-Right Activist James O'Keefe Dumped As Boss Of Project Veritas After Revolt: Provocateur, Who Notoriously 'Found' Biden Daughter's Diary, Accused Of 'Cruel Treatment' Of Staff https://radaronline.com/p/james-okeefe-removed-from-project-veritas-board-and-ceo-title/ The founder of Project Veritas, James O'Keefe, was removed from his position on the company's board and stripped of his title as CEO after a group of employees publicly condemned his leadership, RadarOnline.com has learned. O'Keefe founded the far-right activist group in 2010. Listed as a 501(c)(3) corporation, O'Keefe's Project Veritas allegedly produced and distributed highly-edited videos from its undercover operations in an attempt to discredit mainstream media and political opponents by touting conspiracy theories. The 38-year-old former CEO was placed on paid leave before his removal while board members considered action against him for alleged workplace misconduct and mismanaging donor funds. According to New York Magazine via The Daily Beast, a group of Project Veritas staffers accused O'Keefe of "outright cruel" treatment to employees and wasting company funds. The latest development from the damning reporting came on Monday when O'Keefe announced that he would be leaving the company he founded 13 years ago, revealing the news in a 15-minute video. "Throughout my 13 years doing this my mission has evolved," O'Keefe said in the video. "Over the last few weeks, I have felt a lot of despair and seen a lot of evil and felt overcome with various emotions." "I take away from these the gratitude that I have for many of you, most of you…I reflected upon my appreciation for many of you, what makes this great is because we actually believe in this, we have a passion for this and we have principle," the former CEO continued.
Now for some whining from James O'Keefe. Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe says he was accused of taking too many black cars, stealing 'a pregnant woman's sandwich' before his ouster as CEO of the right-wing org https://www.businessinsider.in/inte...f-the-right-wing-org/articleshow/98107413.cms James O'Keefe, founder of right-wing organization Project Veritas, has been removed as CEO. On Monday, O'Keefe spoke for 45 minutes, describing a 7-hour board meeting prior to his ouster. Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe, who was just stripped of his role as CEO, says the far right-wing nonprofit's board of directors accused him of misappropriating funds and other egregious acts, including stealing "a pregnant woman's sandwich." Speaking to a group gathered on Monday at the Project Veritas office in Mamaroneck, New York, O'Keefe described a nearly 7-hour-long board meeting in which directors aired "truly bizarre grievances," according a video recording of the speech posted online. O'Keefe was placed on leave from the conservative group earlier this month amid concerns over his management style and accusations that he'd mismanaged the group's funds. Project Veritas is a far-right group that publishes selectively edited video clips of public and corporate officials, liberal groups, and the press. Its employees work as undercover operatives. In September, a jury found Project Veritas liable for fraudulently misrepresenting itself and violating federal wiretap laws. In August, two men pled guilty to transporting stolen property across state lines after attempting to sell a diary belonging to President Joe Biden's daughter Ashley Biden to Project Veritas. In a statement posted on the Project Veritas board Monday night, the group's board of directors said that O'Keefe had not been fired from his job as CEO, but that it was conducting an investigation into financial "malfeaseance." O'Keefe, the board claimed, "has spent an excessive amount of donor funds in the last three years on personal luxuries," including $150,000 on black cars and $14,000 on a charter flight to "meet someone to fix his boat under the guise of meeting with a donor." The Project Veritas board also said that O'Keefe had fired the CFO earlier this month without the board's approval, after which it decided to suspend him as CEO while it conducted an internal investigation into his "infractions." "The Board has a legal obligation to comply with state and federal law, and these matters are serious ones that cannot be ignored," the statement reads. According to O'Keefe's telling of events, an emergency Project Veritas board meeting took place on February 6, in which he offered an apology for his "tone of voice in the office at the leadership meeting the week before." But the board "refused to accept" his apology or "believe that it was sincere." O'Keefe then said he was "subjected to a six-and-a-half hour listening of grievances, which included taking black cars to meetings," and "taking a few charter jets over the years." "I don't know the significance of the color of the vehicle," O'Keefe said, regarding the board's alleged grievances with his use of black cars. He also claimed the board made a "truly bizarre allegation that I stole a pregnant woman's sandwich in federal court," though he did not go into further detail. O'Keefe did not respond to Insider's request for comment. Later, O'Keefe said the board accused him of using company funds to pay for a $12,000 down payment on his wedding venue. O'Keefe says he has never been married or had a wedding, but that he did book a wedding venue for a Project Veritas holiday party. "I've never been married. I do hope to be married one day," he added. Throughout his 45-minute speech, O'Keefe sipped from a bottle of Essentia water, sniffled, and referenced at several points the early days of Project Veritas, which he founded thirteen years ago while working out of his father's "carriage house" in a New Jersey suburb. O'Keefe said he was at the Project Veritas office Monday to pack up his personal belongings, noting that he didn't keep much at the office, just a "a painting and a diploma." He ended his remarks with an insistence that he plans to continue the work he was doing at Project Veritas under a new name. "I'll make sure you know where to find me," he told staffers.
The Right Has Found a New Narrative to Explain Project Veritas’ Implosion James O’Keefe’s supporters know the “real” reasons he was pushed out. https://slate.com/news-and-politics...ames-okeefe-lawsuits-conspiracy-theories.html It may not come as a total surprise that James O’Keefe, the Project Veritas co-founder who left the activist group on Monday after a power struggle with its board, is not being widely condemned on the right. Project Veritas is known for publishing misinformation-laden and context-twisting hidden camera “investigations” into progressive groups, news media, Planned Parenthood, and pharmaceutical companies. It had a faithful audience of conservative donors and followers who were eager for dirt on their enemies. O’Keefe was the face of that brand, so it makes some sense that those loyal followers would not jump to attack him, even after allegations of misusing donor funds for extravagant personal expenses and fostering an abusive workplace culture. But the group’s followers didn’t just turn a blind eye to the allegations. Instead, they launched an entire campaign to cancel Project Veritas itself. The narrative quickly emerged on social media: The company, which was founded to humiliate people and get them canceled for being corrupt and/or too liberal, was itself corrupt and/or too liberal. “They sold out to the cabal,” one person wrote on Twitter. “Veritas has succumbed to the neocon wokism that destroyed National Review,” wrote another. “Don’t be surprised if PV turns a bit more WOKE in years to come,” wrote a third. “Seems like they’ve been infiltrated.” On Twitter, users promoted the hashtags #UnfollowingVeritas, #StandWithJamesOKeefe, and #BoycottProjectVeritas. Accounts gleefully celebrated the hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers the official Project Veritas account was losing. (O’Keefe now has 1.3 million followers to Project Veritas’ 1.1 million, in a near swap of follower numbers.) And influential right-wing accounts stoked the backlash. “We must stand with James!” declared Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk. Newsmax’s Benny Johnson, a noted plagiarist, called Project Veritas “the new Lincoln Project.” The provocateur Laura Loomer described the board that ousted O’Keefe as “frauds, grifters, and backstabbing miscreants” seeking “likes, clicks, fame & fortune.” Steve Bannon declared “war” on O’Keefe’s rivals. Why, given that the dispute that ousted O’Keefe was a matter of internal politics and potential liability issues and workplace allegations rather than anything political, would there be such a strong response? Part of it is O’Keefe’s popularity, and conservatives’ tendency to trust loud and proudly lib-shaming personalities above anything institutional, even if that institution is one that is dedicated to conservative causes. Another part of it likely has to do with the impulse to distrust accusers (especially abuse accusers) targeting right-wing heroes and to defend those heroes no matter what. But the main factor is probably the tendency toward conspiratorial thinking, a tendency at the root of Project Veritas’ popularity from the beginning. In January, Project Veritas put out a video that appeared to show a Pfizer researcher saying the company was going to mutate the COVID virus through “directed evolution.” The story blew up in conservative media—Tucker Carlson treated it as a bombshell—but failed to gain traction outside the right-wing ecosystem because of its dubious origins, questionable editing, lack of context, and logic-jumping conclusions. O’Keefe called it the “biggest story in our organization’s history.” So when, in early February, 16 Project Veritas employees signed a letter sent to the board accusing O’Keefe of being a “power drunk tyrant” who misused donor funds and demeaned and humiliated his employees—to the point of spitting on one over a tweet—some of O’Keefe’s allies immediately connected the two events. When, two days later, it was reported that O’Keefe was on paid leave, many more of O’Keefe’s allies began to complain about the timing. If you look at responses to comments and developments on Twitter, where much of this conversation is happening, a solid majority of O’Keefe’s supporters seem to believe that Pfizer is behind his ouster. There is no evidence of that. But some believe Pfizer paid off the board. Others believe that Pfizer intimidated them into it. The details don’t really matter. What matters is that in this scenario, O’Keefe is not a bad boss but a hero who spoke truth to power and was felled by it. O’Keefe himself promoted the martyrdom idea. In a video posted online, apparently filmed Monday, O’Keefe complained that “none of this makes any sense.” “Why is this happening right now?” he asked. He didn’t explicitly say his firing was because of Pfizer, but he did bring up the sting video. “That is the only thing that has changed,” he said. “And then, suddenly, an unusual emergency happened just a few days after that.” Supporters said they sensed a “coordinated coup,” noted the “suspicious” timing, and labeled the company’s board members as “shills.” With that reasoning, any allegations seemed like petty falsehoods. The lawsuits—claiming that Project Veritas had a “highly sexualized” workplace culture, that O’Keefe had once played for employees an audio file of him and his girlfriend discussing “sexual activities,” and that drinking and drug use were “rampant”—were simply the lies of a disgruntled former employee. And even if those claims were true, then his detractors were simply too “woke,” getting worked up over small matters. But the Pfizer narrative wasn’t the only alternative explanation. “It’s abundantly clear there are forces attempting to split MAGA right now,” wrote the conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec. “What happened to James isn’t isolated. There is a treacherous plot afoot, and we are going to see more and more of this as we head into 2024. They are trying to ignite a civil war.” Others pointed to other conservative internal feuds as evidence of a trend, implying some sort of coordinated infiltration. Some people concluded that the board members must be “simping for establishment sweetheart Ron Desantis.” The far-right activist Lauren Witzke was of this camp. “It’s all coming together now, it appears the DeSantis clan […] all banded together to oust James O’keefe,” she wrote. “They have, and will continue to target others in the MAGA movement in order to dismantle it before the 2024 Presidential campaign.” Regardless of their theories, O’Keefe’s supporters rushed to justify those allegations they didn’t dismiss as false. The claim that he was so paranoid he made his employees talk to private investigators and take a lie detector test? Simply prudent behavior when going up against such giant foes. The claim he was a “brutal taskmaster”? A man who simply had high standards for his employees. The claim that he had spent $150,000 on black cars or $60,000 on dance events or $14,000 chartering a flight to have his boat fixed? Just part of doing business. And the claim he once, while in court, took an eight-months pregnant woman’s sandwich? No big deal. “I think the sandwich story is BS,” Laura Loomer wrote on Twitter. “But even if it is true, who cares? Legends need to eat too.” And already, his supporters are rallying Project Veritas donors to come to his defense. “I am a donor, and I do not care that James O’Keefe takes black cars,” Candace Owens said. His defenders generally didn’t discuss the IRS filing showing Project Veritas had spent $20,512 to send staff to see O’Keefe star in an outdoor production of the play Oklahoma!, possibly because musical theater doesn’t mesh with the hypermasculine hero supporters were imagining in their discussions. It remains to be seen if O’Keefe’s ouster will, as so many predict, kill off Project Veritas. O’Keefe has suggested he will start his own venture, under a new name. But he is coming out of this saga as the early winner, a symbol of truth-telling in a corrupt world. Matt Gaetz has called O’Keefe a “hero.” And perhaps the best summation of the whole campaign came from Donald Trump Jr. and his sense of conservative victimhood: “Not sure what PV does without James. We need to continue the mission of exposing the left. The radicle left has entire trillion dollar enterprises running cover for them. We had James.”
The entertaining circus continues... Project Veritas Sues James O’Keefe for Bullying Staff, Misusing Funds O’Keefe left the right-wing sting org in February after employees accused him of becoming a “power-drunk tyrant.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/project-veritas-sues-james-okeefe-for-bullying-staff-misusing-funds Right-wing media group Project Veritas is suing its founder James O’Keefe, accusing him of bullying employees, racking up massive personal bills on company accounts, and using Project Veritas resources to start a new, rival media shop. The suit, filed Wednesday in New York federal court, comes amid a bitter rift between O’Keefe and Project Veritas, the far-right video sting operation he founded in 2010. In early February, a group of Project Veritas employees signed a letter accusing O’Keefe of becoming “a power-drunk tyrant” who was “outright cruel” to employees whose misdeeds ranged from eating an eight-months-pregnant woman’s sandwich, to spending company funds on musical theater productions. O’Keefe was placed on suspension in February and soon thereafter announced the launch of a new, Project Veritas-like group called O'Keefe Media Group (OMG). Project Veritas claims O’Keefe started his new venture while using Project Veritas resources like donor lists and laptops. Neither Project Veritas nor O’Keefe returned The Daily Beast’s requests for comment on Wednesday. (Two additional ex-Veritas employees who are also named as defendants did not respond or could not be reached for comment.) Project Veritas claims O’Keefe’s wild behavior constituted a breach of contract even before he founded OMG. During an internal investigation into O’Keefe’s conduct this year, the company’s board “heard allegations that O’Keefe routinely behaved unprofessionally during team meetings, including by screaming at coworkers and belittling them” and “particularly target[ing] female employees with mean-spirited comments about their lack of contributions to the companies and inappropriate comments about personal situations like pregnancies.” Employees also reportedly alleged that “they personally had observed obscene messages between O’Keefe and various women on social media applications when accessing O’Keefe’s phone for work-related matters.” Employees claimed the unprofessional conduct extended to financial matters. O’Keefe was “routinely late for meetings and rude at VIP events designed to give donors extra access to O’Keefe,” resulting in “strained relationships with several donors,” the lawsuit alleges. The suit goes on to accuse O’Keefe of making employees run personal errands like cleaning his boat and picking up his laundry. While working for Project Veritas, O’Keefe allegedly used company funds for dubious ends, like spending more than $10,000 “for a helicopter flight from New York to Maine without clear benefit to Project Veritas,” and expensing first-class air travel and luxury hotels. O’Keefe’s alleged penchant for black car services cost Project Veritas “more than $150,000 over the past 18 months” as the company paid for cars “to go relatively short distances in and around Manhattan and then wait outside of restaurants for hours,” the suit alleges. O’Keefe, a fan of song-and-dance numbers, also allegedly directed the company to spend big on “events like the Project Veritas Experience,” which has previously been described as a dance event. Shortly after his February suspension, O’Keefe launched OMG, which shares Project Veritas’s right-wing mission and hidden camera approach. O’Keefe promoted the new company by bashing his old company. On a tour of conservative podcasts and web shows, O’Keefe claimed to have been ousted by Project Veritas. But the company says that’s not true. The lawsuit claims that O’Keefe was not officially kicked off the Project Veritas board until April 24, and not formally fired until May 15. Project Veritas accused O’Keefe of disparaging the company board, creating a conflict of interests, and also of skimming off Veritas’ donor list while working on OMG’s behalf. The company cites emails O’Keefe sent to Project Veritas donors in late May stating “Hey there, I know you’ve been a supporter of my work in the last year” and linking to OMG’s subscription page. “The only way O’Keefe and OMG had those donors’ contact information was because it was part of a confidential list kept by Project Veritas,” the company alleges. The suit also accuses O’Keefe and two former Project Veritas employees of making off with Project Veritas equipment when they left for OMG. The company claims those ex-employees refuse to turn over Project Veritas laptops. One Veritas-turned-OMG staffer “claims to have lost the MacBook Air and told Project Veritas he would pay for it, but he has not done so and has ceased all communications,” the suit alleges.