by Debra Heine
On November 4, the FBI raided the apartments and houses of Project Veritas journalists and former journalists, Veritas founder James O’Keefe announced in a video online Friday. [The FBI raided O’Keefe’s apartment early Saturday morning. See update below].
Project Veritas is a non-profit journalism enterprise that “investigates and exposes corruption, dishonesty, self-dealing, waste, fraud, and other misconduct in both public and private institutions” in an effort to hold the powerful to account and achieve a more ethical society.
“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,” O’Keefe said in his video.
New York Post reporter Miranda Devine responded to the raids on Twitter with shock.
“This is outrageous. Is the FBI now the Biden family’s private goon squad?” she tweeted. “And who leaked details of this investigation to the NYT – which is being sued for defamation by Project Veritas?”
The muckraker said he had to think long and hard before speaking out because the feds are trying to silence him.
The cover letter to the grand jury subpoena, he said, pressured him to stay quiet: “The government hereby requests that you voluntarily refrain from disclosing the existence of the subpoena to any third party. While you are under no obligation to comply with our request, we are requesting you to not make any disclosure to preserve the confidentiality of the investigation, and because the disclosure of the existence of this investigation might interfere with and impede the investigation.”
Incredibly, even while the feds were trying to silence him, someone from the Biden Justice Department apparently leaked to the New York Times about the raids.
“Within an hour of one of our reporter’s homes being secretly raided by the FBI, the New York Times, whom we are currently suing for defamation, contacted the Project Veritas reporter to ask for comment!” O’Keefe exclaimed.
“We do not know how the New York Times knew about the execution of a search warrant at our reporter’s home, or the subject matter of the search warrant, as the grand jury investigation is secret,” he continued. “The FBI took materials [from] current Project Veritas journalists despite the fact that our legal team preciously contacted the Department of Justice and voluntarily conveyed unassailable facts that demonstrate Project Veritas’ lack of involvement in criminal activity, and/or criminal intent.”
He offered a possible explanation for the raid.
“Late last year we were approached by tipsters claiming that a copy of Ashly Biden’s diary” had been found, he said. The tipsters allegedly said that the diary had been abandoned in a room in which Ms. Biden had stayed, and contained “explosive allegations against then-candidate Joe Biden.”
“The tipsters said they were negotiating with a different media outlet for the payment of moneys for the diary. The tipsters were represented by attorneys who handled the negotiations with Project Veritas,” he said.
O’Keefe went on to say that after investigating the material, they were unable to authenticate any of it, so he passed on the deal, and tried to return the diary to an attorney representing Ms. Biden.
He said that attorney refused to authenticate it, so he then gave it to law enforcement to ensure that it got back to its rightful owner.
“We never published it,” he pointed out. “Now Ms. Biden’s father’s Department of Justice—specifically the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York—appears to be investigating the situation, claiming the diary was stolen”
“We don’t know if it was, but it begs the question, in what world is the alleged theft of a diary investigated by the president’s FBI and his Department of Justice?” O’Keefe asked.
“This federal investigation smacks of politics,” he added. “Project Veritas never threatened or engaged in any illegal conduct.”
O’Keefe said he had no doubt that his organization had acted properly at “each and every step” of the way.
Update:
The feds raided James O’Keefe’s apartment in Mamaroneck, N.Y., early on Saturday morning in connection with the diary reported to have been stolen from Ashley Biden, the NYTs reported.
Jimmy Maynes, who lives next to Mr. O’Keefe at an apartment complex in Mamaroneck, said a handful of F.B.I. agents arrived early Saturday morning.
“They asked for James,” Mr. Mayne said, an entertainment manager. “I thought they were banging on my door. I opened the door.”“They told me to close the door and I closed the door,” he added. “That’s exactly what happened. It was still dark.”
Brent Mickol, a teacher who lives across the hall from Mr. O’Keefe, said it was about 6 a.m. when agents arrived. Mr. Mickol said the agents said “something along the lines of ‘F.B.I. Warrant. Open up.’”
“I ran to the door and looked out the peep hole and clearly saw an F.B.I. raid,” he said. “You saw the jackets. Literally, it was just out of a movie.”
A week and a half before the 2020 election, Project Veritas’ tipster provided a digital copy of Ashley Biden’s diary to the National File.
The outlet published the the entirety of the diary, which included her revelation that as a child, she’d had inappropriate showers with her father, Joe Biden.
Entries in the diary include the author revealing she believes she was sexually molested as a child and shared “probably not appropriate” showers with her father, some that detail the author’s struggle with drug abuse and the author’s crumbling marriage with multiple affairs, along with entries showing the family’s fears of a potential scandal due to her brother’s new home, and those that show a deep resentment for her father due to his money, control, and emotional manipulation.
National File noted that the FBI’s actions confirm that the explosive revelations in the diary are true.
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Debra Heine reports for American Greatness.
Photo “James O’Keefe” by Gage Skidmore CC BY-SA 2.0.
