Project Veritas, whose public face has always been its founder James O’Keefe, has been hit with a scandal. A whistleblower has come forward regarding the recent news that O’Keefe has been put on leave and stripped of his role in the company. According to this unnamed whistleblower, O’Keefe has fallen victim to a lack of proper corporate structure at Project Veritas, which is divided into two separate organizations with different boards and funding. The whistleblower alleges that two ringleaders, Matt Tyrmand and Barry Hinckley, have taken advantage of the situation to push O’Keefe out. The board members and C-suite officers involved in the attempt to remove O’Keefe are listed in the Twitter thread. The whistleblower describes the board’s decision as a “Stalinesque kangaroo court trial.”
THREAD: The Project Veritas Coup
A whistleblower has contacted me about the news that @JamesOKeefeIII was put on leave and stripped of all authority at @Project_Veritas
This is difficult for me to publish, as a STAUNCH supporter of PV for years & even a VIP at their events.
— Swig 🇺🇸 (@OldRowSwig) February 9, 2023
Project Veritas has experienced huge success recently with its reinstatement on Twitter and the viral videos exposing corruption at Pfizer. The removal of James O’Keefe comes shortly after this win, and many people have speculated about the reasons behind it. Candace Owens of the Daily Wire has come out in support of O’Keefe, stating: “There is no Project Veritas without James O’Keefe. I say this as a donor to the organization, but more importantly, as a colleague who watched him pour everything he had into PV over the years. The money and supporters will follow James.”
The Daily Beast released an article on Wednesday about the supposed turmoil within Project Veritas, blaming it all on O’Keefe and his alleged mistreatment of employees. It’s hard to take these claims seriously when they are based on an internal memo signed by only a third of the employees. The idea that working for James O’Keefe involves “public crucifixions” and mandatory lie-detector tests is entertaining but seems like an overly dramatic way of describing a tough boss. Considering the work ethic of today’s youth—and Project Veritas is full of young adults—who are part of the generation that films themselves crying when asked to make too many no-foam lattes, the complaints ring a little hollow.
Working for O’Keefe at Project Veritas can mean being “publicly humiliated” by him in what amounts to “public crucifixions,” and even being required to take lie detector tests, his unhappy employees write in the memo.
“I would describe Project Veritas’ current environment with this saying: ‘The beatings will continue until morale improves,’” one disgruntled staffer wrote in the memo.
It’s important to remember that while the Daily Beast has done some good investigative work on other stories, it has a history of publishing misleading information and promoting a leftist agenda. Their report has no corroborating evidence that O’Keefe did these outrageous things, including allegedly taking a sandwich from a pregnant woman.
“James has become a power-drunk tyrant,” one staffer complained in the memo.
While employees signed their names to the memo, they didn’t reveal who wrote individual accounts, and The Daily Beast was not able to independently confirm the anecdotes. Still, they offer a glimpse into the internal debate within Project Veritas before O’Keefe went on leave and saw his decisions reversed by the board.
The memo details a series of bizarre incidents. In one, during a Sept. 2022 trial against a Democratic consulting firm that O’Keefe later lost, an employee complained that O’Keefe berated them in front of jurors because he needed something to eat. Ultimately, the employee alleged, O’Keefe took a sandwich from a heavily pregnant woman to sate his hunger.
“I was yelled at in front of jurors because he was hungry and then he took the 8-month pregnant woman’s sandwich,” the account reads.
If true, that’s a ballsy move and also a great quality that led to his massive success. Is there nothing he will not attempt? There’s something humorous about the allegations because they are so weird.
In one instance, the employees claim O’Keefe called Project Veritas staffer Spencer Meads — a staffer so prominent in the group that the FBI raided his home — a “pussy.”
“They were raided and James still called Spencer that name,” the memo reads.
I can’t be the only person who laughed at that.
Related: Project Veritas: Pfizer Exec Admits Plans to Possibly Mutate COVID for More $$$$
The board of Project Veritas recently voted to reinstate two executives whom O’Keefe had fired, and O’Keefe himself is currently on paid leave. While the employee complaints don’t seem that terrible, there is one part of the Daily Beast article that gives me pause.
The memo’s authors also raised concerns about O’Keefe’s use of Project Veritas money to promote his own theatrical ambitions. Project Veritas is best known for its undercover stings against Democratic groups and other Republican targets. But O’Keefe, who performed in high-school musicals, has added a series of musical productions to the group’s repertoire, including an elaborate “Project Veritas” experience that involves O’Keefe dancing while wearing a bulletproof vest.
In December, Project Veritas acknowledged improperly giving O’Keefe $20,500 in “excess benefits” to pay for Project Veritas staff to accompany him to Virginia as he performed a lead role in a production of the musical Oklahoma!.
Maybe that would be okay if the organization was swimming in money, but according to the Daily Beast’s reporting, it left them in the red.
“All the theatre stuff and how that is handled makes me very uneasy,” the memo reads, adding later, “In the end, we are in a deficit now, our fans and potential fans beyond do not respond positively to all of that stuff.”
There will probably be lawsuits, and it will probably take getting to discovery to find out what really happened. O’Keefe has been a major star for a long time in conservative circles, and his work to expose corruption has been outstanding. PJ Media will follow this story as it develops.
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