First Amendment
June 26, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I’ve followed the government’s investigation of James O’Keefe and Ashley Biden’s diary since the New York Times broke the story with a little help from its friends in the national security establishment. What did O’Keefe do wrong? What makes it a federal case? This much is clear to me: the Biden Justice Department is out to get James O’Keefe. Pending before the court that signed off on the search warrants
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May 3, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Aside from Leakgate, the other big legal news from the Supreme Court yesterday was its unanimous ruling that the City of Boston exercised impermissible discrimination against religious freedom with its refusal to fly a Christian flag over city hall while allowing flags from some 200 other organizations. Justice Stephen Breyer wrote the opinion, saying “When the government encourages diverse expression — say, by creating a forum for debate — the First
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April 17, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I take it that certain tax benefits accrue to entities deemed a Qualified Canadian Journalism Organization under Canadian law. Are you now or have you ever been a QCJO? National Post columnist Rex Murphy reports that Ezra Levant’s Rebel News has been weighed in the balance and found wanting, according to the recent decision of the Independent Advisory Board on the Eligibility for Journalism Tax Measures. After mulling it over
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March 24, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The New York Times supports the efforts of the government to get James O’Keefe and Project Veritas in the case of Ashley Biden’s diary. Reporters including Michael Schmidt and Adam Goldman are working as the public relations arm of the Biden administration and the national security establishment to nail them. It turns out that the FBI and SDNY prosecutors have been working the case for a long time. They have
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March 16, 2022 — John Hinderaker
In a number of cases across the country, academics who have been fired or otherwise penalized for failing to go along with the “woke” fad have successfully sought legal redress. It is remarkable how little understanding the academics who run our colleges and universities have, apparently, of the basics of constitutional law. They generally seem to think that they have free rein to impose wokeism on all those within their
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January 9, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Shareholders in Alphabet, the parent of Google and YouTube, have introduced a resolution calling for disclosure of any collusion between Alphabet’s companies and the Biden administration in suppressing information that is critical of administration policies: The National Legal and Policy Center, an ethics watchdog group that holds a voting stake in Google and YouTube’s parent corporation Alphabet, submitted the shareholder proposal to the company this week, following a string of
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December 27, 2021 — Scott Johnson
The New York Times somehow obtained privileged legal memoranda rendering advice to Project Veritas on how to stay within the lines in the course of its journalistic work. The Times published the misappropriated memoranda and reported on them in a long story by Adam Goldman and Mark Mazzetti — two perpetrators of the Russia hoax with deep connections to the FBI/national security establishment. Their November 11 story is posted online
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December 26, 2021 — Scott Johnson
The New York Times devoted an overlong editorial to a condemnation of the court order requiring it to disgorge privileged attorney-client memos advising Project Veritas on how to conduct its work lawfully. The Times published the memos online in connection with a story it ran on the memos. I posted the court opinion and order here. The Times editorial puts me in mind of the adage that no man is
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December 25, 2021 — Scott Johnson
James O’Keefe and Project Veritas are suing the New York Times for defamation. O’Keefe and former Project Veritas associates were recently raided by the FBI in connection with the loss of Ashley Biden’s diary. FBI/national security reporters from the team that brought us the Russia hoax seem to have a pipeline into the investigation. They have reported on it with pornographic glee. I have covered it in a series of
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December 18, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Did Project Veritas use its possession of the diary of Ashley Biden as “leverage” with which to “extort” President Biden? The fifth New York Times story on Project Veritas and the Ashley Biden diary includes this passage under a suggestive heading: Using the Diary as Leverage Less than a month before Election Day, in an Oct. 12, 2020, email that Project Veritas included in a court filing, [PV founder] Mr.
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December 17, 2021 — Scott Johnson
I followed up this morning on my post looking at the current New York Times story on the investigation of Project Veritas with PV attorney Paul Calli. I asked Mr. Calli for the questions submitted by the New York Times to PV and the response given to the Times, both of which were omitted from the story. Mr. Calli has provided the following as O’Keefe’s unquoted response to the questions
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December 17, 2021 — Scott Johnson
We have followed the story of the FBI raid on James O’Keefe and associates of Project Veritas in a series of posts under the heading “The O’Keefe Project.” The most recent of these posts is dated November 24. The FBI conducted these raids in the style to which we became accustomed in the case of Roger Stone and appears to have followed them up with leaks to its friends at
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November 24, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Reporting on the FBI raids on James O’Keefe and former associates in the matter of Ashley Biden’s diary, the Times seems to have a pipeline to the FBI and national security establishment. Thus the November 11 story by Adam Goldman and Mark Mazzetti quoting otherwise privileged legal memos prepared for Project Veritas in connection with its work. Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple suggests that a disgruntled Project Veritas employee
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November 23, 2021 — Scott Johnson
I am in search of a deeper understanding of the facts underlying the FBI raids on James O’Keefe’s and former Project Veritas associates in the matter of Ashley Biden’s diary. Pending before the court that issued the search warrants authorizing the raids is the motion of Project Veritas for the appointment of a Special Master to review the contents of O’Keefe’s cell phones and protect against the disclosure of otherwise
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November 22, 2021 — Scott Johnson
The story of the FBI raid on James O’Keefe and others associated with Project Veritas in the matter of Ashley Biden’s diary should be big news. The New York Times has devoted four stories to it, but the Times has a bone to pick with O’Keefe. The Times stories throb with hostility to Project Veritas and thrill to his humiliation. I have put in a request for an interview with
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November 17, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
This Fall, Northern Virginia, and above all Loudoun County, became a major battleground in the fight against wokeism in public schools. The issue played a role in Glenn Youngkin’s victory over Terry McAuliffe, though not a primary role in my opinion. In Loudoun County, the matter of public school wokeism has also been litigated in the case of Tanner Cross. He’s the teacher suspended for stating, at a school board
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November 17, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple has a good column on the FBI raid on James O’Keefe and the seizure of his cell phones in the matter of Ashley Biden’s diary. Wemple’s column is “Did the Justice Department overreach in raiding James O’Keefe’s home?” Wemple’s column provides a careful account of the facts as we have been given to understand them so far (links omitted): Before the 2020 election, a
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