First Amendment

The O’Keefe Project: Extortion edition

Featured image 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. »

The O’Keefe Project: Project Veritas’s statement

Featured image 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 »

The O’Keefe Project: The Times strikes again

Featured image 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 »

The O’Keefe Project: Mysterious disappearance

Featured image 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 »

The O’Keefe Project: What’s going on?

Featured image 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 »

The O’Keefe Project: Notes toward an update

Featured image 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 »

A defeat for the Loudoun County school board [UPDATED]

Featured image 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 »

The O’Keefe Project: Erik Wemple edition

Featured image 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 »

The O’Keefe Project: The search warrant

Featured image The search warrant under which the FBI raided James O’Keefe and seized his cell phones is in circulation. FOX News has a copy. A FOX News producer gave a copy to the New York Times and asked whether the FBI had tipped the Times to the raids on O’Keefe and other Project Veritas associates. The Times didn’t say in its story reporting the question from FOX News, but I believe »

The O’Keefe Project: Josh Gerstein reports

Featured image The New York Times has run four stories on the FBI raids predicated on the alleged theft of Ashley Biden’s diary. The FBI has executed two raids on James O’Keefe and others associated with Project Veritas in the case. O’Keefe says Project Veritas was never able to authenticate the diary and that it had nothing to do with its theft, if that is what it was. We can infer that »

The O’Keefe Project: An update

Featured image The New York Times has now published its fourth story on the investigation of James O’Keefe and Project Vertitas in connection with their possession of the diary of Ashley Biden. The otherwise questionable authenticity of the diary can be inferred from the involvement of the FBI. It has somehow become a federal case in the Age of Biden. Today’s story is “Project Veritas Tells Judge It Was Assured Biden Diary »

The O’Keefe Project

Featured image James O’Keefe et al. were raided under a federal search warrant procured by the FBI. Although O’Keefe was instructed to remain mum, the authorities promptly leaked news of the raid to the New York Times. All this in the matter of Ashley Biden’s diary. Among the items seized in the raid were O’Keefe’s cell phones. Fox News reports that a court order has enjoined the Department of Justice from extracting »

James O’Keefe speaks

Featured image James O’Keefe appeared for a segment with this attorney on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show last night. I have posted the video immediately below. We have wondered what possible federal crimes might have given rise to the search warrant on which the FBI’s abuse of O’Keefe was justified. O’Keefe’s attorney actually cites the crimes specified in the search warrant, but Hannity quickly moves on. I don’t watch enough televison news »

Washington Post moans about cost of Justice for J6 rally

Featured image In the lead story in its local news section, the Washington Post reported last week that the Justice for J6 rally in D.C. cost government agencies that assisted Capitol Police at least $790,000. The Post seems bothered by this expenditure. So I infer from the fact that the paper rarely reports on the price tag of marches and protests by leftists or, for that matter, their rioting. Whatever one thinks »

A question

Featured image In this post, Scott wrote about Saturday’s “Justice for J6” rally in Washington, D.C. He collected tweets reporting on the substantial, and seemingly predominant, police presence, including that of undercover feds. I was struck by a statement by CBS’s Margaret Brennan, the moderator of Face the Nation. According to this tweet by Nicholas Fondacaro, Brennan said “the strong show of security” by police and the feds “kept the crowds away.” »

Reinstatement of teacher who objected to pronoun policing is upheld

Featured image Tanner Cross teaches physical education at an elementary school in Loudoun County. He is a devout Christian. Loudoun County has enacted a wide-ranging policy in favor of students who claim to be of a gender other than their biological sex. The policy permits students to use restrooms and locker rooms, as well as to compete in sports, on the basis of the gender with which they identify, rather than their »

Joe Biden, enemy of religious freedom

Featured image The Justice Department has dropped a case it had filed on behalf of a Vermont nurse who was forced to participate in an abortion that violates her religious beliefs. Fox News reports on this case here. Roger Severino provides important context here. When a Republican administration abandons a lawsuit brought by its Democratic predecessor, the mainstream media invariably cries foul. Perhaps for this reason, Republican cabinet members often persevere with »