After Project Veritas Founder James O'Keefe Goes Public With FBI Raids of Journalists' Homes, His Home Is Raided

As we reported Friday, FBI agents raided the homes of journalists who either currently or previously worked for Project Veritas, the group headed by James O’Keefe that’s broken a number of large stories pointing out corruption and wrongdoing by groups such as ACORN, Antifa, and Pfizer, and CNN’s part in helping the Democrat party smear its opponents.

These raids were conducted allegedly in connection with an investigation into the “burglary” of First Daughter Ashley Biden’s diary, although Project Veritas’ attorneys were already cooperating with federal investigators and had provided exculpatory information to them. O’Keefe gave a full description of what happened in a seven-minute video Friday.

Pages of the diary, which Project Veritas didn’t publish because they couldn’t verify its authenticity, had been published at National File in October 2020. According to National File’s reporting, the diary was left in a room at a rehab facility where Ashley Biden stayed earlier in 2020, and the next inhabitant – who happened to work for an unnamed news outlet – found it and shopped it to various conservative media outlets. In the diary, the author (who we presume to be Ashley) said she was “here for sexual trauma” and that she had “probably not appropriate” showers with her father.

In the video posted Friday, O’Keefe also said that he’d been served with a Grand Jury subpoena and that a cover letter accompanying the subpoena asked that he not reveal the existence of the subpoena or the investigation to anyone as that could jeopardize the investigation. O’Keefe stayed quiet – until it was apparent that the New York Times had been tipped off to the raids and investigation and that they were going to print a story about it.

Having essentially outed the FBI and the Department of Justice’s shady investigation and pre-dawn raid tactics against journalists (Jonathan Turley dissected the issues with the FBI’s actions here), one would think O’Keefe had inoculated himself against similar shenanigans, at least for the time being. (Well, RedState readers wouldn’t think that, because they’re smarter than the average bear.)

Nope. As you know from the headline, O’Keefe’s home was raided, too, according to – shocker – the New York Times:

Federal authorities on Saturday searched the home of James O’Keefe, the founder of the conservative group Project Veritas, according to witnesses and people briefed on the matter.

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, an entertainment manager, said. “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.”

Mr. Maynes…said the F.B.I. agents were at the apartment for several hours.

The remainder of the New York Times article contained copy that was originally printed in Friday’s hit piece on the group and incorrectly claimed that O’Keefe “acknowledged that the group was under investigation by the Justice Department in connection with a diary reported to have been stolen from Ashley Biden, President Biden’s daughter” in Friday’s video. O’Keefe said that the Southern District of New York was looking into the alleged burglary of the diary, but not that Project Veritas was being investigated. Given the level of sophistication of the New York Times piece as a whole, though, it’s understandable that the reporters wouldn’t make that distinction.

Though the Department of Justice has been weaponized against political opponents for some time, the moves this week are eerily reminiscent of the way in which Kamala Harris weaponized the California Department of Justice against those engaging in journalistic activities, such as Center for Medical Progress’ David Daleiden.

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