GOTCHA!
NEWS CATCHES ‘VERITAS’ SETUP ARTIST IN LIE ABOUT CONVICTION
HIS UNDERCOVER videos aren’t the only way James O’Keefe bends the truth.
The notorious conservative setup artist who tried to sting The Washington Post this week conducts his campaigns to expose “dishonesty” through a nonprofit group that’s been doing business based on a lie, records reviewed by the Daily News show.
O’Keefe — who famously posed as a pimp for one of his videos — hid his 2010 criminal conviction on an application to obtain tax-exempt status for his nonprofit Project Veritas from the State of New York, the records show.
Late Wednesday, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sent O’Keefe a letter threatening to revoke the group’s charity status if he didn’t correct the record within 15 days.
“Failure to provide the requested information may subject Project Veritas to further legal action, including cancellation of its registration to solicit contributions in New York,” Schneiderman’s letter warned.
If Scheiderman revokes the group’s tax-exempt status, Project Veritas will be prohibited from raising money in New York State.
The group’s tax filings show in 2015 O’Keefe drew a salary of $241,220 as “chairman” of Project Veritas, which claims to “investigate and expose corruption, dishonesty, selfdealing, waste, fraud and other misconduct ... in order to achieve more ethical (sic) and transparent society.” Schneiderman demanded an explanation as to why the group’s failure to disclose O’Keefe’s conviction as required isn’t a violation of the state law that prohibits making false statements on such applications. On Thursday, Project Veritas spokesman Stephen Gordon accused the News of conspiring with the Post and Scheiderman. “This is obviously politically motivated and orchestrated between the NY AG’s office, the New York Daily News andTthe Washington Post,” Gordon wrote in an email response to a request for comment. “How did these news outlets obtain this document before the AG’s office sent it to us? This is an intentional and malicious attempt to shut us down — but we will not be stopped!” Regarding the tax filings, Gordon said, “We attempt to comply not only with the letter of the law but also the spirit of the law in every state. We will investigate the claims from the New York AG’s office.” O’Keefe, known for his dubiously edited undercover videos targeting the left and the press, got caught Tuesday trying to run an illconceived sting to get The Washington Post to publish a false story.
A woman the Post surveilled at Veritas’ Westchester County offices had pretended to be a sexual-assault victim of Alabama Republican senatorial candidate Roy Moore pitching her tale to the Post. Post reporters exposed the fraudulent tale and confronted O’Keefe.
O’Keefe refused to answer a Post reporter’s many questions about the woman’s connection to his group, even after they witnessed her leaving his offices.
Later, he acknowledged hiring the woman, but described his intention like this: “Our undercover reporter sought to test the veracity of @washingtonpost’s newsroom.”
Critics say the group was trying to discredit the Post in hopes of tarring its previous reporting on the far-right-wing Moore’s alleged sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl.
On May 26, 2010, O’Keefe pleaded guilty to charges of entering federal property under false pretenses after getting caught in a bizarre scheme to secretly record the staff of then-Sen. Marie Landrieu (D-La.).
In his plea agreement, prosecutors stated they would show O’Keefe and his co-conspirators met “for the purpose of discussing a variety of topics, including possible scenarios to engage the staff of Sen. Landrieu and record the interactions using audio and visual equipment.”
After his plea, he told reporters, “I expose corruption in the back rooms.”
But in a registration statement filed with Schneiderman’s charities bureau in July 2011 seeking nonprofit status, his group, Project Veritas, said none of its “officers, directors or principal executives” had been convicted of a misdemeanor or felony.
“Under penalty of perjury, we certify that the above information and the information contained in any attachments or supplement is true, correct and complete,” the document states.
O’Keefe’s name is missing from that document filed with the state, even though he is the founder of Project Veritas and he is listed as president of Veritas on tax documents filed with the IRS for 2010.
After his plea, O’Keefe was sentenced to three years of probation, so at the time the Project Veritas application was filed with New York, O’Keefe was still on federal probation.
Schneiderman also demanded an explanation as to why Project Veritas did not disclose that it had been barred from raising money in Utah and Mississippi.
Those states revoked the group’s nonprofit status because the group failed to disclose O’Keefe’s misdemeanor conviction.