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EXCLUSIVE: Leaked email shows Project Veritas begging donors to stay after removing James O'Keefe
The Post Millenial ^ | 02/22/2023 | Libby Emmons and Jack Posobiec

Posted on 02/22/2023 7:46:06 PM PST by SeekAndFind

An email obtained by The Post Millennial shows that Project Veritas has reached out to donors to ask them to stay with the company despite founder and CEO James O'Keefe having been pushed out by the board of directors. Project Veritas is a not-for-profit operating entirely on the generosity of donors.

"We hope that you might continue to give us a chance," the email says, pleading with donors. "We can't stress how separate the board's role is from daily operations here at PV. We are still grinding and pursuing stories of great public importance."

The email, sent by Bethany Rolando, who was one of the 16 signers of a letter sent to the Board of Directors reporting personal grievances against O'Keefe, offers the subject line "Update: We hold everyone accountable, especially ourselves."

"We understand and share your frustrations," the email reads. "We all love and respect James and hope he returns. This is difficult for everyone."

The email states that "an independent two-dimensional audit is being arranged" to determine if financial wrong-doing has taken place, and if O'Keefe had broken administrative procedure.

These issues include "Breaking the Bylaws of the organization by unilaterally dismissing the CFO and co-opting another board member's vote by saying that board member supported the dismissal," noting that this second Board member "did not." 

One of the issues listed in the letter from those 16 staffers to the board was that O'Keefe had fired the CFO without board oversight. "Most recently," that letter of February 6 read, "the treatment of Barry Hinckley and Tom O’Hara. These 2 highly respected individuals did what they thought was right for the betterment of the organizaion and got berated in public on Tuesday and effectively terminated by Thursday."

Other statements also site professional relationships that apparently soured between O'Keefe and others, including an instance where O'Keefe called Spencer Meads a "pussy."

Also listed in the email to donors, as a matter for the "independent two-dimensional audit," is whether O'Keefe used "donations for private benefit." In a statement from the board on February 20, concerns over O'Keefe's spending were brought to the fore. Among these were staff morale and what the board claims were excessive expenditures.

"The board included this in its statement what it is aware of so far which clearly warrants this internal audit to ensure your hard-earned, and graciously donated, money is utilized appropriately." The email states that they "hope to know more details around this soon."

They also list concerns "with employment laws/workplaces safety regarding appropriate treatment of the employees was based, in part, on his interaction with senior staff in a Leadership call on January 31, 2023."

Apparently, after this single phone call, "Staff across multiple departments were ready to leave PV immediately if his conduct remained unaddressed."

The email offers that "over the last seven years," the company saw turnover of 140 employees, noting that they either quit or were fired, and that due to 20 of those employees having been in managerial roles, that lead "to potential succession plan issues" that threatened "the long-term viability of the company."

Which leads to O'Keefe. The email to major donors assures them that he was not removed, due to the fact that "he specifically said he did not resign, and the board did not fire him." Instead, they noted that he was placed on "temporary suspension until the audit was completed."

After 16 staffers sent a letter to the board detailing their concerns over O'Keefe's behavior, including an allegation that he once stole a sandwich from a pregnant woman, the board convened a meeting to determine O'Keefe's future with the company he founded.

O'Keefe responded to the board, and the staffers, in his own letter, demanding that the Board resign.

"I asked the board to resign for their conduct-- they did not. So currently, I have no position at PV based on the board's actions. So, I'm announcing to you all that today on President's day — I'm packing up my personal effects from headquarters, and I'm intending to start anew," O'Keefe said.

"The board placed him on a temporary suspension until the audit was completed," the email reads, "The board wanted him to delegate management of staff to the department heads so he can focus his true talent, efforts, and best use of his time on the journalism/stories and less on the day-to-day personnel management."

"He has been invited, but has chosen not to, engage in conversations with the board and management following steps taken so far wiht the goal of returning to Project Veritas."

"Instead," the email goes on, "he requested no change in authority and that mose of the officers and all of the board of directors immediately resign."

Project Veritas then appeals to the donors, saying that staff and board efforts at Project Veritas "remail passionately dedicated to James' mission," and that they "cannot control online narratives, and unfortunately cannot chime in to individually defend ourselves in the public sphere at present, we can sure you," it goes on to say, "we remain steadfast and determined to expose corruption."

The email notes that the work of Veritas continues, even if it has not gotten nearly the traction it did under O'Keefe's leadership. The latest expose picks up on the work that immediately precipitated the internal strife between O'Keefe and the board.

Prior to O'Keefe's departure, Veritas' reporting would be shared far and wide over social media with the "Veritas Army," made up of donors and supporters who shared the work on social media. Much of this method of distribution came about because O'Keefe, and Project Veritas, were banned on Twitter.

After Elon Musk took over the platform in October, both O'Keefe and Veritas were restored. In recent days, as Veritas has sought to distance itself from the man who created it, "James O'Keefe is Project Veritas" began to trend on Twitter, and as Veritas hemorraghed Twitter followers, O'Keefe rapidly gained them, outstripping Veritas of its influence, and taking it for his own.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: barryhinckley; bethanyrolando; donations; jackposobiec; jamesokeefe; libbyemmons; meads; ohara; pferitas; pfizer; projectveritas; spencermeads; tomohara; twitter; veritas
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To: TakebackGOP

He probably thinks you’re annoying too


21 posted on 02/22/2023 8:12:32 PM PST by boxlunch (Red State governors, kick the fednazis OUT of red states! BTW, We are a REPUBLIC not a democracy!)
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No doubt Pfizer is behind this.


22 posted on 02/22/2023 8:12:39 PM PST by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: TakebackGOP; Paladin2

Setting people up who are trying to destroy our country and our liberties is something to support.

And I fully support it. Enthusiastically and wholeheartedly. It isn’t illegal. They deserve zero consideration, as they have no consideration for us, our liberty, and our Constitution.


23 posted on 02/22/2023 8:13:46 PM PST by rlmorel ("If you think tough men are dangerous, just wait until you see what weak men are capable of." JBP)
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To: TakebackGOP

Oh boohoo. Maybe he should play nice with these demons? Just ask nicely for them to tell the truth ? So he’s setting them up, how mean of him. You’d almost think he was trying to get truth out of people who would sell their souls for a nickel


24 posted on 02/22/2023 8:15:20 PM PST by boxlunch (Red State governors, kick the fednazis OUT of red states! BTW, We are a REPUBLIC not a democracy!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Bkmk


25 posted on 02/22/2023 8:17:23 PM PST by sauropod (“If they don’t believe our lies, well, that’s just conspiracy theorist stuff, there.”)
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To: rlmorel

They are low level people that he goes after, and nothing except the Andrew Breitbart one did anything.


26 posted on 02/22/2023 8:18:16 PM PST by TakebackGOP
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To: SeekAndFind

Yah, the only way James is coming back is to buy up the corporate name at the bankruptcy auction, maybe. And to pick up some letterhead to use for TP.


27 posted on 02/22/2023 8:21:11 PM PST by bigbob
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To: Gene Eric
I gave money to the Project Veritas for the first time last year, and this is why:

O'KEEFE: Hey, Jeff Zucker, are you there? Hey, uh, this is James O'Keefe, uh, we've been listening to your CNN calls for ah, basically two months recording everything, and I just want to ask you a few questions if you have a minute. Do you still feel you're "The Most Trusted Name in News" because I have to say, from what I've been hearing on these phone calls, I don't know about that, I mean, we've got a lot of recordings that indicate you're not really that independent of a journalist.

ZUCKER: Okay, um, thank you for, ah, thank you ah, for ah your comments. Um, so, everybody, in light of that, I think what we'll do is, we'll...we'll set up uh, uh, a new system and we'll uh, we'll be back with you...we'll do the rest of the calls, uh, a little bit later...

At this point, O'Keefe looks right at the camera and makes this hilarious face:



O'KEEFE: We're going to release those recordings today at seven o'clock so stay tuned, it is going to be fun.

ZUCKER: Thanks everybody, have a good day...

O'KEEFE: Yeah, you too. So, um, you heard me just talk to the president of CNN, Jeff Zucker, and inform him that we are going to release a number of recordings today, I uh, unmuted myself into the conference line and they're still on there, they're listening to me right now. Uh, this is being live streamed for those of you still on the call and we recorded for a while and we have clips of various producers talking, the president talking, describing uh, their motives, describing uh, their political philosophy, describing how they don't cover certain things and certain political parties tell them to cover things a certain way, lots of little clips that takes us into the minds and hearts of our people and powers that be that inform us because government is downstream from media. So, we're going to releasing these tape thanks to one of our sources, one of our brave insiders who has given us this information. And um, as you can see, they're still milling about on the call, they're listening to me right now...

SYSTEM SOUNDS OF PARTICIPANTS IMMEDIATELY LEAVING THE CALL: Beep Beep...Beep Beep...Beep Beep...Beep Beep...Beep Beep

Brilliant. Just Brilliant.

There are some people who think James O'Keefe taking down these people is underhanded. It isn't illegal. He didn't force them to brag. They engaged in illegality.

They forced, for their own personal gain, this poisonous crap on us against our will, leveraging a tyrannical government, made scads of money while we lost our lives and livelihoods, and they bragged about it, especially that despicable human stain who had the meltdown.

Screw them. Screw every single last one of them.

And if I ever meet James O'Keefe in person, I will shake his hand and thank him.

28 posted on 02/22/2023 8:22:46 PM PST by rlmorel ("If you think tough men are dangerous, just wait until you see what weak men are capable of." JBP)
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To: TakebackGOP

Jeff Zucker isn’t a low-level person. And neither were some of the other people.

But that isn’t James O’Keefe’s problem. He can only open the door for people to evaluate a situation with information that is withheld by the media and government.

If people, including those in government who are really at fault, choose to do nothing, there is no malediction vile enough that can deservedly be heaped on them.


29 posted on 02/22/2023 8:25:58 PM PST by rlmorel ("If you think tough men are dangerous, just wait until you see what weak men are capable of." JBP)
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To: TakebackGOP

Trump might consider using similar tactics on occasion.


30 posted on 02/22/2023 8:30:51 PM PST by Paladin2
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To: SeekAndFind
So it now looks like Project Veritas’s top donors were caught off guard by O’Keefe’s removal and are not happy about it.

If that is in fact the case, what did the Board think was going to happen?

31 posted on 02/22/2023 8:32:45 PM PST by Widget Jr (Ignore CNN.)
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To: All

What, Didn’t Pfizer pay them off enough to keep them operating as Controlled Opposition????


32 posted on 02/22/2023 8:35:02 PM PST by LegendHasIt
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To: SeekAndFind

“We understand and share your frustrations [LIE],” the email reads.

“We all love and respect James [LIE] and hope he returns [LIE]. This is difficult for everyone [LIE].”


33 posted on 02/22/2023 8:35:06 PM PST by WeaslesRippedMyFlesh (wake me up when somebody tells the truth)
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To: SeekAndFind

The email states that “an independent two-dimensional audit is being arranged” to determine if financial wrong-doing has taken place, and if O’Keefe had broken administrative procedure.

ummmm... something you might have done ahead of time?


34 posted on 02/22/2023 8:43:33 PM PST by Chode (there is no fall back position, there's no rally point, there is no LZ... we're on our own. #FJB)
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To: SeekAndFind
My cup of schadenfreude runneth over! I demanded mine be refunded.
35 posted on 02/22/2023 8:58:41 PM PST by Chad C. Mulligan (eleutheromaniac)
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To: TakebackGOP
"I think James is annoying."

O'Keefe fights. WTF do you do?

36 posted on 02/22/2023 9:01:13 PM PST by wildcard_redneck (The Ukraine is dead, the head just doesn't know it yet.)
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To: SeekAndFind

As soon as he starts another project with a different name I’m sending $100.


37 posted on 02/22/2023 9:23:08 PM PST by factmart ( )
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To: SeekAndFind

” “We can’t stress how separate the board’s role is from daily operations here at PV. We are still grinding and pursuing stories of great public importance.””

Other than firing O’Keefe.


38 posted on 02/22/2023 9:23:35 PM PST by DesertRhino (Dogs are called man's best friend. Moslems hate dogs. Add it up..)
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To: SeekAndFind

I don’t understand the governance. Who appoints the board? Who determines their makeup? Would think the founder and the donors would have total control of such.


39 posted on 02/22/2023 9:29:35 PM PST by StolarStorm
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To: rlmorel

Thanks for the sharing those details. I totally agree with your POV.


40 posted on 02/22/2023 9:32:25 PM PST by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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