Last Wednesday, the board of directors at Project Veritas removed James O’Keefe as the head of the organization he founded and placed him on paid leave (PTO), triggering suspicions that O’Keefe “stepped on the wrong toes” and that the board might be compromised.
According to an internal message sent to Project Veritas staff by the organization’s executive director, Daniel Strack, and seen by New York Magazine’s Intelligencer website, O’Keefe is taking “a few weeks of well-deserved” paid time off.
According to the Intelligencer,
O’Keefe is his organization’s guiding ideological force and onscreen face, but his status as its day-to-day manager has become uncertain amid reports of internal turmoil, lawsuits from former employees, leaks about its internal workings, and a federal investigation into its conduct in purchasing a diary stolen from Ashley Biden, the president’s daughter.
The outlet said that the board of directors was scheduled to meet on Friday, February 10, to decide whether O’Keefe should be removed from his position for good.
On the same day, The Daily Beast posted a damning report on the Project Veritas founder’s “outright cruel” behavior toward staff. Citing an internal memo allegedly signed by a third of the employees, the Beast reported that the memo describing O’Keefe’s turning into a “power-hungry tyrant” who “publicly humiliated” and otherwise abused his subordinates on numerous occasions was shared with the board of directors last Monday.
The following day, the organization posted a statement on Twitter, saying it was confident in its ability to stay the course and continue to deliver on its mission without directly addressing O’Keefe’s leave.
“There are 65+ employees at Project Veritas dedicated to continuing the mission to expose corruption, dishonesty, waste, fraud, and other misconduct in both public and private institutions,” the statement reads in part. “To our supporters: We hear you, we care about you, and we will never give up.”
The top comment to the statement, written by Seth Weathers of Freedom Speaks Up, says, “Get f*cked. If you remove @JamesOKeefeIII you’ll never raise another penny.”
Matt Couch of the DC Patriot said the organization “just made a MASSIVE mistake.”
In a separate article on the matter, Couch wrote, “This is the most mind numbing and asinine thing that we’ve ever seen. James exposed Big Pharma and Pfizer, and now they are coming for him.”
Some Twitter users speculated that “something BIG is coming” and that the compromised board is trying to “keep it quiet.”
Others drew parallels between the developing story of O’Keefe and that of Glenn Greenwald, a journalist who co-founded The Intercept and then got “canceled” by his own over the Hunter Biden laptop story of 2020.
Many allege the suspension of O’Keefe is retaliation by Pfizer, as one of its research directors recently fell into a Project Veritas trap and revealed that the pharmaceutical giant was manipulating the Covid virus to sell updated vaccines.
Major Project Veritas donors were opposed to the board’s decision to place O’Keefe on PTO.
According to a cease and desist letter reportedly sent by law firm Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders, which “represents a large group of significant donors to Project Veritas,” there are “grave concerns about the Board of Directors’ reported action to remove Founder and CEO James O’Keefe from his leadership position, change the structure of the Project Veritas entities and their Boards (raising risks for the entities’ charitable status), and operate Project Veritas for purposes other than those for which the organization was established.” No money should be spent in the meantime, added the lawyers.
No decision was made on Friday regarding O’Keefe’s permanent removal.
Many social media users reacted to the news by unsubscribing from Project Veritas. Within 48 hours of the story breaking, the organization lost more than 22,000 Twitter followers and over 10,000 YouTube subscribers.
Neither Project Veritas nor James O’Keefe returned The New American’s requests for comment.
