James O’Keefe to Leave Project Veritas After Board Dispute

Conservative News DailyFebruary 20, 2023

Reportedly, Project Veritas’ founder and CEO is leaving the investigative journalism company he founded back in 2011. After 16 employees tried to force him out of his position as CEO of Project Veritas, an investigative journalism organization, he is now reporting that he has resigned. They claimed, among others, that he was difficult and stole sandwiches once. This led to a dispute at the Board of Directors.

Neil McCabe, OAN, broke the story via Twitter. He reported that O’Keefe had delivered his resignation in person at his Mamaroneck office, New York.

After the 16 staffers sent sent the letter to the Project Veritas board of directors in early February, “James O’Keefe IS Project VeritasTwitter started to trend “” Many donors and supporters balked at the idea of Veritas continuing without O’Keefe as the leader. However, prominent conservatives offered their support. O’Keefe needs your support.

“The undersigned are troubled and frustrated with James’ management style and business acumen,” The letter was opened. “These behaviors and actons are antithetial to our core values, and it came to a head this week. Most recently, the treatment of Barry Hinckley and Tom O’Hara.”

In the letter, the 16 staffers, listed as Michael Villani, Eric Spracklen, Mario Balaban, Jake Mantel, Patrick Van Duyne, Sal Gueli Journalists: Arden Young, Preston Scagnelli, Bobby Harr (Lithium), Bethany Rolando, Joanne Sumner, Gillian Pietrowski, Jonathan Bailey, Joshua Hughes, Nick Mehaj, and Angelo Martinez, say that “James has become a power drunk tyrant and he is exactly who he pontificates on who we should be exposing.”

Another statement mentions professional relationships that O’Keefe may have had with others. O’Keefe even called Spencer Meads a “sinister”. “pussy.”

“James went as far as to call Spencer a pussy in Vegas, and Spencer heard him say it. Both of these guys were mission driven and suffered through it. They were raided and James still called Spencer that name – he never forgave them for making a decision to leave for their own mental wellbeing,” The letter is as follows:

These are just a few of the issues mentioned. “airing grievances” The termination of the contract has prevented the undersigned from speaking up. Transparency in decision-making was a concern. We O’Keefe were difficult to work with, aggressive, and mean. “bullying” Listened as a concern

Project Veritas was a disappointment to its followers. Board and staff tried to keep the company going without the man who founded it.

Veritas stated they were confident that they could continue on their course and fulfill the mission O’Keefe gave them, regardless of whether O’Keefe was in charge. They will soon find out.

A Stop and Cease A letter was sent out to the Project Veritas Board of Directors by law firm Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders, saying that the “firm represents a large group of significant donors to Project Veritas.”

It goes on to say about these donors “have 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.”

“The big wig donors to Project Veritas are not taking the board actions against James O’Keefe lying down,” According to Swig, this is the opinion of a source. “Looks like they have hired a big name law firm that sent a letter which seems to suggest the board is running afoul of Virginia law and exposing themselves to substantial liability!”

“By threatening or taking these actions,” The letter continued to state, “the Board is straying from its roots and the express purpose for which it raised considerable funds from the public, including our clients.”

“We are concerned that the Board may already be acting in violation of Virginia charitable solicitation and trust law and ask that the Board refrain from taking further actions to fundamentally undermine the purposes for which Project Veritas be established.” They also requested that no money be used in the interim.

They stated plainly that they believed the Board should “cease and desist” from any actions taken to remove O’Keefe, and declare that the letter also represents “a request to preserve all tangible evidence, whether held by the Board or by its members, personally, including all documents related to the subject matter of this letter.”

After the publication of the letter, the rumor mill started to spin. Some claimed that more serious allegations were possible, mostly regarding financial transactions. They have not yet been proven true.

Project Veritas Executive director Daniel Strack issued a statement following which Project Veritas retweeted a photo from Robert F Kennedy Jr showing himself with Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe in Santa Monica. “Of course [James O’Keefe] is alive and well. Why wouldn’t he be?” Project Veritas wrote. “We’re sure many of you can agree, there is nothing better than enjoying a well deserved vacation.”

The retweet came hours after a statement from Strack on behalf of five board members saying that O’Keefe has not been removed from Project Veritas.

“At Project Veritas, we believe in radical transparency coupled with respect, empathy, and honesty,” the statement began. “A few weeks ago, a number of our staff members provided leadership with some verbal feedback describing real management concerns regarding the treatment of people and our internal processes.”

Strack wrote that this feedback “prompted the board to solicit feedback from additional staff members,” noting that an internal letter was leaked. “The narrative that is being portrayed by referencing this letter is patently false.”

“James has not been removed from Project Veritas. Nowhere in that letter was there ever a suggestion to remove James from the organization,” the statement continued.

Strack said that more than 16 employees provided feedback, and that “this letter was not the only feedback collected.” 16 members signed a letter outlining complaints about O’Keefe’s leadership. It was reported that O’Keefe was on paid leave.

“James is the hardest working person I have ever met. Those who know him well know that he will not take time off unless forced to,” Strack said.

“The Project Veritas Board of Directors is made up of seasoned and active members of their communities with many years serving on other 501c3 boards. They do not get paid by Project Veritas. They are multi-year donors. They all love James. They are volunteers hand-picked by James,” the statement continued. “As a 501c3 non-profit entity, the Board takes their responsibilities seriously.”

Strack stated that as Executive Director, “I am an officer of the organization. My role is to manage our team and help create better processes and procedures to help address the concerns of our team, our board and James O’Keefe.”

“While I do understand the timing of this situation alongside the biggest story in our organization’s history is confusing and very easy to come up with conspiracy theories, I assure you we are still, in no way, and will never be, ‘Brought to you by Pfizer.’ Nor do we have any political preferences for any candidates running for office,” he added.

“I have always been, and remain, committed to working with James and the PV team, who I am so proud to be a part of, to continue our mission to expose corruption and deliver truth to the American people without fear or favor,” Strack concluded.

The letter was issued by Strack on behalf of five board members: Steven Alembik, Joseph Barton, John Garvey, George Skakel, and Matthew Tyrmand.

Investigative journalism was changed forever when James O’Keefe walked into an ACORN office in 2009 posing as a pimp, Hannah Giles posing as a prostitute, and exposed workers there actively assisting the duo to set up sex trafficking operations. The workers exposed on video were fired, ACORN lost its government contracts, and the whole operation shut down within a year.

From that investigation, O’Keefe founded Project Veritas, a journalistic enterprise that relies on donations to carry out their work exposing educators, media figures, elected officials, and most recently Pfizer executives giving away information that they never would have if they’d known they were speaking to undercover reporters.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.