The financial document also listed the names of others who gave much smaller amounts to Project Veritas last year. Mr. Seddon and Ms. Gore did not respond to messages. But what we know is there was an arrangement made, and Erik Prince allowed Project Veritas to use his farm to train its operatives. And, I mean, they were both active, but she was literally, you know, infiltrating these Democratic groups. Fast-forward to 2007, and Erik Prince was living in McLean, Virginia, and spending time on his Middleburg property, Blackwater Ranch, designed as a family retreat just as his parent's home in Cody had been originally. Mr. GOLDMAN: Richard Seddon is a former MI6 spy. And we've written about that. Given Mr. Princes extensive personal and professional ties to Wyoming, it is certainly plausible that some or all of [The Intercepts] sources to the extent they exist at all were located in Wyoming, Princes legal team wrote. With @Project_Veritas's special training, we will be the next great intelligence agency. One February 2019 report said that a new undercover will be joining the team and tasked with targeting Mr. Harshman. They were certainly using attractive women to lure people out on dates. You mentioned that he was recruited by Erik Prince. - where you have people in your organization who aren't who they say they are, you know, collecting intelligence, if that's what you want to call it. Sofia makes a contribution - a small contribution to a woman she had befriended who ran, unsuccessfully, for the Wyoming state legislature. And they will get, you know, negative information from public records. I'm Dave Davies, in for Terry Gross, who's off this week. This is FRESH AIR. The emails refer to other operations, including weekly case updates, along with training activities that involved operational targeting. Project Veritas redacted specifics about those operations from the messages. This is when there was the special Senate election in Alabama, right? You know, Princes are pretty savvy. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. DAVIES: Right. Project Veritas tax filings list Mr. Halderman as a project manager.. It is unclear how many potential donors Mr. Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Thomas were on the list. And so, you know, I can't tell you right now it hasn't, that somebody else isn't doing this. The year after the sting, Democracy Partners sued Project Veritas, and its lawyers have since deposed Mr. OKeefe. And, of course, this was really weird because they work for Project Veritas. Copyright 2021 NPR. On Sept. 30, Prince personally visited the Park County Elections Office, registered and cast a general election ballot, according to the clerks office. Presiding Judge Johnson, who is based in Cheyenne, has himself signaled some uncertainty about whether Wyoming is the right place for Princes case to be heard; in early November, Johnson asked the parties to submit additional briefs on either transferring the case to another district or delving further into the issues related to jurisdiction. GOLDMAN: I don't know if misrepresenting yourself to - and getting a job at a Democratic organization is a crime. But in a pending lawsuit, Prince asserts the April 13 story from The Intercept was false, defamatory and aimed at Wyoming. Because of the article, Prince says his reputation and professional opportunities within Wyoming suffered, along with his business interests and reputation in general. Last week, our guest, reporter Adam Goldman, co-authored a story about a couple who ingratiated themselves with Democrats in Wyoming, often making substantial political contributions to ensure their access to valuable information. He comes in late '16 or '17 - around that time period. Prince recruited Mr. Seddon to join the conservative group Project Veritas to teach espionage skills to its operatives and manage its undercover operations. But I didn't reveal that I knew Beau and Sofia had lived at that house at the time because we were working - concurrently, we were working on this larger story about them. DAVIES: What was on those videos? - 500, 1000. Funneling contributions through a third party is a feature of the federal election code and most state election codes. DAVIES: So how did you come upon this couple, Beau and Sofia? Is he actually providing those kinds of services? if (document.context) document.write ("&context=" + escape(document.context)); And I certainly don't think he thought he was going to get dragged into this. So I thought to myself, why are they giving money to these people, these Democratic politicians? DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. Beau picks up - starts working this marijuana legalization angle to try to make contacts with people - elected officials who are, in fact, pushing this bill to legalize marijuana. Erik Prince, the former head of Blackwater Worldwide and the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, has at times served as an informal adviser to Trump administration officials. This espionage operation was aimed at perceived enemies of Trump and included a planned sting operation against former national security adviser H.R. "He's a very nice man," Prince said of Barrasso in the Breitbart interview. And I think the Intercept geolocated that photo and determined it was Erik Prince's ranch. DAVIES: They targeted ACORN. During the 2018 meeting with Ms. Gore, according to one person familiar with it, Mr. I mean, if the idea was to get inside information, which would be useful to, you know, Republicans and conservatives, did they succeed? And another individual named Barbara Ledeen, who worked for a prominent senator, his committee - Chuck Grassley - she admitted her involvement, and she had actually said she had met with a Project Veritas operative. If you're a print subscriber, but do not yet have an online account, click here to create one. O'Keefe did not respond to the substance of the Times' report but did accuse the newspaper of running a "smear piece" on Project Veritas. He's proposed similar things in other countries, hasn't he? And, you know, Seddon then reached out to, you know, a family - an old friend who had worked at the FBI. AMY GOODMAN: In Wyoming. #Veritas pic.twitter.com/4IFvjKurGK, In the pending defamation case, Princes attorneys have cited that reporting as evidence The Intercept knew Prince did his business from Wyoming, going as far as to allege the articles unstated focus was on Princes reputation and livelihood in Wyoming., The Intercept attorneys, however, pointed to past statements from Prince and records indicating he lives in Virginia. By Derek Royden - July 2, 2021 2466 SOURCE NationofChange For example, Rolling Stone published an investigative piece in October asserting Prince participated in a plan to dampen turnout among Black voters in the 2016 election. In 2017, he met with White House and Pentagon officials to pitch a plan to privatize the Afghan war using contractors in lieu of American troops. The New York Times published an article chronicling a Wapiti, Wyoming-based espianoge effort. Two other employees, Gaz Thomas and Samuel Chamberlain, were also identified in emails and appeared to play important roles in the Michigan operation. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. They make significant political contributions, right? "He is not registered in Park County or [Wyoming] presently, unless he is not going by Erik Dean Prince and has changed his name," Park County Elections Deputy Pat Cole said in a Sept. 17 email; he said Prince hadn't voted in Wyoming since 2000. MATTHEW COLE: In. GOLDMAN: Yeah, and the Justice Department prosecuted a number of individuals. And Beau eventually divorced his wife. In more recent years, Prince has remained a mover and shaker and a controversial figure on the international stage. I have always understood him to be a resident of Northern Virginia, the lead writer of The Intercepts April story, Matthew Cole, wrote in a declaration. Where we're not - what we hadn't really seen was an actual British spy, somebody trained in clandestine activities, launching a secret operation using undercovers with false - basically false cover stories to infiltrate political circles, gather information and collect it for whatever purpose, I guess, because ultimately, as our story says, this appeared to be a paper play. Why were they targeting H.R. There was a billionaire in - well, a very - I don't know if he was a billionaire. He was asked whether he had provided any of the groups secret recordings of Democracy Partners to the Republican National Committee or any member of the Trump family. zoneId = 'Array'; It is, instead, an entity dedicated to a specific political agenda.. I mean, he - it seems that - it's our understanding that Prince introduced Seddon to Project Veritas. And they - you know, I think they - it seemed like they were seeking revenge. So Erik Prince, the private security contractor who is an ally and avid supporter of President Trump, connects with Project Veritas, who does these videos, and then they develop this whole different operation. That's a strawman campaign donation. While he has not been actively involved in Wyoming politics specifically, Prince comes from a political family he is the brother of U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and is an active political donor. Wyoming is not the place for security contractor Erik Prince to sue a New York-based publication, a federal judge says. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. Regardless, Princes residency is not the real issue in the case. Defendants wrote and published a false and defamatory article about a Wyoming residents Wyoming-based business activities knowing that it would cause harm principally in Wyoming, New York attorney Matthew Schwartz charged in one filing. I knew something was off immediately. if (document.referrer) document.write ("&referer=" + escape(document.referrer)); Prince turned to Mr. Seddon to help train the Project Veritas operatives. Private property rights are a major cornerstone to how Wyoming operates, but so is prioritizing a rural, quiet lifestyle - ultimately, the former won out in Sublette County. DAVIES: We need to take a break here. Prince to help him secure funding is just one of the new details about Mr. Seddons operation revealed in documents obtained by The Times and interviews with people familiar with his plans. Of course, everybody's familiar with Watergate, right? You know, was it effective? document.write ('&cb=' + m3_r); Mr. Halderman was copied on several messages providing updates about the Michigan operation, and in one message, he gave instructions to Ms. Jorge. But before the parties get to the lawsuits merits, The Intercept is contending, among other arguments, that Wyoming is not the right place for the case to be heard. document.write ("?zoneid="+zoneId+"&block=1&blockcampaign=1"); - not quick-hit videos or, you know, shorter-term operations, which I think people say Mr. O'Keefe wanted to do. Mr. Seddon used other former Project Veritas employees to help with the Wyoming operation, including James Artherton, a British operative code-named kimchi who was involved in a Project Veritas plan targeting an editor for The New York Times in London in 2017. According to its latest publicly available tax filing, Project Veritas received $8.6 million in contributions and grants in 2018. He recruited a British commando to help - this guy Gaz Thomas, who I guess had knew Seddon through his days at MI6. Mr. Seddon wrote that Ms. Jorge copied a great many documents from the file room, and Mr. OKeefe bragged that the group would be able to get a ton more access agents inside the educational establishment.. document.write ("'><\/scr"+"ipt>"); And, you know, we wrote the story about the operation targeting McMaster and Georgetown. Their reporting on the department won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. And ultimately, it did blow up in their face. They were going to bug it. Prince declined to comment. And they targeted a reporter, a Washington - a very good Washington Post reporter named Stephanie McCrummen, who - they picked up on it very, very, very quickly GOLDMAN: And figured out that this woman was not who she said she was. I'm Dave Davies. He's been reporting on an effort by conservatives to train operatives in undercover operations to infiltrate progressive groups and Democrats. Over two years, Mr. Seddons undercover operatives also developed networks in Colorado and Arizona, and made thousands of dollars in campaign donations posing as Democrats, both to the Democratic National Committee and individual campaigns. And they were doing this - it appears that they were doing this from the house where Beau and Sofia lived with others. Once a small operation running on a shoestring budget, Project Veritas in recent years has had a surge in donations from both private donors and conservative foundations. We are speaking with Adam Goldman. Erik Prince, the founder of private military company Blackwater, whose sister Betsy DeVos was Trump's education secretary, trained the spies Their job was to find out who was disparaging Trump. In 2018, Ms. Jorge infiltrated the congressional campaign of Ms. Spanberger, posing as a campaign volunteer. Did it help, you know, Project Veritas raise more money? Prince said he regularly host[s] customers, investors, employees and other business associates at my Wyoming ranch.. DAVIES: Right. Even if it is true that Prince now genuinely considers himself a Wyoming resident, it cannot be said that [The Intercept] could fairly anticipate being [hauled] into court in Wyoming, the attorneys wrote in a September filing. GOLDMAN: I was going to say, you know, talking to Republicans, moderate Republicans, I mean, moderate - these guys are pretty conservative, by the way - when we're describing it as moderate Republicans they were targeting. Last month, Project Veritas made public secretly recorded video of a longtime ABC News correspondent who was critical of the networks political coverage and its emphasis on business considerations over journalism. Of others who gave much smaller amounts to Project Veritas tax filings list Mr. Halderman as subscriber! 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