Project Veritas whistleblowers show support for James O'Keefe

'Without James O’Keefe, there is no Project Veritas'

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter
Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe
Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe | Brandon Bell/Getty Images

A group of former Project Veritas whistleblowers released a video expressing support for the organization’s founder James O’Keefe after he was forced to leave the company last week following a prolonged conflict with its board of directors.

Zach Vorhies, who describes himself as the “Google whistleblower via James O’Keefe” who “disclosed Google’s ‘Machine Learning Fairness,’ the [artificial intelligence] system that censors and controls your access to information” and blacklisted The Christian Post, released a video on his Twitter account Friday featuring more than a dozen Project Veritas whistleblowers proclaiming “I stand with James O’Keefe.” 

While participants in the video initially only identified the organizations they worked for and the stories they collaborated on with Project Veritas, the video concluded with all of the whistleblowers stating their names. In the tweet accompanying the video, Vorhies urged people to “retweet if you #StandWithJames.”

The Project Veritas whistleblowers who appeared in the video also wrote a letter in support of O’Keefe along with additional whistleblowers, condemning “the removal of James O’Keefe from Project Veritas” as “extremely disappointing and shocking.” In the letter, dated Friday, they agreed that “Without James O’Keefe, there is no Project Veritas.”

“We have all worked directly with Project Veritas journalists and in many cases spent months working with them and also interacting with Mr. O’Keefe both before going public and afterward during various events,” they explained.

“We sacrificed our jobs and livelihoods in order to give James O’Keefe hard evidence of fraud and corruption, whether it was at CBS, Fox, Google, Facebook, UPS, Pfizer, Hasbro, [the Department of Homeland Security], CNN, ESPN, [the Department of Health and Human Services] or United Healthcare.”

Noting that “many of us were reluctant to go public,” the signatories credited “O’Keefe’s dedication to journalistic integrity and honesty” with giving them the courage to “go public with our stories.” They warned that “O’Keefe’s removal from the organization has dealt a devastating blow to future whistleblowers who now may have doubts about the organization and its leadership.” 

The letter concluded by attributing the “growing movement of whistleblowers who are willing to come forward and tell their stories” to O’Keefe as well as a declaration that “We stand united with James O’Keefe and his team of journalists that selflessly strive to expose corruption and uncover the truth.”

The signature line identifying the signatories as “Project Veritas Insiders” was crossed out with the words “O’Keefe’s Insiders” written directly below it, indicating that they no longer have loyalty to Project Veritas after O'Keefe was forced out of the company. 

Project Veritas whistleblowers who crafted the letter and appeared in the video included: Vorhies; CBS insider April Moss; CNN insider Cary Poarch; HHS insiders Jodi O’Malley and Tara Rodas; Hasbro insider David Johnson; U.S. Postal Service insider Richard Hopkins; Facebook insiders Cassandra Spencer and Ryan Hartwig; CNN insider Cary Poarch; Pfizer insider Melissa McAtee; United Healthcare insider Jeanne Stagg; Chegna insider Brett Mauser as well as ESPN/Disney insider Trevor Adams. 

DHS whistleblower Aaron Stevenson appeared in the video but the letter did not include him as a signatory. Fox News whistleblower Ivory Hecker signed on to the letter but did not appear in the video. 

The letter and video by Project Veritas whistleblowers come just days after O’Keefe announced his departure to his organization’s staff members in a 45-minute video. He detailed tense exchanges he had with the organization’s board of directors, who have accused him of misusing donor money and breaching ethics. 

O’Keefe founded Project Veritas, which describes itself as an entity that “investigates and exposes corruption, dishonesty, self-dealing, waste, fraud and other misconduct in both public and private institutions to achieve a more ethical and transparent society,” in 2011. 

Examples of high-profile investigations conducted by O’Keefe and undercover journalists at Project Veritas include exposing Pfizer’s efforts to mutate the coronavirus in order to “preemptively” develop new vaccines and Google’s “blacklisting” of conservative news outlets and CP in its algorithms. 

The whistleblowers calling themselves “O’Keefe’s insiders” expressed hope that “more information will come to light and that both parties can come to an understanding,” referring to O’Keefe and the board.

For their part, the Project Veritas Board of Directors released a statement asserting that O’Keefe “unilaterally fired the [chief financial officer], who can only be fired with board approval” and insisting that they wished to have a conversation with O’Keefe. 

Exactly one week after his departure, Project Veritas’ popularity has taken a hit. The website Social Blade, which keeps track of social media accounts’ followers, has shown a loss of over 300,000 followers on Project Veritas’ Twitter account in the past week, more than 20,000 likes on its Facebook page and approximately 120,000 subscribers on its YouTube account in the same time period. 

Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com

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