This is FRESH AIR. She was doing outreach to, you know, Democratic figures in Wyoming. But the effort is a glimpse of a vigorous private campaign to try to undermine political groups or individuals perceived to be in opposition to Mr. Trumps agenda. var m3_r = Math.floor(Math.random()*99999999999); DAVIES: Right. And they thought McMaster had fired, you know, several people who the president had brought on and - or Mike Flynn, his former - his first national security adviser had brought on. DAVIES: And then Beau and Sofia married, right? We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. DAVIES: Right. And it's not clear to us if he was making any money off of this. Comments ( 40) Last week, the New York Times reported that Erik Prince is considering running to represent Wyoming in the United States Senate. GOLDMAN: That's a good question. The life of Erik Prince has been a complicated globe-trotting journey complete with extensive mercenary activities, spying on American citizens, brokering arms deals with despotic regimes and essentially taking advantage of any situation he can in order to line his personal pockets. You know, was it effective? And, you know, we wrote the story about the operation targeting McMaster and Georgetown. 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. Why did they want to embarrass him and get him out of the government? And Mr. O'Keefe disclosed that Foster Friess had actually given Project Veritas money. The woman was claiming she had been impregnated by the Senate candidate, thinking that The Washington Post would be so excited to get dirt about a conservative that they would publish a bogus story. And Prince comes up in the special council report - Robert Mueller's report. And then Seddon - you know, he stays on. You know, they were angry too, right? And, you know, eventually she starts using this to meet other prominent Democrats in the state. And, of course, this was really weird because they work for Project Veritas. So he's going to pop up in all sorts of different places. But if the case was transferred to New York, that states laws could apply. What are traditional political dirty tricks? They received training for covert operations at a ranch near Cody owned by Blackwater founder Erik Prince, where Maier's mother works as a cook. You know, there was one exercise, I believe, where they had a cop - you know, a local cop who was there. A local farmer was utilizing the land to grow corn and soybean crops, but the potential for the ranch was far from being realized. For example, Rolling Stone published an investigative piece in October, The New York Times broke the news of Princes potential run on Oct. 8, 2017, in another interview with Breitbart a few days later, identified the site as the Prince ranch in a 2019 article, asserting Prince participated in a plan to dampen turnout among Black voters, Powered by Creative Circle Media Solutions. Do we know? Sofia makes a contribution - a small contribution to a woman she had befriended who ran, unsuccessfully, for the Wyoming state legislature. So there has been - the two have interacted, I think, even before Trump was president. And if they were given money, if the money was distributed by this former spy, Richard Seddon, and they pulled from that pot of money, which was part of that operation, that could also be problematic. '&charset='+document.characterSet : '')); After Mr. Gordon won a close Republican primary battle against Mr. Friess, the billionaire, in August 2018, Mr. Friess blamed his loss on Democrats switching parties on Election Day to vote for Mr. Gordon. I mean, we know that Erik Prince was trying to sell a plan to the Trump administration to put these - for him, in fact, to put a private, you know, army of a bunch of mercenaries in Afghanistan and sort of take over those responsibilities from the government, sort of, in some ways, replace the U.S. forces on the ground there. DAVIES: Now, one of the more well-known operations - because, well, you reported on this - was an effort to embarrass Trump's national security adviser, H.R. They went after a Democratic staffer in Washington. How Times reporters cover politics. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Overall, how do conservatives regard Project Veritas? GOLDMAN: In some instances, they were on, you know, these social - these dating apps, right? Along with gathering intel, Maier and LaRocca sought to bait individuals associated with Better Wyoming into making statements they could secretly record and hand over to their clients. For his part, Prince swears he never met with anyone from Wagner Group a denial The Intercept included in its reporting. Prince submitted his own declaration to presiding U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson in September, disputing The Intercepts reporting and laying out some of his bona fides as a Wyomingite. And ultimately, it did blow up in their face. He's been reporting on an effort by conservatives to train operatives in undercover operations to infiltrate progressive groups and Democrats. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. Prince appears to have become interested in using former spies to train Project Veritas operatives in espionage tactics sometime during the 2016 presidential campaign. Prince, a contractor close to the Trump administration, contacted veteran spies for operations by Project Veritas, the conservative group known for conducting stings on news organizations and other groups. However, after the Powell Tribune questioned some apparent inaccuracies in his Sept. 16 statement, Prince acknowledged misstating a couple of his connections to the state. var width = jQuery(window).width(); And, you know, we've talked to people who have given to them, including people who gave smaller donations - right? The New York Times broke the news of Princes potential run on Oct. 8, 2017, saying hed recently traveled to Wyoming to explore ways to establish residency there., The following day, Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow asked Prince whether the Times report was real or fake news, mentioning, Im not 100% positive on your connection to Wyoming.. Prince and Mr. Seddon met in August 2018 with Susan Gore, a Wyoming heiress to the Gore-Tex fortune, Ms. Gore became the projects main benefactor. What's interesting about that Instagram post - and you can see it yourself, it's still out there - they like to describe themselves as journalists. Ledeen said "someone she trusted" contacted her to help with the McMaster operation. The plan was reportedly to send a female operative to Tosca, a restaurant McMaster frequented, to engage him in drinks and conversation and record him disparaging Trump or making other inappropriate remarks on camera. That got a lot of attention, was investigated by Robert Mueller. They also did the secret interviews at the airport in Cody in the - at the Prince hangar. What was going on there? The documents give new details about efforts to manipulate the politics of Wyoming. There was a massacre at a plaza in Iraq. And they - the purpose for - they themselves will launch this undercover operation and then, you know, secretly record you - audio, video - and then make a video out of it and, you know, expose what they describe as wrongdoing. This is FRESH AIR. 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's a former British intelligence officer who served in Washington, D.C., and in Pakistan and eventually leaves the British Secret Intelligence Service and develops some relationship with Erik Prince, a security contractor, and ends up being director of field operations at the conservative group known as Project Veritas. In 2010, Mr. O Keefe and three others pleaded guilty to a federal misdemeanor after admitting they entered a government building in New Orleans under false pretenses as part of a sting. Regardless, Princes residency is not the real issue in the case. Prince provided funding to hire a tech adviser to ascertain the authenticity of the emails. WASHINGTON Erik Prince, the security contractor with close ties to the Trump administration, has in recent years helped recruit former American and British spies for secretive intelligence-gathering operations that included infiltrating Democratic congressional campaigns, labor organizations and other groups considered hostile to the Trump agenda, according to interviews and documents. He's a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times. DAVIES: What did you learn about how Beau and Sofia met? It is unclear how many potential donors Mr. And we're speaking with New York Times reporter Adam Goldman. It was Maria (ph). NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. DAVIES: Did any of them have opinions about whether these two had done damage? Connor Wroe Southard. AFT Michigan sued Project Veritas in federal court, alleging trespassing, eavesdropping and other offenses. 1-307-754-2221. There is little publicly available information about the company, but multiple Prince ventures, including Blackwater, have been based out of Moyock, North Carolina. People have probably heard of this organization. In 2016, a Project Veritas operative infiltrated Democracy Partners using a fake name and fabricated rsum and made secret recordings of the staff. 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. But (laughter) this seemed to be the training out in Wyoming. Valued at roughly $12 million by the Park County Assessors Office, the property includes a 17,470-square-foot residence that ranks among the largest in the area; county records show Prince owns a smaller home on an adjoining 10-acre parcel. 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. And, you know, typically they would have a male individual working for Project Veritas who would accompany these women on these dates as sort of, like, security. Separately, Ms. Gore unsuccessfully tried to raise money for the project from Foster Friess, a billionaire Wyoming businessman, during a January 2019 meeting, three people said. 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. In the case of the FBI, you know, they were looking for bias to see if somebody - they could get somebody to say something anti-Trump, which, of course, fit the theme at the time because, you know, these infamous text messages between these two FBI officials who had worked on the Russia investigation - the FBI's Russia investigation had come out, right? But, yeah, this kind of actual infiltration and spying, I don't think I've run across that. WASHINGTON Erik Prince, the security contractor with close ties to the Trump administration, has in recent years helped recruit former American and British spies for secretive. GOLDMAN: Yes. But her picture was on this website. The former Navy SEAL gained fame for the supporting role his Blackwater firm played in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the security contractor became infamous when its employees killed 14 Iraqi civilians and wounded 17 others in Baghdad in 2007. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. According to its latest publicly available tax filing, Project Veritas received $8.6 million in contributions and grants in 2018. Mr. document.write ("?zoneid="+zoneId+"&block=1&blockcampaign=1"); (Photo: Gerry Broome/AP) MIDDLEBURG, Va. A cheery fire warmed the glass-walled conservatory of the Goodstone Inn in Virginia's. Erik Prince decides that Project Veritas needs something new. DAVIES: Do we know of connections between Project Veritas and James O'Keefe and Trump, Donald Trump or the Trump family? In 2018, an operative working for Project Veritas infiltrated the campaign of Abigail Spanberger, who went on to win a congressional seat. Did it expand the number of people that they had? She was attending, you know, Democratic fundraisers. Well, that and - by the way, at some point - I don't know the time period. Prince and former British spy Richard Seddon both did work for the organization. #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. To continue reading, you will need to either log in to your subscriber account, or purchase a subscription. And they would find people, and they would go out with them. You know, we had - we talked to many, many people who worked there, and, you know, they described Seddon as wanting to do more long-term operations - right? Wagner which The Intercept described as a semi-private military force that operates in countries or conflicts where the Russian government seeks plausible deniability for its activities reportedly turned down Princes offer. Was he primarily the guy who got this thing moving? She and Mr. And they were deeply critical of Trump. Mr. Halderman was copied on several messages providing updates about the Michigan operation, and in one message, he gave instructions to Ms. Jorge. ', Death toll keeps rising in Greece's deadliest train crash, US Attorney General Merrick Garland testifies before Senate Judiciary Committee, Lineup announced for this years Capitol Hill Block Party, There's no shortage of salt for NYC roads, Temple University students march and protest to demand better safety. A spokesman for the firm said that Alston & Bird has never contributed to Project Veritas on its own behalf, nor is it a client of ours. The spokesman declined to say on whose behalf the contribution was made. DAVIES: You know, the other thing that I wanted to just clarify to the extent I can is how much of a driving force Erik Prince was in this. Their reporting on the department won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. We still don't know everything about it, and we're trying to learn more about exactly who was behind this and if money was paid and so on. [CDATA[ var m3_u = (location.protocol=='https:'? McMaster? You know, and each time, you know, money is wired in furtherance of that crime, you know, that's also - that could be a possible count of mail fraud. (SOUNDBITE OF GOGOL BORDELLO'S "NOT A CRIME"). Published October 16, 2017. Mr. Seddon regularly updated Mr. OKeefe about the operation against the Michigan teachers union, according to internal Project Veritas emails, where the language of the groups leaders is marbled with spy jargon. Good stuff, Mr. Seddon wrote back. The two men had known each other since Mr. Princes days running Blackwater, and shared an affinity for guns and the American West. James OKeefe, the head of Project Veritas, declined to answer detailed questions about Mr. In an archived version of her LinkedIn page, Ms. Jorge wrote she had a deep interest in the conservative movement and hoped one day to serve on the Supreme Court after attending law school. She actually got a contract fundraising gig with the Democrats, right? Erik Prince, the founder of controversial private military firm Blackwater and a supporter of former President Donald Trump, jumped into the COVID-19 business late last year with a deal to . He is married to an American diplomat, Alice Seddon, who is serving in the American consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. 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. DAVIES: What are Erik Prince's contacts or associations with Donald Trump and the Trump family? Prince said he wanted the Project Veritas employees to learn skills like how to recruit sources and how to conduct clandestine recordings, among other surveillance techniques. And they said, well, you know, she worked for Project Veritas. The list included John Cox, then the director of the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services, and Scott Talbott, then the director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. And Las Vegas was the - you could almost say it was the pinnacle, the apex of their operation. When a muckraking news site published a story alleging private security contractor and Blackwater founder Erik Prince had offered his services to a Russian mercenary firm, the connections to Wyoming were not obvious; the state was never mentioned in the piece. And the operatives had to give a - you know, had to give a cover story under duress. - 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. All rights reserved. I knew something was off immediately. And we've written about that. 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. I'm Dave Davies. In that deposition, Mr. OKeefe defended the groups undercover tactics, saying they were part of a long tradition of investigative journalism going back to muckraking reporters like Upton Sinclair. In particular, you know, Sofia targeted a employee with the GAO. And so I was able to piece that together. Blackwater founder Erik Prince used the rise of Donald Trump to stage an unlikely comeback that apparently included funding spy training for far-right propagandist James O'Keefe and his Project. GOLDMAN: The Georgetown house in D.C. was used as a base to, you know, essentially launch these undercover operations in the summer of '18, I guess, into the fall and maybe later. We're still trying to fully understand how Project Veritas, which is founded by James O'Keefe, actually came into contact with Erik Prince. And last year, I learned that Beau and Sofia had been working out of this house in Georgetown. You know, this is something we haven't seen, right? I believe he was involved in an effort to battle pirates in Somalia. He'll be back to talk more about his stories on undercover operations by conservatives to infiltrate democratic and progressive groups after this short break. The Defense Department didn't go for it. The campaign discovered the operative and fired her. And so, you know, I can't tell you right now it hasn't, that somebody else isn't doing this. Mr. Seddons recruitment of Mr. They targeted The Washington Post. He did not respond to follow-up phone messages or an email. GOLDMAN: It's my understanding that they met during a training at the Prince ranch in Wyoming in the spring of '17 and then grew closer over time. And then they married last week. But he was extremely wealthy conservative in Wyoming named Foster Friess, who had actually run for governor in '18. As further evidence of his ties to Wyoming and the business he conducts in the state, Princes initial declaration said he owned several operating entities registered to his residence in Wapiti. And he comes from a wealthy, conservative family in Michigan, right? So we had never seen something like 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. They need some spy training and covert military, paramilitary training at his ranch. And then Mark Mazzetti, you know, my colleague, who just is an extraordinary journalist, we - you know, we managed to suss out what was going - we think - to a great degree what was going on in Wyoming and these other states. Mr. OKeefe and his group have taken aim at targets over the years including Planned Parenthood, The New York Times, The Washington Post and Democracy Partners, a group that consults with liberal and progressive electoral causes.
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