Ms. Jorge was eventually exposed and kicked out of the campaign office. Neither party wants to be infiltrated like this. "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. I believed that to be true at the time that I signed my declaration, Prince wrote, but I have since come to learn that I was mistaken.. contractor who is best known as the founder of the private military firm Blackwater and whose sister, Betsy DeVos, was Mr. Trump's education secretary has drawn. We know that because Glenn put it up on his Instagram account. Well, that and - by the way, at some point - I don't know the time period. There's an annual one, Nellie T. Ross Banquet, and I believe it's in Cheyenne every February. They used a code name LibertyU for their operative inside the organization, Marisa Jorge, who graduated from Liberty University in Virginia, one of the nations largest Christian colleges. Prince have ties to President Trumps aides and family. And then on a parallel but different track, you know, Sofia is trying to make her way through the Young Democrats of Wyoming, the Wyoming Democratic Party, you know, building her bona fides as an eager, young Democrat. #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. Mr. Is this stuff a crime? A former British spy and Republican mega-donor Erik Prince, a founder of the private military contractor Blackwater (now rebranded as "Academi) and brother to former U.S. Education Secretary. }else{ They were going to bug it. The Defense Department didn't go for it. You know, there seemed to be - what it showed was, you know, Prince is well-traveled and is always looking for business opportunities. You know, they targeted the teachers unions. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. James OKeefe, the head of Project Veritas, declined to answer detailed questions about Mr. And, you know, and he is - you know, he's an international businessman. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. This item is available in full to subscribers. Mr. Seddon launched his privately funded spying effort after leaving Project Veritas in 2018. At the time, Prince was exploring the possibility of mounting a Republican primary challenge to incumbent U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo. One February 2019 report said that a new undercover will be joining the team and tasked with targeting Mr. Harshman. I mean, this is - you know, he no doubt sees them as a conservative ally, like other conservative networks. So I thought to myself, why are they giving money to these people, these Democratic politicians? GOLDMAN: In some instances, they were on, you know, these social - these dating apps, right? It seems like the Democrats have figured out this party switch deal to their advantage, Mr. Friess wrote in an email obtained by Wyofile, a political news site in Wyoming. McMaster? And they said, well, you know, she worked for Project Veritas. DAVIES: Right. Prince declined to comment. [CDATA[ She and Mr. But then they got reversed stung by the Post, which was quite a moment. Click here to see your options for becoming a subscriber. For his part, Prince swears he never met with anyone from Wagner Group a denial The Intercept included in its reporting. DAVIES: Right. Erik Prince, a political novice and former Navy SEAL who made a fortune in contracting security services to the U.S. Military, said in an interview with Breitbart that he will announce in the coming weeks whether he will challenge Barrasso in the Republican primary. Several of them confirmed their donations. What was going on there? He recruited a British commando to help - this guy Gaz Thomas, who I guess had knew Seddon through his days at MI6. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. In a YouTube video, Mr. OKeefe described the lawsuit as frivolous and pointed to a portion of the deposition in which David Hecker, the president of AFT Michigan, said that one of the goals of the lawsuit was to stop Project Veritas from doing the kind of work that it does., Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement: Lets be clear who the wrongdoer is here: Project Veritas used a fake intern to lie her way into our Michigan office, to steal documents and to spy and they got caught. (SOUNDBITE OF FRANK ZAPPA'S "EAT THAT QUESTION"). The job put her in a position to gain valuable information about which Republican candidates the group was supporting with independent advertising. Mr. Seddons recruitment of Mr. And Prince comes up in the special council report - Robert Mueller's report. He is married to an American diplomat, Alice Seddon, who is serving in the American consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. Mr. OKeefe and others shared social media photos of taking target practice with guns at the ranch, including one post from Mr. OKeefe saying that with the training, Project Veritas will be the next great intelligence agency. Mr. 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. Mr. This is FRESH AIR. 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. 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 so, you know, I can't tell you right now it hasn't, that somebody else isn't doing this. Most notably, Prince had incorrectly asserted under the penalties of perjury he had been registered to vote in Wyoming since 2017.. One target in particular was Gov. In fact, I wrote a memo about what I had found. //]]>-->. Prince took on the role of celebrity pitchman, according to interviews and documents, raising money for Mr. Seddons spying operation, which was aimed at gathering dirt that could discredit politicians and activists in several states. This is when there was the special Senate election in Alabama, right? Project Veritas tax filings list Mr. Halderman as a project manager.. But her picture was on this website. She actually got a contract fundraising gig with the Democrats, right? DAVIES: What are Erik Prince's contacts or associations with Donald Trump and the Trump family? 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. He's a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times. - 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. zoneId = '8'; And, you know, these were - they were not really long-term operations. What was this about? You know, was it effective? Funneling contributions through a third party is a feature of the federal election code and most state election codes. 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. And it's not clear to us if he was making any money off of this. But, you know, over 18, they - it grew closer. 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. DAVIES: Right. document.write ("&loc=" + escape(window.location)); An attorney for The Intercept reportedly told Princes lawyer in the spring the piece was one in a series of planned articles concerning Mr. Princes activities, though it has not published any further pieces to date. These two are conservatives, right? Ms. Jorge, 25, did not respond to email addresses associated with her Liberty University account. But, you know, O'Keefe brags on the Instagram photo that they're going to be the world's best intelligence agency - I believe that's what it says - not the world's best journalists. - and, you know, that probably in terms of, you know, Iran - not pulling out of the agreement with Iran, the JCPOA, and, you know, McMaster, you know, wanting to keep, I guess, troops in Afghanistan. Do we know why? Sofia makes a contribution - a small contribution to a woman she had befriended who ran, unsuccessfully, for the Wyoming state legislature. 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. Many conservatives have gleefully pounced on Project Veritass disclosures, including one particularly influential voice: Donald Trump Jr., the presidents eldest son. And, yeah, people steal lawn signs. Comments ( 40) Last week, the New York Times reported that Erik Prince is considering running to represent Wyoming in the United States Senate. He was dismayed, three former Project Veritas employees told the Times, with "O'Keefe's desire to produce quick media content rather than to run long-term infiltration operations." Mr. Seddons role in the teachers union operation detailed in internal Project Veritas emails that have emerged from the discovery process of a court battle between the group and the union has not previously been reported, nor has Mr. Princes role in recruiting Mr. Seddon for the groups activities. He owns a home on a lot adjoining his familys Double E Ranch in Wapiti. DAVIES: Right. DAVIES: It was a risk because she couldn't effectively work undercover if they'd been exposed by this organization that's critical of Veritas? 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. And as the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press summarizes, New York provides absolute protection from forced disclosure of materials received in confidence by a professional journalist, including the identity of a source.. Erik Prince, founder of the private military firm Blackwater, helped raise money for a political-intelligence operation run by Richard Seddon, a former British spy. WASHINGTON A British former spy recruited by Erik Prince, the security contractor close to the Trump administration, played a central role in a secretive effort to hire dozens . And so I was able to piece that together. - 500, 1000. Months later, in June 2019, a report said we are expecting a big haul, including new lines of intelligence on the Republican side of the house.. But Trump would, from time to time, cite Project Veritas videos in his, you know, comments, public comments and speeches, right? And we've written about that. It was Maria (ph). For example, a 2017 meeting he attended with a crown prince of the United Arab Emirates and an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin became a part of the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, whom he has served as informal adviser. 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. DAVIES: So an active player in the Trump world. Is that what these interviews were about? That same day Oct. 9, 2017 Prince obtained a Wyomings drivers license, which he touted in another interview with Breitbart a few days later. But it was not her real name. That was certainly a catalyst. 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 . A former British spy and Republican mega-donor Erik Prince, a founder of the private military contractor Blackwater (now rebranded as "Academi) and brother to former U.S. Education Secretary. People have probably heard of this organization. Using a different alias the next year, the same undercover operative infiltrated the congressional campaign of Abigail Spanberger, then a former C.I.A. The financial document also listed the names of others who gave much smaller amounts to Project Veritas last year. I don't know. This includes participating in marches or rallies in support of a movement or giving money to, or raising money for, any political candidate or election cause. One of the documents indicates that Marti Halverson, a former Wyoming state lawmaker, provided a list of people for the operatives to target. GOLDMAN: Well, as we started reporting on Erik Prince and Richard Seddon, I became deeply interested in learning who, in fact, was working for this organization. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. 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. DAVIES: And then Beau and Sofia married, right? McMaster. zoneId = 'Array'; Two other employees, Gaz Thomas and Samuel Chamberlain, were also identified in emails and appeared to play important roles in the Michigan operation. 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. 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. Their attorneys wrote that the story did not focus its efforts on or in Wyoming, nor would it have any reason to do so . She was attending, you know, Democratic fundraisers. 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. And, you know, Seddon then reached out to, you know, a family - an old friend who had worked at the FBI. Erik Prince, founder of private . (SOUNDBITE OF GOGOL BORDELLO'S "NOT A CRIME"). 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. In a book published in 2018, Mr. OKeefe wrote that Mr. Trump years earlier had encouraged him to infiltrate Columbia University and obtain Mr. Obamas records. She said the support she got from other teams was 'overwhelming. Mr. OKeefe earned about $387,000. How Times reporters cover politics. GOLDMAN: To my understanding, there was a disagreement in how Project Veritas should be run. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. Last year, the group received a $1 million contribution made through the law firm Alston & Bird, a financial document obtained by The New York Times showed. "Somebody who had his calendar conveyed to me that he goes to Tosca all the time," she said, and she passed the information on to a man she believed to be a Project Veritas operative with a fake name. GOLDMAN: Yes. DAVIES: Adam Goldman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times. They were, in fact, going to use a former Project Veritas operative named Tarah Price, who lives in the Dallas area, to, you know, possibly ensnare McMaster at a restaurant, get him to say something ill toward or maybe negative about Trump, something that would compromise him. 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. Both operations were run by Project Veritas, a conservative group that has gained attention using hidden cameras and microphones for sting operations on news organizations, Democratic politicians and liberal advocacy groups. Erik Prince, the failson face of privatized war If the face long associated with modern mercenaries were more successful at his business, we might already live in a much more dystopian world. After Mr. GOLDMAN: They were thwarting the president's agenda. Mr. 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. 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. But, you know, his sister is Betsy DeVos, and she was Secretary of Education during the Trump administration. 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. And they start trying to make inroads in the Wyoming Democratic Party. For example, the co-authors of the piece in dispute, Cole and Alex Emmons, say theyre New York and Washington, D.C., residents whove never been to Wyoming. Prince recruited Mr. Seddon to join the conservative group Project Veritas to teach espionage skills to its operatives and manage its undercover operations. GOLDMAN: It's not clear to me. New details reveal the ambitions of an operation intended to infiltrate opponents of Donald Trump, including moderate Republicans as well as progressives and Democrats. Meanwhile, Prince is once again registered as a Park County voter. Mark Gordon, who was viewed as a RINO in some Wyoming conservative circles. And Las Vegas was the - you could almost say it was the pinnacle, the apex of their operation. So he had pitched this idea of a private security force to largely replace American troops in Afghanistan. Other outlets, however, have continued writing about the contractor. GOLDMAN: Yeah, and the Justice Department prosecuted a number of individuals. You know, O'Keefe has clearly raised a lot of money, you know, millions of dollars. GOLDMAN: I don't know if misrepresenting yourself to - and getting a job at a Democratic organization is a crime. I'm not sure that just because he's a conservative, this is something he wanted to help. What kind of inroads did they make? Female undercover operatives tried to entrap FBI agents, sometimes using fake dating app profiles, and State Department employees, the Times reports. ADAM GOLDMAN: They went there after making sizable donations to the DNC, the Democratic National Committee - $10,000 each - at the request of a Colorado businessman who was a - he's a fundraiser for the Democrats and basically said, if you make this donation, you can come and hang out in Las Vegas. They've targeted CNN. The website for Mr. OKeefes coming wedding listed Donald Trump Jr. as an invited guest. And, you know, we've talked to people who have given to them, including people who gave smaller donations - right? And, of course, that was an entree into a larger circle of prominent Democrats. 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. So he's going to pop up in all sorts of different places. The Powell Tribune has expanded its online content. Their names are Beau Maier and Sofia LaRocca, and they're in Las Vegas for a Democratic primary debate. His willingness to support Mr. Seddons operation is fresh evidence of his engagement in political espionage projects at home during a period when he was an informal adviser to Trump administration officials. You know, in this recent story that you wrote with Mark Mazzetti of the Times, you introduce us to a couple. 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. Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, a private security contractor firm used extensively by the administration of George W Bush, is said to be "seriously considering" challenging Wyoming. By Derek Royden - July 2, 2021 2466 SOURCE NationofChange Mr. Seddon was a longtime British intelligence officer who served around the world, including in Washington in the years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. And they were doing this - it appears that they were doing this from the house where Beau and Sofia lived with others. There was a year-long lease that was signed that allowed Project Veritas to put its operatives in that fancy house. 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, saying he lied about the circumstances of his meeting with a Russian banker in the Seychelles in January 2017. 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