James O’Keefe is an award-winning journalist and writer. He is the founder and President of both Project Veritas and Project Veritas Action, non-profit organizations dedicated to investigating corruption, dishonesty, waste and fraud in both public and private institutions.
James O’Keefe’s investigations have led directly to the passage of new legislation, federal and state investigations, congressional inquiries, the defunding of taxpayer-funded groups, resignations, firings, restrainings, arrests and disciplinary action.
O’Keefe’s series of voter fraud exposés inspired several states to reform their election laws, forced resignations in Washington, and pushed FBI and Department of Justice officials to defend themselves before federal lawmakers.
His investigation into ACORN led to the group’s collapse. He caused a Planned Parenthood Vice President to be fired, National Public Radio executives to be fired, an Enroll America director to be fired, Medicaid worker retrainings, an investigation into Battleground Texas, and Congressional field hearings into Obamacare navigator fraud.
The Nation magazine wrote, “O’Keefe’s influence on voting rights opponents and legislators alike is particularly jarring.” Slate.com agreed, “O’Keefe has had more of an impact on the 2012 election than any other journalist.”
In 2013, O’Keefe authored New York Times bestseller, Breakthrough: Our Guerilla War to Expose Fraud and Save Democracy, the inside story of the challenges he faced bringing his powerful new form of guerilla reporting to the forefront.
In May of 2014, O’Keefe released videos at the Cannes Film Festival showing Hollywood environmentalists agreeing to take money from phony Middle Eastern oil tycoons to fund anti-fracking movies. The videos prompted a U.S. Senate investigation into the funding sources of NGOs.
During the summer of 2014, an investigation by Project Veritas transformed the discussion on national security. Dressed as Osama bin Laden, James O’Keefe crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico into the United States. In a follow-up video, Project Veritas exposed the lack of security at the northern border as an investigator dressed as an ISIS terrorist crossed Lake Erie into Cleveland. In his grilling of officials from the Department of Homeland Security, Senator John McCain referenced the investigations as proof of the failure to secure the border.
Heading into the crucial fall elections of 2014, James O’Keefe launched Project Veritas Action, which launched investigations in four key Senate battleground states to expose the hypocrisy of candidates who were saying one thing to the voters and something entirely different to their close supporters. All four Senate candidates exposed by O’Keefe lost their races, some by incredibly narrow margins.
In 2015, O’Keefe oversaw the expansion of both Project Veritas and Project Veritas Action, providing the vision and direction for projects that increased the training, professionalism, and reach of both organizations. During the expansion, both organizations released impactful investigations. Most notably, Project Veritas conducted investigations of the Veterans Administration, political correctness on campus, and the corruption within the racial grievance industry. Project Veritas Action reported on multiple instances of the Hillary Clinton campaign violating state and federal campaign law.
During the 2016 election cycle, both Project Veritas and Project Veritas Action released videos exposing key Democrats not only admitting that voter fraud exists, but also showing how to successfully commit it on a massive scale. One result was that a New York City Democratic election commissioner was forced out of his position by Mayor de Blasio and the New York Assembly.
O’Keefe also released videos exposing how the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton worked with consultants to organize paid protesters at Trump rallies, which sometimes erupted in violence. The investigation into Democracy Partners caused two key Democratic operatives to resign, sparked a response from the White House, and caused Donald Trump to bring up the videos in the final presidential debate. O’Keefe was ultimately credited with having a significant impact on the 2016 presidential elections for his October Surprise video series.
In the Summer of 2017, O'Keefe began his American Pravda video investigation series which focused on revealing the bias and hidden motivations at mainstream media companies. The American Pravda: CNN series exposing directives to drive a "Russia narrative" made national headlines, was mentioned by White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders during a press briefing. The American Pravda: New York Times series led New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet to call O'Keefe "despicable."
O’Keefe is a graduate of Rutgers University. He founded an independent newspaper in College called The Centurion. He is a 2014 recipient of the Young Professional Conservative Leadership “Buckley Award” awarded to “young professionals in recognition of significant achievements in advancing the conservative cause.” He is the recipient of the Robert Novak Award for Journalistic Excellence (2011), has been named “Fox News Power Player of the Week” twice, and was on the Forbes “30 Under 30” for media moguls.
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