Jury Rules Against Project Veritas in Lawsuit

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Facts

  • On Thursday, a jury ruled against the conservative investigative organization Project Veritas, finding that the group violated wiretapping laws and fraudulently misrepresented itself in a sting operation against a Democratic political consulting firm.
  • The firm, Democracy Partners, was awarded $120K, though its co-founder, Robert Creamer, had sought $1M due to video footage released by Project Veritas in 2016 that painted the firm in a bad light.
  • Project Veritas reportedly sent an operative portraying a wealthy donor wanting to give $20K to Democracy Partners, then asking if his niece - a fellow operative - could intern for them. While interning, the niece taped conversations and took documents from the firm which were used in the released video.
  • Besides suggesting the firm attempted to provoke violence by Trump supporters, the video also purportedly showed the operative posing as "Charles Roth" to propose an unlawful voter registration plan that was rejected by Creamer.
  • The jury did rule in favor of Project Veritas on one count related to wiretapping laws, concurring with the group that their investigator "was a participant in all conversations she recorded."
  • The news comes after Project Veritas was also ordered to pay Stanford University $150K in legal fees after a judge rejected a defamation case the group filed against the school. The FBI has also investigated the group regarding the alleged purchase of Ashley Biden's stolen diary, though no charges have been brought to date.

Sources: Reuters, Washington Times, Chicago Tribune, and New York Times.

Narratives

  • Right narrative, as provided by PJ Media. Investigative journalists have always gone undercover to expose political malfeasance, and Project Veritas is no different than any liberal outlets that have done the same type of reporting. If it was a left-wing outlet, there would have been applause from the Democrat-friendly media ecosystem. Project Veritas clearly triggers the left with its guerilla style of journalism.
  • Left narrative, as provided by Washington Post. The goal of this "sting operation" was always to fraudulently portray Democratic organizations as corrupt to help the GOP win elections. With this penalty, hopefully, Project Veritas will put an end to its disingenuous content creation and shameless fronting for right-wing bad actors.