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. She was attending, you know, Democratic fundraisers. These two are conservatives, right? But before the parties get to the lawsuits merits, The Intercept is contending, among other arguments, that Wyoming is not the right place for the case to be heard. }else{ If he enters the race, he would be challenging Republican incumbent John Barrasso in the 2018 primaries, with the encouragement of Steve Bannon. He's been reporting on an effort by conservatives to train operatives in undercover operations to infiltrate progressive groups and Democrats. You know, Princes are pretty savvy. GOLDMAN: That's a good question. Prince appears to have become interested in using former spies to train Project Veritas operatives in espionage tactics sometime during the 2016 presidential campaign. They targeted somebody from the Justice Department, and I wrote they also targeted FBI employees. And it's a fascinating story. Those contentions have become a key point of early proceedings in the case. While the state is currently solidly Republican, Mr. Seddon and Ms. Gore believed it was in danger of turning toward the Democrats, as Colorado has. GOLDMAN: Yeah, I would say an active - sure, an active player in certain parts of Trump's world, yeah, or conservative - the conservative world. There is little publicly available information about the company, but multiple Prince ventures, including Blackwater, have been based out of Moyock, North Carolina. Erik Prince decides that Project Veritas needs something new. However, lawyers for the publication say they should not have to reveal who told them about Princes alleged meeting with Wagner Group or where they were told it occurred. DAVIES: Right. } Funneling money surreptitiously to campaigns through other donors known as straw man donations would violate federal campaign finance laws. The Defense Department didn't go for it. If you would like to purchase a subscription click here. McMaster? 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. They had a - someone came to the Post. But we were unaware of that. And they would find people, and they would go out with them. Citing his ties to the state, his attorneys opted to file Princes defamation case against The Intercept in Wyomings U.S. District Court in May. I knew something was off immediately. Erik Prince doesn't live in the state, he's from the same party as the incumbent, Sen. John Barrasso, and he's best known for founding a private security firm, Blackwater, that was kicked out of . I believe he was involved in an effort to battle pirates in Somalia. As education secretary, Ms. DeVos has been a vocal critic of teachers unions, saying in 2018 that they have a stranglehold over politicians at the federal and state levels. Other Project Veritas employees on the emails include Joe Halderman, an award-winning former television producer who in 2010 pleaded guilty to trying to extort $2 million from the comedian David Letterman. met with White House and Pentagon officials. In 2017, he met with White House and Pentagon officials to pitch a plan to privatize the Afghan war using contractors in lieu of American troops. Mr. OKeefe earned about $387,000. And this was not - you know, James O'Keefe has said Project Veritas was unaware of this, and they adamantly deny knowing anything about this. DAVIES: They'd gotten formal training in this. You'd have to ask Mr. O'Keefe. If Judge Johnson concludes he lacks jurisdiction to hear the case in Wyoming, Princes attorneys say the suit should be transferred to the Southern District of New York, where The Intercept is based. 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. And, you know, there were a whole range of people they went after. DAVIES: That's an airport in Cody, Wyo. '&charset='+document.characterSet : '')); The job put her in a position to gain valuable information about which Republican candidates the group was supporting with independent advertising. And they will get, you know, negative information from public records. DAVIES: Right. This is FRESH AIR. DAVIES: Did any of them have opinions about whether these two had done damage? And GOLDMAN: Involving Roy Moore - exactly. 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. You know, this is something we haven't seen, right? Ms. Jorge was eventually exposed and kicked out of the campaign office. But her picture was on this website. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. "He's a very nice man," Prince said of Barrasso in the Breitbart interview. DAVIES: Right. Mr. Seddon launched his privately funded spying effort after leaving Project Veritas in 2018. It was Maria (ph). DAVIES: Adam Goldman, thank you so much for speaking with us. - trying to find, you know, damaging information on, you know, on political rivals, you know, using, you know, private investigative firms. Wapiti resident Erik Prince is one of several people associated with a Wyoming-based effort to infiltrate political campaigns and get "dirt" to sabotage candidates. Regardless, Princes residency is not the real issue in the case. Mr. Seddon was not. DAVIES: Right. He added, With Trump getting 70 percent of the vote, it shows how the Democrats have been able to control our elections with putting on a Republican coat., Mr. Gordon took office in January 2019. He was the one who replaced Michael Flynn after he was fired. This is FRESH AIR. GOLDMAN: To my understanding, there was a disagreement in how Project Veritas should be run. GOLDMAN: It's not clear to me. Prince and former British spy Richard Seddon both did work for the organization. Read more about the operation and its cast of characters at The New York Times. One celebrated alum: Betsy DeVos's brother, Erik Prince, 49, the swashbuckling military contractor who has come to the serious attention of investigators looking into the Trump team's alleged. GOLDMAN: I believe that O'Keefe has interacted with Trump. He did not respond to follow-up phone messages or an email. It was unclear whether Mr. Seddon was involved in planning that operation. So he's certainly moved in this world before. And then they married last week. For instance, Princes 2014 memoir said he splits his time between homes in Virginia and Abu Dhabi, where he pursues a variety of business ventures.. Other outlets, however, have continued writing about the contractor. Now, you mentioned Project Veritas. And that was their logo. I don't know. And it's not clear to us if he was making any money off of this. And we actually - I, you know, I - Mark and I reached out to our - one of great political reporters, Jonathan Martin, and asked him, you know. Prince invited Project Veritas operatives including Mr. OKeefe to his familys Wyoming ranch for training in 2017, The Intercept reported last year. DAVIES: Right. That same day Oct. 9, 2017 Prince obtained a Wyomings drivers license, which he touted in another interview with Breitbart a few days later. 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. GOLDMAN: You know, individuals - we're not exactly sure who was behind this effort - but it's clear that they believe that, you know, H.R. 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. What were they trying to get? GOLDMAN: Yeah, and the Justice Department prosecuted a number of individuals. Mr. 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.. DAVIES: But Sofia was just - she was active. Reached by phone, Ms. Halverson said: Frankly, I have nothing to say on the subject. She then hung up. You know, there was one exercise, I believe, where they had a cop - you know, a local cop who was there. 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. if (document.MAX_used != ',') document.write ("&exclude=" + document.MAX_used); McMaster. DAVIES: That's the Government Accountability Office. So flesh out the picture a bit. And as I was reporting this, somebody said, well, you know, her picture, you know, she's on that website. Erik Prince, founder of private security contractor Blackwater and brother of former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, recruited a former British spy in 2016 to professionalize the undercover operatives at Project Veritas, the conservative sting video shop run by James O'Keefe, The New York Times reports, citing documents and people involved in the subsequent operations to discredit perceived "deep state" enemies of former President Donald Trump inside the U.S. government. It also seems, to me, murky. This is FRESH AIR. It's not clear to me how close he is to Trump. But, you know, over 18, they - it grew closer. And, you know, I'm not sure when the relationship started. DAVIES: And when we say they targeted these public officials or FBI agents, what would they do? document.write ('&cb=' + m3_r); Beyond involving a different pool of jurors and a different judge, Prince may have a better chance of learning the identity of The Intercepts sources if the case stays in Wyoming, where there is no specific shield law protecting the confidentiality of reporters sources. And so we're all familiar with that, I think, to some extent. Did it expand the number of people that they had? There was a billionaire in - well, a very - I don't know if he was a billionaire. 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. Although he owns a home in Wapiti, Prince is not generally known as a Wyoming businessman. His contributions to the 2022 Whitney Biennial, on view through Sept. 5 three fanciful portraits of Erik Prince, the financier and founder of the private security firm Blackwater depict a. In a Jan. 15 order, U.S. District Court Judge Alan Johnson of Cheyenne tossed out Prince's defamation lawsuit against The Intercept. Erik Prince, founder of private . Comments ( 40) Last week, the New York Times reported that Erik Prince is considering running to represent Wyoming in the United States Senate. 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. Prince has previously been involved in trying to find dirt on Democratic politicians. They broke into the DNC. 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. How Times reporters cover politics. Prince and Mr. Seddon said the goal of the private spying operation was to gather dirt both on Democrats and RINOs slang in conservative circles for Republicans in name only. The plan was to begin in Wyoming, they said, and expand operations from there. Prince grew up in Michigan, where their father made a fortune in the auto parts business. Later that year, Mr. GOLDMAN: Erik Prince is the well-known founder of Blackwater, the security contractors who were involved in the massacre in Iraq. Their names are Beau Maier and Sofia LaRocca, and they're in Las Vegas for a Democratic primary debate. It is, instead, an entity dedicated to a specific political agenda.. 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. 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. And he ends up giving, you know, $6,000 to Wyoming Democratic Party and also money to other political figures. But they thanked us for bringing, you know, putting some sunlight on this. DAVIES: That's a really fascinating example of the power of, you know, database reporting now because you knew they were doing the thing in Georgetown, but their campaign contributions in Wyoming have to be publicly reported. 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. And so I was able to piece that together. GOLDMAN: They were thwarting the president's agenda. That was the idea. They targeted The Washington Post. var m3_u = (location.protocol=='https:'? In 2018, Ms. Jorge infiltrated the congressional campaign of Ms. Spanberger, posing as a campaign volunteer. (Last week, Trump pardoned the four Blackwater guards who were convicted of crimes in connection with the killings in Baghdad.). A spokesman for Mr. There was a meeting at lunch which led to a resignation, I believe, of GOLDMAN: They targeted our editor, Dean Baquet. Mr. Princes role in the effort, which has not been previously disclosed, sheds further light on how a group of ultraconservative Republicans employed spycraft to try to manipulate the American political landscape. What does that tell us about Erik Prince? Erik Prince Recruits Ex-Spies to Help Infiltrate Liberal Groups, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/07/us/politics/erik-prince-project-veritas.html. zoneId = '3'; 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. 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. Over the past year and a half, The New York Times has reported on an effort by conservatives to train operatives in undercover spy techniques to infiltrate progressive groups, political campaigns, unions and the offices of Democratic and moderate Republican elected officials. Over two years, Mr. Seddons undercover operatives also developed networks in Colorado and Arizona, and made thousands of dollars in campaign donations posing as Democrats, both to the Democratic National Committee and individual campaigns. So what I'm saying is from Richard Seddon's standpoint, the fact that she had a picture up on Project Veritas Exposed, that was a real risk they were taking, right? And Glenn Beck, Beau's uncle, gave a toast. And they admitted doing, you know - engaging in political activity while working for these government institutions, which Project Veritas asserted was, you know, wrong or even, you know - I can't remember if they said it was illegal or not. Park County records show he also skipped Augusts primary election, but Prince said he had intended to vote in Wyoming this year. Prince said he learned he wasnt registered when I went to cast my early vote for the general election in late September. Is that what these interviews were about? Why were they targeting H.R. GOLDMAN: Well, I don't know if he is primarily the guy. Part of it involved a rented, rather large house in Georgetown in Washington, D.C., right? From 1986 through the present, hes made roughly 100 contributions totaling more than $630,000 to Republican causes and Congressional candidates, according to Federal Election Commission records. To have erik prince wyoming ranch interested in using former spies to train Project Veritas needs something.. Sometime during the 2016 presidential campaign much for speaking with us president 's agenda + )... - it grew closer his privately funded spying effort after leaving Project operatives... 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