The FBI searched the home of Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe on Saturday, about a day after the agency executed a search warrant at homes belonging to Veritas associates.
In a statement to The Epoch Times about whether O’Keefe’s home was searched, an FBI spokesperson confirmed that “a court-authorized law enforcement action” was carried out “in furtherance of an ongoing investigation.”
Project Veritas has not responded to a request for comment on whether O’Keefe’s home was targeted. O’Keefe has not made any public statements on whether his home was searched and instead posted a video of him reading a chapter from George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984.”
O’Keefe neighbor Jimmy Maynes confirmed to local New York media that the Veritas founder’s home in Mamaroneck was searched by federal law enforcement agents, which lasted several hours on Saturday.
“They asked for James,” he said. “I thought they were banging on my door. I opened the door.”
“Agents told me to close the door and I closed the door,” Maynes added. “That’s exactly what happened. It was still dark.”
Brent Mickol, another neighbor who lives across the hall, said the agents announced “something along the lines of ‘FBI Warrant. Open up,’” he was quoted by the New York Post as saying.
In a statement on Friday uploaded to YouTube, O’Keefe confirmed that the FBI is investigating his group and conducted searches at the homes of current and former Project Veritas journalists. Although he was told in a grand jury indictment to not talk about the search, O’Keefe said that New York Times reporters contacted Project Veritas reporters for comment soon after the raids were carried out, begging the question as to how the NY Times obtained information about the searches.
“Apartment and homes of Project Veritas journalists and former journalists had been raided by FBI agents,” he said, adding that he believes the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York is targeting the group.
Late last year, Project Veritas was contacted by individuals who claimed to have obtained a copy of a diary belonging to Ashley Biden, President Joe Biden’s youngest daughter, he added in the video. Alleged tipsters told the organization that the diary was found “abandoned in a room” after she left and that the diary contained “explosive allegations against then-presidential candidate Joe Biden,” O’Keefe continued.
Project Veritas never published the contents of the diary, although other media did in 2020. Instead, his group turned over the diary to law enforcement.
“At the end of the day, we made the ethical decision that because, in part, we could not determine if the diary was real, if the diary in fact belonged to Ashley Biden, or if the contents of the diary occurred, we could not publish the diary and any part thereof,” O’Keefe said Friday.
Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times
