James O'Keefe

6. N.P.R. CALLS THE TEA PARTY RACIST
In 2011, members of Project Veritas (James couldn’t go because he was on probation) taped a fake meeting with men pretending to be from the Muslim Brotherhood. The NPR exec said that “Tea Party people” aren’t “just Islamophobic, but really xenophobic, I mean basically they are, they believe in sort of white, middle-America gun-toting. I mean, it’s pretty scary. They’re seriously racist, racist people.” He was later fired.
Detractors say: He was just harmlessly flirting with investors trying to get money.
James’s defense: “If it was so harmless, why was he fired? The Blaze came down on us really hard for this and I think it’s because Scott Baker over there had beef with my mentor Andrew Breitbart. Media Matters vetted the full tapes and said we were in the right. I think Breitbart was really disturbed by The Blaze’s coverage.”

7. DRUG DEALERS GET MEDICAID
Also in 2011, two guys from Project Veritas claimed to be incredibly wealthy drug dealers and demanded Medicaid. They were told this wouldn’t be a problem. In the video for this exposé James included footage of the race cars the drug dealers pretended to own.
Detractors say: Daily Kos said the footage he used of the race cars was a copyright violation because he didn’t have the Discovery Channel’s permission to use it.
James’s defense: “This is probably the most insane criticism of my work to date. They are more worried about race-car footage rights than the truth.”

8. VOTER FRAUD IS RAMPANT
In 2012, Project Veritas’s John Buckley caught Democratic Virginia Rep. Jim Moran’s son explaining various ways to commit voter fraud. Soon after, three members of Project Veritas were granted ballots after using the names of dead people and providing no ID at all. Andrew Breitbart said this act was the most consequential move James ever made and its impact will resonate for a very long time.
Detractors say: Patrick Moran was just kidding and what James did with those ballots was illegal.
James’s defense: “As usual, if you listen to the tape, it’s very clear what happened. Patrick doesn’t sound anything like a person who’s kidding. Afterwards, we had a sheriff call us demanding the Patrick tape and we told him it was already online in full. He said he wants it without the subtitles and we refused because we’ve seen what happens to footage when the authorities get their hands on it. Later, the sheriff claimed we were not cooperative and refused to release the ‘unedited’ footage. This was then spun into us being ‘discredited.’ As far as the illegality of the second act, what we did with the ballots was not illegal because we never actually accepted them. However, why is that the first priority of the press? To determine whether we accepted the ballots or not is irrelevant to the story. The truth is, voter fraud is much easier than we are being led to believe.”

9. GUN-FREE ZONES AREN’T SO APPEALING
In 2013, about eight members of Project Veritas tried to put “Gun Free Zone” signs on the lawn of Westchester, NY’s The Journal News after the paper published the names of law-abiding gun owners. The newspaper refused.  
Detractors say: Nothing.
James’s defense: “It’s like the Gandhi thing in reverse. He said, ‘First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win.’ They used to fight me and now they just ignore me. I’ll still win in the end.”

10. FREE CELL-PHONE PROGRAM IS CORRUPT
After James was released from probation in 2013, he and four other members from Project Veritas approached companies who were giving out free cell phones under the Obama plan. They discovered the phones were being sold for drug money and other luxuries. They also discovered it’s the cell-phone CEOs who were really benefiting from these programs, not the poor.
Detractors say: James O’Keefe is a “discredited journalist.”
James’s defense: “They say we used actors with the NJ teachers so that was staged. They add that we wouldn’t give our tape to the sheriff and these false allegations eventually add up to ‘discredited.’ They’re using conjecture to permanently condemn me and I’m using actual video to condemn them. Lies run sprints, however, and I’m optimistic about the future. I’m in the thick of it and I can see we’re at a turning point”€”with younger people especially. It’s not political. It’s cultural and it’s against the system of corruption we have in this country. The information age is getting the truth out and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it. It’s only a matter of time.”