The announcement of O’Keefe’s ouster comes after weeks of internal discord at Project Veritas and apparent conflicts between O’Keefe and other leaders of the conservative watchdog group. O’Keefe was suspended by his board earlier this month after he attempted to fire the group’s chief strategy and financial officers over alleged conflicts over fundraising.
In the video Monday, O’Keefe also noted that his ouster came on the heels of the release of an undercover video that allegedly showed a Pfizer research director expressing concerns about Covid-19 vaccines and acknowledging that his company planned to mutate the coronavirus through “directed evolution.” On Monday, O’Keefe called the Pfizer sting the “biggest story in our organization’s history,” but stopped short of stating directly that it was connected to his downfall. There has been speculation on social media that O’Keefe was ousted from Project Veritas to protect the organization from legal fallout from the videos.
“That is the only thing that has changed,” O’Keefe said of the release of the Pfizer sting. “And then, suddenly, an unusual emergency happened just a few days after that.”
O’Keefe has also faced scrutiny from some of his workers. On February 6, an 11-page letter signed by 16 Project Veritas employees – and including opinions and anecdotes allegedly from a third of the nonprofit’s staffers – was sent to the board taking aim at O’Keefe’s “management style and business acumen.” In the letter, O’Keefe was described as a “power drunk tyrant” and a “diva,” who abused, bullied, demeaned, and over-worked his employees, and who caused concerns among donors.
Top photo: James O'Keefe with Hannah Giles at a 2009 press conference in the early days of Project Veritas. The pair had posed as a pimp and prostitute looking for a loan to open a brothel, and their hidden camera videos led to the downfall of the community group ACORN (AP).
