First, a correction. Earlier this week news broke that James O'Keefe had planned to use one of his traditionally bad scripts to incite protesters against police brutality to a violent response. In my article, I said the plan was for it to take place in Ferguson, Missouri. In fact, it was not Ferguson, but New York City.
More details have emerged which support ex-employee Richard Valdes' account of what he was expected to do.
Valdes said O'Keefe dictated a script to him and then told him to email it to the operative for use at the rally. Here's the full text of that script, according to emails provided to TPM by Valdes' attorney:
As a minority and a Muslim, I know what it's like when the police treat me unfairly. They have even searched my little daughter's body. Can you believe that? Do you know what it's like to have your rights violated because of the color of your skin or because of your name? -PAUSE-
Sometimes, I wish I could just kill some of these cops. Don't you just wish we could have one of the cops right here in the middle of our group? -PAUSE-
What would you do if we could get Officer Pantoleo (who killed Eric Garner) right here in this crowd? What would you do to him?
In a Jan. 9 email addressed to Valdes, O'Keefe, and other top Project Veritas employees, the undercover operative, Mohammed Alhomsi, apparently declined to carry out the assignment. The email cited both legal concerns and concerns about the language of the script in turning down the project. That email was among those provided to TPM by Valdes's attorney.
When TPM reached out for comment on these details and the allegation that he was not paid for his final week at Project Veritas in the same way ex-staffer Don Francisco was terminated, the tone of their response had changed considerably.
The first time around, Project Veritas categorically denied that they would ever do anything to incite violence against police officers. When contacted a second time, they responded this way:
“We can confirm that Rich Valdes is a former employee but beyond that we do not publicly discuss employment related matters,” spokesman Daniel Pollock wrote to TPM on Thursday in an email. “As to the alleged emails, we do not comment on past, present or future real, or imagined, investigations.”
O'Keefe's ultimate target wasn't the police. It was Al Sharpton. He was trying to nail Sharpton's group by trying to get someone on video saying they wanted to kill police officers. I'm all for undercover investigations, but not irresponsible, racist investigations paid for by irresponsible conservative donors.
O'Keefe's Project Veritas receives much of its funding through Donors' Trust, the conservative donor-advised fund created and managed by the Kochtopus. 2014 figures aren't available yet, but in 2013, Donors Trust gave O'Keefe's organization $230,000, representing over 20 percent of the total $1 million in grants he received.
James O'Keefe isn't going away any time soon. He's the go-to for conservative muckraking. If they're willing to drop a cool million on him in a non-election year, just imagine what they'll do in 2016.
