Project Veritas beg-a-thon

Project Veritas, two days after James O’Keefe effectively conceded his ouster from that firm, now is begging people to stay. This demonstrably includes its donors (large and small) and followers, and might also include significant numbers of staff. CNAV now has to ask, as others are asking: whom do Project Veritas’ current leaders think they’re kidding?

Latest Project Veritas communication

At 9:01 a.m. EST yesterday, your editor received this email from “The Project Veritas Team.”

Jack Posobiec at The Post Millennial got a copy of the same letter and has already shared his summary of it.

“Poso” reveals that the composer of the letter is one Bethany Rolando, one of sixteen disgruntled employees who tried to get James O’Keefe fired earlier. The sixteen allegedly sent a letter to the Board, detailing a whining litany of trivial gripes against James O’Keefe. (Apologies to Herman Wouk.)

In the only positive content from this email, Project Veritas included a link to this video. In it one of their attorneys responds to yet another altercation arising out of the “Pfizer Incident.”

The letter makes a number of points that struck CNAV as highly dubious at best, insufferably presumptuous at worst. It begins by expressing the Team’s “love and respect” for Mr. O’Keefe and the “hope” that he will “return.” That should strike anyone as mendacious enough, given the whining gripes letter. But then the letter repeats the Board’s accusations against him, which they set forth in a statement last Monday. The accusations are:

1. Firing Chief Financial Officer Tom O’Hara “unilaterally,” allegedly contrary to the bylaws,
2. Self-dealing [the letter doesn’t mention the amount, but the allegations in the statement sum up to less than $250,000], and
3. An apparent allegation of maltreatment of staff in a leadership call on 31 January 2023.

Twenty employees leaving in each of seven years?

The letter goes on to say that Project Veritas has lost 140 employees over seven years – twenty a year. It says some of these employees were fired – and doesn’t specify who fired them. It even speaks of “legal expenses” arising out of “some” of the firings. In a particularly puzzling allegation, the letter says 20 of the 140 were high enough up in management to compromise the organization’s succession plan. Twenty senior management departures in seven years should not have to compromise a succession plan. If someone whom such a plan names must leave, someone else updates the plan within a day. Simple as.

The letter also repeats the statement that someone (actually the Board said it was they themselves) “invited” Mr. O’Keefe “to engage in conversations with the Board and management.” As CNAV said two days ago, that’s not what James O’Keefe said. He told his staff that the Board forbade him to converse with anyone at the company. Since that would be a Board resolution, the Board’s minutes should reflect that. So either Mr. O’Keefe is lying, or the Board is – and so is Bethany Rolando.

On one thing everyone agrees. O’Keefe, terrifically angry with the Board for their treatment of him, sent them an ultimatum. In words of one or two syllables, his letter translates as:

Either all of you go, or I go!

They wouldn’t go, so he went. And apparently many other staff are ready to go out with him. That’s the Board’s problem.

Give us a chance!?

The release of the video relating to the Pfizer Incident can only have the intent of supporting this language:

We hope that you might continue to give us a chance. We can’t stress how separate the board’s role is from daily operations here at PV. We are still grinding and pursuing stories of great public importance.

In either case, thank you so much for your support in the past and we hope we might regain your trust if you’ll give us a chance.

CNAV takes the official position that that would be impossible. Judgment in this sordid affair comes down, as is often the case, to credibility of the parties and witnesses. In CNAV’s estimation, Project Veritas destroyed their credibility by lending credence to an allegation of maltreatment of a donor. An allegation the donor herself refuted. Andy Ngô tweeted out her interview with Dinesh D’Souza and her husband’s email, both refuting the allegation.

Liars are not believed, forsooth, even when liars tell the truth. Aesop

Incredibly, the Board seems ready to stand by the initial allegation, and cite it along with:

• The whining collection of trivial gripes, and
• Allegations of self-dealing that amount to a trifle even in comparison to Mr. O’Keefe’s likely annual salary.

More to the point, everyone knows that James O’Keefe is Project Veritas!

Or was. Now that James O’Keefe is out, Project Veritas is no more. Despite any statement to the contrary, this is a company that has already gone under.