Reacting to the news that James O’Keefe tried to get one of his “undercover operatives” to incite New York City protesters to kill police, Tbogg writes at Raw Story that the conservative hidden camera ‘activist’ is not just evil, but also dangerous.
It is worth noting that O’Keefe named his grifting empire Project Veritas [truth], which makes as much sense as calling a fracking company “Rainbow Starshine Tiny Kitten Recovery Service,” although, to be fair, fracking is considerably less toxic than O’Keefe.
His latest scam — and the people who sent him money to fund this escapade should be really super super proud and tell all of their friends – was to try and get a cop killed in New York City because: racism. And Muslims. And truth. And something else, freedom probably.
Tbogg has barely touched on what is the single most important question to ask about O’Keefe: who funds him? For example, O’Keefe’s past work has been supported by such far-right players as the John Bircheresque Bradley Foundation and Wisconsin dark money mogul Eric O’Keefe (no relation). At Crooks and Liars, Karoli highlights another source of funds: the infamous Koch brothers.
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.
Charles and David Koch promise to spend as much as $900 million in the 2016 elections cycle. Their organization’s support of Project Veritas is just a drop in that enormous bucket. Compared to the hard and expensive work of turning out voters at the polls, fake evidence of voting fraud is incredibly cheap to procure, justifying all manner of creative new restrictions and poll taxes designed to suppress the vote. And where do Republican politicians come up with these bills? Why, the Koch brothers have an entire organization devoted to making such cookie-cutter legislation available to them. See how that works?
James O’Keefe is dangerous, but he is a greater peril for democracy than some poor, random police officer.
OKeefe should have been prosecuted for the manufactured hit on ACORN, where he violated Maryland’s two party consent law. But no, law enforcement let him slide and he has left a wave of destruction in his wake, along with a host of civil suits, mostly from his own employees. Shame on the Koch’s and Donors Trust for funding a criminal who has no commitment to the truth.