(Ken Silva, Headline USA) In March 2023, former FBI agent and ex-Project Veritas contractor Jared Wise messaged his former colleague, James O’Keefe, with a proposal to secretly record agents talking about the bureau’s politically motivated investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Hill uprising.
Weeks later, Wise was arrested for his own involvement with Jan. 6. Adding insult to injury, O’Keefe went on to publicly accuse Wise of trying to entrap him.
But when O’Keefe aired his accusations against Wise, the Project Veritas founder didn’t disclose that the two knew each other and previously worked together. Instead, O’Keefe portrayed Wise as a total stranger who may have been cooperating with the FBI to entrap him.
Now that his Jan. 6 criminal woes are over—he went to trial earlier this month, but the DOJ dropped the case on the same day as Donald Trump’s inauguration—Wise said finally feels free to respond to O’Keefe’s allegations. In an exclusive interview with Headline USA, Wise responded to what he feels are defamatory remarks from O’Keefe.
“The idea I was trying to entrap him on behalf of the FBI is 100% ludicrous and false. I haven’t yielded an inch to the FBI in my J6 trial,” he said, adding that his proposal to O’Keefe was entirely legal. “In fact, it was the opposite: I was purposely obstinate.”
From FBI to Project Veritas and Jan. 6
After a roughly 13-year career with the FBI that saw him work for the FBI New York Field Office’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, Wise left the bureau in 2017. About a year later, Wise worked as a Project Veritas contractor from February to May 2018, helping a group of Project Veritas operatives who were assigned to infiltrate teacher unions in Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Kentucky.
Wise said he didn’t think he left Project Veritas on bad terms with O’Keefe—as evidence by the fact that O’Keefe purportedly invited him to one of his events in 2020.
“We crossed paths once or twice after I left and before I contacted him [in 2023] with my proposal, and it was friendly,” Wise said. “I think he’s done fantastic work, and I’ll give James credit: He created a whole industry. But once I got there, I told him I think they’re reckless. I just would have done things differently.”
Wise said he decided to contact O’Keefe in 2023 because he recently spoke to an active-duty FBI agent, who was disgruntled about the bureau’s Jan. 6 work.
“I think the agent just reached out to me in good faith and complained about things I saw. He just wanted to vent. He didn’t say anything improper. I don’t think he knew I had any connection to Jan. 6 because I hadn’t been arrested yet,” Wise told this publication.
Wise said his conversation with the FBI agent inspired him to reach out to O’Keefe, who was still with Project Veritas. O’Keefe declined to pursue the project, according to Wise.
Then, when O’Keefe left Project Veritas and started a new venture, O’Keefe Media Group, Wise said he reached out to him again—spurring O’Keefe to publicly accuse him of entrapment.
Arrested FBI Agent Previously Sought to Ensnare O’Keefe in Plot to Record Bureau
Jered Wise, former Special Agent in NY stated in Signal messages that our work recording teachers union officials was “reckless”
“I want to record current FBI Personnel” pic.twitter.com/UOZDq5sWYv
— O’Keefe Media Group (@OKeefeMedia) May 4, 2023
“We don’t know if this is a set-up. We don’t know if he’s cooperating with the FBI to try to get me, to try to hurt me—because perhaps he could ensure me in some legal issue if I do an undercover investigation into the FBI,” O’Keefe said in a video on Twitter/X—failing to disclose his previous professional relationship with Wise. O’Keefe again accused Wise of a possible entrapment scheme on a Twitter/X “spaces” event later that day.
Wise said he was taken aback by O’Keefe’s unfounded accusations. He requested a retraction from O’Keefe twice, but was ignored. He also drafted a lawsuit against O’Keefe, but never filed it—largely because of his then-looming J6 criminal trial.
“I was serious about suing, but it’s too late now. There’s a one-year statute of limitations in Oregon. It’s ironic: I wrote it with intent to file, and then as we approached the one-yr limit, we had J6 hearing. The judge set the first trial date, and I didn’t have energy to file lawsuit. I should have done it earlier, I guess,” he said.
Even though it’s too late for a lawsuit, Wise said he wants to set the record straight.
“Going through this experience was horrible, and then to see people like James and [attorney] William Shipley make false accusations on Twitter. It’s really disappointing to see that coming from your own side,” he said—referring to Shipley’s false statement that he was asked to leave the FBI.
“One of my biggest fears was people thinking I was undercover. It became pretty clear that was not what I was doing. I’ve bucked [the DOJ] and fought them every second of this process,” he added.
I’ve waited nearly two years to respond to this defamatory post from an attorney who represented many #J6 defendants. He made this careless, 100% false claim about me just two days after my arrest for charges related to J6.
As a former @FBI agent, being arrested was horrible… https://t.co/GA7wqP1MFQ
— Jared Wise (@TheWiseJared) January 22, 2025
Wise said he plans to reveal more information about Jan. 6 to reporter Julie Kelly soon. O’Keefe did not respond to a media inquiry for this story.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
