‘I have nothing to lose. It’s impossible to fire federal employees…’
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) Undercover journalist James O’Keefe and his Project Veritas have taken on everyone from ACORN to teachers’ unions, biased journalists, Twitter and crooked Clinton campaign workers.
His hidden-camera confessionals have both effected political reform and incurred the ire of shadow-dwelling forces of corruption.
Yet, his latest effort to take on ‘Deep State’ partisan activists at government agencies like the State Department may be O’Keefe’s most ambitious to date.
As The New York Times, whose leftist agenda was earlier exposed by O’Keefe, celebrates the secret ‘Resistance’ embedded within the Trump administration through the publication of anonymous missives, Project Veritas could play an instrumental role in shedding light on bureaucratic efforts to defraud taxpayers and undermine the political process.
On Tuesday, they unveiled the first installment in their latest investigation. O’Keefe explains in his introduction just what is at stake if such activities are not exposed. “These avowed socialists—this unelected cabal—would argue that they’re saving America, but by thwarting the will of the people what they’re actually doing is subverting our democracy and setting up a constitutional crisis.”
The video then introduces Stuart Karaffa, identified as a federal employee of the State Department, who confesses to doing activist work while on the job on behalf of the Democratic Socialists of America.
“I’m careful about it” Karaffa tells the undercover interviewers, while downing pints in a busy bar. “I don’t leave a paper trail, like I leave emails, and like any press s**t that comes up I leave that until after 5:30. But as soon as 5:31 hits, got my like draft messages ready to send out.”
A private Twitter account that appeared to belong to Karaffa confirmed his DSA association, while a website for his campaign to be Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner for D.C.’s Mount Pleasant area provided some details into his personal and professional life, saying he had “spent time in government and tech.”
The Chicago native said he is an eight-year resident of the D.C. area, “with no plans to move away anytime soon.”
In the video, Karaffa seems to pin his partisan activity on the Trump administration for cutting the data analysis project he was working on.
“It gives me so much more time and emotional bandwidth to do all this stuff,” he says.
According to his own accounts, this could mean spending three hours during his workday on the Virginia campaign finance website, doing research and drafting emails for the DSA, where he says he served as co-chair of the electoral caucus.
Between clips, O’Keefe brings on attorney Steve Klein, who explains that Karaffa’s actions constitute a violation of the Hatch Act “by engaging in political activity while working for the federal government.”
Although the interviewers press Karaffa on how he is able to conceal his tracks, he seems self-assured with his ability to game the system.
“I have nothing to lose. It’s impossible to fire federal employees,” he says.
He boasts that even when disclosing his political offices on an annual financial disclosure form designed to safeguard ethical practices, “somebody just rubber stamps it and it goes forward… and so, now I can look back and be like, ‘You know, the ethics officer, he was aware of what I was doing.'”
O’Keefe also interviews Judicial Watch’s Bill Marshall, who says the key to reform is that “government employees need to do their jobs.”
“If this employee’s supervisor isn’t carefully reviewing the form and its contents, and enforcing them, then it serves no purpose other than to provide cover for the employee’s nefarious activities while he’s on government time.”
O’Keefe closes with the promise of much more to come.
“It’s necessary for us to unmask them, to personify them, to put a face to the individuals who seek to undermine the fabric our republic.”