His willingness to support Mr. Seddons operation is fresh evidence of his engagement in political espionage projects at home during a period when he was an informal adviser to Trump administration officials. Key figures in the operation are a former British spy named Richard Seddon and private security contractor Erik Prince, a staunch supporter of Donald Trump. Erik Prince, the former head of Blackwater Worldwide and the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, has at times served as an informal adviser to Trump administration officials. In 2010, Mr. O Keefe and three others pleaded guilty to a federal misdemeanor after admitting they entered a government building in New Orleans under false pretenses as part of a sting. "Somebody who had his calendar conveyed to me that he goes to Tosca all the time," she said, and she passed the information on to a man she believed to be a Project Veritas operative with a fake name. GOLDMAN: You know, individuals - we're not exactly sure who was behind this effort - but it's clear that they believe that, you know, H.R. DAVIES: We need to take a break here. And we all sort of wracked our brains to try to figure out if, like, has this been done before? zoneId = '8'; There was eventually litigation about that, wasn't there? And this is FRESH AIR. Accuracy and availability may vary. Erik Prince, a Park County resident and founder of the controversial private military firm Blackwater, is suing a national news organization in federal court in Wyoming after it published an. Last year, the group received a $1 million contribution made through the law firm Alston & Bird, a financial document obtained by The New York Times showed. In August 2017, Ms. Jorge wrote to Mr. Seddon that she had managed to record a local union leader talking about Ms. DeVos and other topics. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. And the operatives had to give a - you know, had to give a cover story under duress. If you would like to purchase a subscription click here. ADAM GOLDMAN: They went there after making sizable donations to the DNC, the Democratic National Committee - $10,000 each - at the request of a Colorado businessman who was a - he's a fundraiser for the Democrats and basically said, if you make this donation, you can come and hang out in Las Vegas. We'll continue our conversation in just a moment. What kind of inroads did they make? Erik Prince, founder of private security contractor Blackwater and brother of former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, recruited a former British spy in 2016 to professionalize the undercover operatives at Project Veritas, the conservative sting video shop run by James O'Keefe, The New York Times reports, citing documents and people involved in the subsequent operations to discredit perceived "deep state" enemies of former President Donald Trump inside the U.S. government. DAVIES: Did any of them have opinions about whether these two had done damage? He is married to an American diplomat, Alice Seddon, who is serving in the American consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. And they would secretly record them, you know, and create content and then eventually, you know, release a video, like they did in several instances. If you are a current print subscriber, you can set up a free web account by clicking here. The documents give new details about efforts to manipulate the politics of Wyoming. Erik Prince Helped Raise Money for Conservative Spy Venture, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/08/us/politics/erik-prince-spy-operation-trump-democrats.html. Mr. Mr. Seddon wrote that Ms. Jorge copied a great many documents from the file room, and Mr. OKeefe bragged that the group would be able to get a ton more access agents inside the educational establishment.. Is this stuff a crime? He was asked whether he had provided any of the groups secret recordings of Democracy Partners to the Republican National Committee or any member of the Trump family. Fast-forward to 2007, and Erik Prince was living in McLean, Virginia, and spending time on his Middleburg property, Blackwater Ranch, designed as a family retreat just as his parent's home in Cody had been originally. I mean, people did shoot guns. DAVIES: They'd gotten formal training in this. ', Death toll keeps rising in Greece's deadliest train crash, US Attorney General Merrick Garland testifies before Senate Judiciary Committee, Lineup announced for this years Capitol Hill Block Party, There's no shortage of salt for NYC roads, Temple University students march and protest to demand better safety. Prince provided funding to hire a tech adviser to ascertain the authenticity of the emails. Erik Prince, founder of the private military firm Blackwater, helped raise money for a political-intelligence operation run by Richard Seddon, a former British spy. How Times reporters cover politics. Drawing on information from three unnamed sources, The Intercept reported Prince met with a top official from Russias Wagner Group at an undisclosed location earlier this year and offered his mercenary forces to support the firms operations in Libya and Mozambique.. He recruited a British commando to help - this guy Gaz Thomas, who I guess had knew Seddon through his days at MI6. GOLDMAN: Well, that's a great question and one we struggle with at the Times in trying to put this in context. Why were they targeting H.R. Project Veritas tax filings list Mr. Halderman as a project manager.. And they targeted - Project Veritas had a whole series. Part of it involved a rented, rather large house in Georgetown in Washington, D.C., right? They went after a Democratic staffer in Washington. GOLDMAN: Richard Seddon is a former MI6 spy. The Powell Tribune has expanded its online content. And this website is devoted to revealing the identities of Project Veritas operatives. A spokesman for the firm said that Alston & Bird has never contributed to Project Veritas on its own behalf, nor is it a client of ours. The spokesman declined to say on whose behalf the contribution was made. Mr. Halderman was copied on several messages providing updates about the Michigan operation, and in one message, he gave instructions to Ms. Jorge. And that one was made public. After Mr. Gordon won a close Republican primary battle against Mr. Friess, the billionaire, in August 2018, Mr. Friess blamed his loss on Democrats switching parties on Election Day to vote for Mr. Gordon. McMaster, Trump's second national security adviser. Mr. OKeefe and his group have taken aim at targets over the years including Planned Parenthood, The New York Times, The Washington Post and Democracy Partners, a group that consults with liberal and progressive electoral causes. DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR, and our guest is Adam Goldman. In a YouTube video, Mr. OKeefe described the lawsuit as frivolous and pointed to a portion of the deposition in which David Hecker, the president of AFT Michigan, said that one of the goals of the lawsuit was to stop Project Veritas from doing the kind of work that it does., Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement: Lets be clear who the wrongdoer is here: Project Veritas used a fake intern to lie her way into our Michigan office, to steal documents and to spy and they got caught. The Defense Department didn't go for it. Prince submitted his own declaration to presiding U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson in September, disputing The Intercepts reporting and laying out some of his bona fides as a Wyomingite. And his son - he brought his son, who was a former army officer, on board to help. In apparent response to inquiries from the Tribune about the two companies ties to Wyoming, Princes revised declaration said he misidentified the names of the entities. But we were unaware of that. The Intercept, however, has stood behind its reporting and has described the suit as an improper attempt to learn the identity of its sources. So O'Keefe's Instagram photo, you know, led people to realize that, you know, Prince had played a role, at least in letting Project Veritas use the ranch for training. Mr. Seddons recruitment of Mr. You know, we had - we talked to many, many people who worked there, and, you know, they described Seddon as wanting to do more long-term operations - right? And Mr. O'Keefe disclosed that Foster Friess had actually given Project Veritas money. Prince, a contractor close to the Trump administration, contacted veteran spies for operations by Project Veritas, the conservative group known for conducting stings on news organizations and other groups. And another individual named Barbara Ledeen, who worked for a prominent senator, his committee - Chuck Grassley - she admitted her involvement, and she had actually said she had met with a Project Veritas operative. They provide additional insight into the ambition of the operation to use undercover operatives to target Republicans seen as insufficiently conservative, as well as to, as one document describes it, research, penetrate and infiltrate the radical left networks.. They received training for covert operations at a ranch near Cody owned by Blackwater founder Erik Prince, where Maier's mother works as a cook. GOLDMAN: Well, they - you know, they - Beau is from Cody, Wyo., so he had some Wyoming roots. Two weeks later, on Oct. 14, Prince submitted a new sworn statement in his defamation case, in which he acknowledged he had not registered to vote in Wyoming in 2017. From 1986 through the present, hes made roughly 100 contributions totaling more than $630,000 to Republican causes and Congressional candidates, according to Federal Election Commission records. GOLDMAN: Well, I don't know if he is primarily the guy. WASHINGTON Erik Prince, the security contractor with close ties to the Trump administration, has in recent years helped recruit former American and British spies for secretive. Along with gathering intel, Maier and LaRocca sought to bait individuals associated with Better Wyoming into making statements they could secretly record and hand over to their clients. Prince declined to comment. Prince, saying he lied about the circumstances of his meeting with a Russian banker in the Seychelles in January 2017. But then they got reversed stung by the Post, which was quite a moment. He said that he did not think so. We still don't know everything about it, and we're trying to learn more about exactly who was behind this and if money was paid and so on. It's my understanding he designed the training exercises, which could have included, like, you know, going out to bars in Cody and trying to get people's names and numbers, how to pitch somebody in an elevator, how to spot people who could potentially provide you information. Prince appears to have become interested in using former spies to train Project Veritas operatives in espionage tactics sometime during the 2016 presidential campaign. For instance, Princes 2014 memoir said he splits his time between homes in Virginia and Abu Dhabi, where he pursues a variety of business ventures.. Ms. Jorge was eventually exposed and kicked out of the campaign office. The Powell Tribune was unable to learn Princes voter history from 2002 and 2017. Prince also allowed Project Veritas to use his familys Wyoming ranch for training. DAVIES: Right. In a book published in 2018, Mr. OKeefe wrote that Mr. Trump years earlier had encouraged him to infiltrate Columbia University and obtain Mr. Obamas records. Mr. OKeefe and others shared social media photos of taking target practice with guns at the ranch, including one post from Mr. OKeefe saying that with the training, Project Veritas will be the next great intelligence agency. Mr. According to the documents, Mr. Seddons operatives also aimed to dig up information on Steve Harshman, the Republican speaker of the House in Wyoming at the time, who was also seen by some conservatives as not sufficiently supportive of Mr. Trump. We know that political operatives will gather opposition research as it's called - right? DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. GOLDMAN: It's not clear they're actually being trained in firearms training. The special counsels report said that Mr. Were just trying to hold them accountable for this industrial espionage.. Prince said he regularly host[s] customers, investors, employees and other business associates at my Wyoming ranch.. Published October 16, 2017. So there has been - the two have interacted, I think, even before Trump was president. And I got swept away reporting on that and eventually was able to come back to it. But, you know, O'Keefe brags on the Instagram photo that they're going to be the world's best intelligence agency - I believe that's what it says - not the world's best journalists. Adam Goldman, welcome back to FRESH AIR. You know, Princes are pretty savvy. He did not mention the inquiries from the Powell Tribune about his lapsed registration that preceded his vote. They were going to bug it. - not one expose every year. GOLDMAN: What - the training they got was when they worked for an outfit called Project Veritas. On Sept. 30, Prince personally visited the Park County Elections Office, registered and cast a general election ballot, according to the clerks office. - where you have people in your organization who aren't who they say they are, you know, collecting intelligence, if that's what you want to call it. GOLDMAN: It's my understanding that they met during a training at the Prince ranch in Wyoming in the spring of '17 and then grew closer over time. And then Mark Mazzetti, you know, my colleague, who just is an extraordinary journalist, we - you know, we managed to suss out what was going - we think - to a great degree what was going on in Wyoming and these other states. var m3_r = Math.floor(Math.random()*99999999999); Blackwater Worldwide founder Erik Prince is considering a Republican primary challenge to Wyoming Senator John Barrasso, a senior member of the Senate GOP leadership team, in a race that could pit the party's establishment against insurgents inspired by allies of President Donald Trump. They had a - someone came to the Post. O'Keefe did not respond to the substance of the Times' report but did accuse the newspaper of running a "smear piece" on Project Veritas. And they - you know, I think they - it seemed like they were seeking revenge. They targeted NPR. And, you know, there were a whole range of people they went after. I think Trump pardoned at least one. Despite making multiple comments about Princes ties to Virginia, The Intercepts legal team said its immaterial to their jurisdictional arguments, which center on the publications own lack of ties to Wyoming. You know, you say in one of these stories, this operation's use of spy craft to manipulate the politics of several states over the years greatly exceeds the tactics of traditional political tricks operations. Mr. Seddon directed an undercover operative to secretly tape the unions local leaders and try to gather information that could be made public to damage the organization, documents show. As education secretary, Ms. DeVos has been a vocal critic of teachers unions, saying in 2018 that they have a stranglehold over politicians at the federal and state levels. Other Project Veritas employees on the emails include Joe Halderman, an award-winning former television producer who in 2010 pleaded guilty to trying to extort $2 million from the comedian David Letterman. Richard Seddon, trained conservative operatives first at the Prince family ranch in Wyoming, then at a large, $10,000-a-month house near Georgetown University. In 2016, a Project Veritas operative infiltrated Democracy Partners using a fake name and fabricated rsum and made secret recordings of the staff. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. The list included John Cox, then the director of the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services, and Scott Talbott, then the director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. Read more about the operation and its cast of characters at The New York Times. Erik Prince, Betsy DeVos's brother, is also deeply steeped in far-right militancy. Given Mr. Princes extensive personal and professional ties to Wyoming, it is certainly plausible that some or all of [The Intercepts] sources to the extent they exist at all were located in Wyoming, Princes legal team wrote. He's proposed similar things in other countries, hasn't he? That includes a pair of donations he made in March and October, in which he apparently listed his address as a post office box in Middleburg, Virginia. Reached by phone, Ms. Halverson said: Frankly, I have nothing to say on the subject. She then hung up. What are traditional political dirty tricks? GOLDMAN: These were videos - you can find them on Project Veritas', you know, website or on YouTube now. The next year, during a presidential debate with Hillary Clinton, Mr. Trump claimed without substantiation that videos released by Mr. OKeefe showed that Mrs. Clinton and President Barack Obama had paid people to incite violence at rallies for Mr. Trump. And it's not clear to us if he was making any money off of this. Wyoming is not the place for security contractor Erik Prince to sue a New York-based publication, a federal judge says. You know, a big question about the stories that you've described is, is this activity illegal, what the couple did in Wyoming, you know, presenting themselves as - dishonestly as active Democrats in order to get information? New details reveal the ambitions of an operation intended to infiltrate opponents of Donald Trump, including moderate Republicans as well as progressives and Democrats. Amid his globe-trotting, however, Prince says he does most of his work from Wyoming and calls Park County home. Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Thomas were on the list. If you already have a web account, but need to reset it, you can do so by clicking here. The woman was claiming she had been impregnated by the Senate candidate, thinking that The Washington Post would be so excited to get dirt about a conservative that they would publish a bogus story. More stories from theweek.comThe Republican theory of unemployment is classic MarxThere's growing speculation that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry will name their daughter 'Philippa'A short history of White House cats, American businessman and founder of Blackwater USA (born 1969), New Zealand politician and Prime Minister (18451906), 26th United States National Security Advisor, Read more about the operation and its cast of characters at, The Republican theory of unemployment is classic Marx, There's growing speculation that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry will name their daughter 'Philippa', Chicago Mayor Lightfoot ousted; Vallas, Johnson in runoff, King asks Duke and Duchess of Sussex to move out of Frogmore so Prince Andrew can move in, Biden Mocks Marjorie Taylor Greene With 1 Simple Hand Gesture, A Nebraska high-school cheerleader competed on her own after the rest of her squad quit. Erik Prince, the failson face of privatized war If the face long associated with modern mercenaries were more successful at his business, we might already live in a much more dystopian world. The life of Erik Prince has been a complicated globe-trotting journey complete with extensive mercenary activities, spying on American citizens, brokering arms deals with despotic regimes and essentially taking advantage of any situation he can in order to line his personal pockets. What's interesting about that Instagram post - and you can see it yourself, it's still out there - they like to describe themselves as journalists. Park County records show he also skipped Augusts primary election, but Prince said he had intended to vote in Wyoming this year. Prince said he learned he wasnt registered when I went to cast my early vote for the general election in late September. Mr. Seddon was a longtime British intelligence officer who served around the world, including in Washington in the years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In 2016, Republican operatives believed they had obtained deleted Hillary Clinton emails from the dark web, and sought Mr. Princes assistance to authenticate them, an episode investigated by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel in the Trump-era Russia inquiry. And by the way, as we began reporting this, we started learning more about Beau's connection to people. And Beau eventually divorced his wife. Adam Goldman reports on the FBI and national security for the Times and was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for national reporting on Russia's meddling in the presidential election. And they were deeply critical of Trump. One target in particular was Gov. You know, there was one exercise, I believe, where they had a cop - you know, a local cop who was there. 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