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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / GOP Venality Open Thread: Erik Prince Teams Up with… Project (No) Veritas

GOP Venality Open Thread: Erik Prince Teams Up with… Project (No) Veritas

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On the one hand, further proof that the Republican ‘elite’ is as profoundly anti-democratic as any Russian kleptocrat or Saudi emir. On the other hand… if the best they can recruit is James O’Keefe III’s little fumblecluster of performance-art ratfvckers, they’ve got a ways to go:

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 intelligence-gathering operations that included infiltrating Democratic congressional campaigns, labor organizations and other groups considered hostile to the Trump agenda, according to interviews and documents.

One of the former spies, an ex-MI6 officer named Richard Seddon, helped run a 2017 operation to copy files and record conversations in a Michigan office of the American Federation of Teachers, one of the largest teachers’ unions in the nation. Mr. Seddon directed an undercover operative to secretly tape the union’s local leaders and try to gather information that could be made public to damage the organization, documents show.

Using a different alias the next year, the same undercover operative infiltrated the congressional campaign of Abigail Spanberger, then a former C.I.A. officer who went on to win an important House seat in Virginia as a Democrat. The campaign discovered the operative and fired her.

Both operations were run by Project Veritas, a conservative group that has gained attention using hidden cameras and microphones for sting operations on news organizations, Democratic politicians and liberal advocacy groups. Mr. Seddon’s role in the teachers’ union operation — detailed in internal Project Veritas emails that have emerged from the discovery process of a court battle between the group and the union — has not previously been reported, nor has Mr. Prince’s role in recruiting Mr. Seddon for the group’s activities.

Both Project Veritas and Mr. Prince have ties to President Trump’s aides and family. Whether any Trump administration officials or advisers to the president were involved in the operations, even tacitly, is unclear. But the effort is a glimpse of a vigorous private campaign to try to undermine political groups or individuals perceived to be in opposition to Mr. Trump’s agenda…

Mr. Prince is under investigation by the Justice Department over whether he lied to a congressional committee examining Russian interference in the 2016 election, and for possible violations of American export laws. Last year, the House Intelligence Committee made a criminal referral to the Justice Department about Mr. Prince, saying he lied about the circumstances of his meeting with a Russian banker in the Seychelles in January 2017...

Eavesdropping on some Midwestern teachers and failing to derail a Congressional campaign — that’s not much of a ROI for an international Master of War like Prince Erik. But the sooner O’Keefe is out of ‘business’ and Prince is forced to decamp permanently to his outpost in Abu Dubai, the better.

Reminder:

Reader Interactions

130Comments

  2. 2.

    pluky

    Did they really think that putting a Project Veritas level mole in the operation of an EX-CIA AGENT was going to work?  The farce writes itself.

  7. 7.

    MattF

    Prince is a thug in a suit, O’Keefe probably doesn’t own a suit. Both belong in jail.

  9. 9.

    Brachiator

    Erik Prince and Betsy DeVos are siblings. Their dad co-founded the uber-conservative anti-feminist Family Research Council. Betsy’s father-in-law brought MLM scams to America & helped fuel the AIDS crisis. It’s possible this family has done more damage to America than any other

    Erik Prince sounds like the name of a third tier Bond villain.

    I did not know that he and Betsy DeVos were siblings.

    Trump talks about the “Deep State.” But I sometimes forget how inter-connected many of these right wing dipshits are.

  11. 11.

    Kent

    On the one hand, further proof that the Republican ‘elite’ is as profoundly anti-democratic as any Russian kleptocrat or Saudi emir. On the other hand… if the best they can recruit is James O’Keefe III’s little fumblecluster of performance-art ratfvckers, they’ve got a ways to go:

    They aren’t looking for actual INTELLIGENCE on teachers unions and such.  I’m a member of a teachers union and every damn thing they do is 100% public and the minutes of every meeting are published and distributed. There aren’t any secrets, except perhaps the votes which are anonymous.

    What they are looking for is “gotcha” dirt that they can blow up into the next big kerfuffle on FOX.  Trap someone into saying something slightly controversial in an unguarded moment that can be distorted into some sort of “controversy”  And O’Keefe is actually pretty good at that.

    It is all performative not substantive.  And not at all done in good faith.  Democrats sometimes don’t properly understand that.

  19. 19.

    Mnemosyne

    FWIW, this seems to be yet another example of Why Trumpers Fail. They’re building this awesome spy network using actual professionals and the only thing Prince can think to do with it is to spy on Mommy’s mortal enemies in Michigan’s teachers union so Mommy can boost charter schools unimpeded? Really?

  22. 22.

    Marcopolo

    Totally OT but Elizabeth Warren just posted this lovely campaign epitaph on twitter. Heartfelt, positive to the last, glad I had a chance to vote for her before she bowed out.

    Choose to fight only righteous fights, because then when things get tough—and they will—you will know that there is only one option ahead of you: Nevertheless, you must persist. pic.twitter.com/GA4vl9tuRl— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) March 7, 2020

  23. 23.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Kent:

    O’Keefe is actually pretty good at that.

    O’Keefe is terrible at that.  It worked with Acorn because it was a new tactic.  Once Democrats started guarding against doctored footage, O’Keefe’s success record nosedived and he showed his ass again and again.

  25. 25.

    clay

    Just saw a WaPo headline that a CPAC attendee has tested positive for Coronavirus. A bunch of WH staff also were at CPAC.

    I’m not saying I WANT them all to get an infectious disease. I’m just saying that I would find it very karmedic* if they did so.

    *A word I just coined, meaning finding humor in the comeuppance of bad people.

  27. 27.

    sdhays

    This just showed up in my Apple News notifications: CPAC attendee tests positive for coronavirus

    It sure would be fantastically fitting if Donald Dump contracts the coronavirus because of his own administration’s incompetence, mostly due to the fact that top officials were more interested in protecting Dump’s ego rather than protecting the nation.

  35. 35.

    opiejeanne

    @Major Major Major Major: I hope one of those ancient mummies didn’t breathe on you.

     

    I just remembered, my youngest brought me a tchotchke from there, a little … are they ziggurats or pyramids? It got to be a joke in the family, the two daughters would bring me little tchotchkes from their travels abroad.

  36. 36.

    prostratedragon

    @SiubhanDuinne:  With a capital ‘B.’ Or what a fumbletongued fotf used to call “subletity.” But I think Kent is right that that doesn’t matter for their purposes.

  38. 38.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @schrodingers_cat: 

    IIRC, you aren’t on Facebook. And I don’t do Twitter. But I just posted about you, in a shameless bragging way, on my own FB page (no names, just holding you up as model citizen)!

  40. 40.

    joel hanes

    It’s possible this family has done more damage to America than any other

     

    No.

    Rupert Murdoch leads in cumulative damage, by a very  wide margin.

    In second place is Ronald Wilson Reagan.

  44. 44.

    Mike in NC

    Saw a story where Fat Bastard shitcanned CoS Mick Mulvaney last night and replaced him with former NC dickhead congressman Mark Meadows. He was in the Freedumb Caucus, is a Birther, and a White Supremacist. That hits all of Trump’s sweet spots.

  46. 46.

    tokyokie

    @tokyokie: I used to think that Erik Prince was smart. Evil and dangerous, of course, but smart. But his partnering with a long-past-his-sell-by-date clown like O’Keefe makes me reconsider.

  52. 52.

    JMG

    @tokyokie: All you need to do what you want in life in our society is capital. Prince had plenty of that. Hiring soldiers of fortune is easy. History shows mercenaries make shit soldiers (one exception, the Foreign Legion, lots of complicated reasons). But the guy who hires and fields mercenaries need not come within 1000s of miles of a bullet. No reason to assume this guy has any more brains that his psycho sister.

  53. 53.

    Redshift

    @joel hanes:

    Rupert Murdoch leads in cumulative damage, by a very  wide margin.

    In second place is Ronald Wilson Reagan.

    The Koch family is up there. When David Koch died, there was some forum, probably Twitter, when I responded to a “don’t speak ill of the dead/look at his charity work” post with “he pumped out disinformation to fight action on a climate apocalypse that may destroy human civilization, all to protect profits from his business. I’m hard pressed to imagine someone more evil.”

  54. 54.

    Redshift

    @debbie: I suspect, like with the Orange One and his makeup, they can, but they’re the story of people who are always sure they know best, and they won’t take advice from anyone.

  60. 60.

    CliosFanBoy

    @clay: I’m not saying I WANT them all to get an infectious disease.

    I will. no problem. and I hope they get VERY, very ill.

  61. 61.

    Mike G

    So we’re basically in the Watergate phase of the Trump omnishambles

    More like the paramilitary brownshirts stage.

  62. 62.

    West of the Rockies

    Has anyone at BJ thought they’ve been exposed to the virus?  I said on some comments yesterday that I did.

    Briefly, my fiancee’s daughter, SIL, and granddaughter came to NorCal from Seattle in a rented car.  Been here about a month.  They all got sick with the now well-known symptoms.  My partner got it and went to the ER last Monday.  She has a long history with asthma.  She tested negative for influenza and pneumonia.  They did not test for Corona (probably didn’t even have the ability).  They told her she had no Corona worries and sent her home (insisting she keep her mask on).  About 10 days on, she is starting to come out of it.  My bout was shorter-lived but I may be among the 80% who don’t get hit hard. It was about 4 days for me.

    Anyone else have any possible experience?

  63. 63.

    Feathers

    @tokyokie: The other possibility is that someone with shitloads of money has a wingnut hardon for Veritas and Prince is basically grifting the hell out of the dude.

    But the fact that the brother of the Secretary of Education is hiring people to infiltrate teachers unions should really be the headline.

  67. 67.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @West of the Rockies: Given that I live in one of the hot spots in the Bay Area, there’s definitely a non-zero possibility that I’ve been exposed.

    I’ve been having another one of those “is it a mild cold and/or just really shitty allergies” bouts the last couple days. But no fever, no cough.

    We’ll see… Though if I have to get it, I suppose it’s better to do so early before the health care system gets overwhelmed.

    Since I live alone, I have stocked up a bit on things in case I need to self-quarantine.

  68. 68.

    catclub

    @Lacuna Synecdoche: He also did not have good things to say about the federal response. I think this will be a magnified case of Katrina help to Mississippi versus Louisiana.  The Louisiana Governor at the time was a Democrat. She got shivved.

     

    The Mississippi governor was Hayley Barbour. He got funds.

  69. 69.

    Amir Khalid

    Saudi emir

    Tsk, tsk. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is not an emirate, it is formally a kingdom. (Actually it is a tribe with a sovereign hereditary chief; as Adam once explained to me, it has never evolved to feudalism, let alone past that stage.)

  76. 76.

    Another Scott

    TheHill:

    Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser announced Saturday that the city has its first presumptive case of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

    Bowser announced on Twitter that local health officials received their first positive test of the virus on Saturday. Cases are considered “presumptive” until they are confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

    Bowser will provide more details at a press conference Saturday evening starting at 7:30 p.m.

    Presumably this is different from the AIPAC conference pair of cases (in NY). (The AIPAC conference was held in the DC convention center.)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  77. 77.

    Mnemosyne

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I did, too, because I have a lot of Facebook friends who are bummed that their primary candidate had to drop out and they needed a ray of hope. We’ll be able to say that we knew SC when!

  78. 78.

    danielx

    I would gone with “…cluster of performance-art bumblefucks…” myself but otherwise perfect.

  79. 79.

    West of the Rockies

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    Ditto on the allergies.

    Here’s my experience with maybe-Covid 19…

    Start with a headache and a dry cough for a day or so.  Fevers/chills kick in, along with aches and serious lethargy.

    It did not involve sore throat or nausea, but appetite does dwindle.

    But I’m “only” 58 and in good health, so YMMV.

  81. 81.

    Mnemosyne

    @West of the Rockies:

    I’ve started to wonder if the flu I had in early January was the B flu or Covid-19. I had a surprisingly high fever (102.9) and a cough nasty enough that I threw out my lower back, but no one else seems to have caught it from me, including my husband.

  82. 82.

    Shana

    @schrodingers_cat: Let me add my congratulations!  If your town committee is anything like my county’s committee, there will be a certain amount of herding cats involved. But also good people.

  84. 84.

    trollhattan

    @glory b:

    Congratulations from the rest of the mean girls table!

    Heh. Remember, Taco Tuesday, venom tacos are 50% off. :-)

  86. 86.

    trollhattan

    @Mnemosyne:

    The kid had flu flu early February (verified with test) and it’s been boinging around since fall here, so is pretty ubiquitous.

    But one does wonder, lacking test confirmation. I suspect this COVID thing is quite established in most metro areas by now, just undocumented.

  90. 90.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    @clay:

    I’m not saying I WANT them all to get an infectious disease.

    Why do people say things like this?  Personally I hope that these people suffer in proportion to all the suffering they  have caused others.  Fuck ’em.

  93. 93.

    James E Powell

    @Major Major Major Major:

    As Joe Biden’s volunteer campaign advisor, I would recommend that he spend time in Michigan talking like only Joe can to African American voters about how much he needs their vote on Tuesday.

  94. 94.

    chris

    Dear me, this could be tragic. YMMV

    “ACU chairman Matt Schlapp told the Washington Post on Saturday he did interact with the infected at the event. The precise chronology could not be learned, but Schlapp did shake Trump’s hand on the stage with Trump at the last day of the conference.” https://t.co/rnE0UJyTqp— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) 8 March 2020

  95. 95.

    debbie

    @West of the Rockies:

    The Arnold (Schwarzenegger’s annual bodybuilding, fitness, and health expo) was scheduled for this weekend, but the governor and mayor banned spectators from most of the events. Tens of thousands of people from 80 countries attend this thing, so the concern was understandable; however, Schwarzenegger has a sad and has intimated that because of this, he may move it somewhere else next year (It’s been here since whenever it began).

  97. 97.

    Mallard Filmore

    @trollhattan:

     

    I suspect this COVID thing is quite established in most metro areas by now, just undocumented.

    Due to the size and economic power of the USA, few countries will have the ability to turn away visitors from here. Trump is working hard to make USA citizens a disease vector.

  100. 100.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Sister Golden Bear: I live in the North Bay but work on a big friggin tech campus om the Peninsula. I’m in the same boat as you – both myself and my boss have had very light sniffles the last few days, and a bit of post nasal drip. No coughing or fever, and I hope it stays that way.

    Most of the risk factors Martin outlined a few days ago apply to our HQ. I told my boss about it and informed her I wouldnt be coming in person for the next few weeks. She’s totally fine with that.

  101. 101.

    Ken

    @chris: “In retrospect, having all the speakers hug and kiss the flag in imitation of Dear Leader’s act last year may have been unwise.”

  102. 102.

    Ken

    @tokyokie: Just remember your balloon juice pals as you climb the political ladder.

    Dibs on the construction materials contracts.

  104. 104.

    Caphilldcne

    @sdhays: 2 folks attending AIPAC also tested positive. These folks have been all over Capitol Hill meeting with congressional staff. (As have I – 30 meetings in the last two weeks on crim Justice issues). This is going to turn into a DC issue sooner rather than later once a hill or administration staffer tests positive.

  105. 105.

    Morzer

    @schrodingers_cat:  Congratulations, Citizen Representative Jackal! When does the program of riding upon your enemies’ horses and making their women weep commence?

  108. 108.

    Martin

    @Major Major Major Major: Here’s my quickie formula.  Assuming a 3.4% fatality rate, take the number fatalities and multiply by 30. Then, since fatalities usually come between 17 and  21 days after contraction, and a 6.4 day doubling period, multiply by 8  (three doublings).

    So, 17 * 30 * 8 ~  4080.

  111. 111.

    Martin

    @Major Major Major Major:
    Yours may be more accurate. The data suggests 3.4% mortality from people who contract it, 1.9% for people who die directly from it who really had no hope of recovering (so nobody who was already on their last legs when they caught it).

    Your 2% might be more accurate. But yeah, somewhere in there.

  112. 112.

    Suzanne

    @trollhattan: I suspect this, too. The fact that so many of the infected are asymptomatic or experience it as just a cold makes me think that it’s already been around more than we think, and we are only just now really looking for it. I mean, I have seasonal allergies, and around this time of year, I often feel low-grade crappy and I have had a sinus headache off and on all week. But I feel fine right now.

    One potential good thing: I have heard that it doesn’t do well with temps over about 75 degrees. We are skimming highs of 80. So perhaps this thing will recede for the year and give us time to develop a vaccine.

  113. 113.

    Mallard Filmore

    @Major Major Major Major: “‘Get ready’: Italian doctors warn Europe”

    https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213057198

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-italy-doctors-intensive-care-deaths-a9384356.html

    They said: “We are seeing a high percentage of positive cases being admitted to our intensive care units (ICUs), in the range of 10 per cent of all positive patients… We wish to convey a strong message: Get ready!”

    Ten percent of all positives need intensive care!

  117. 117.

    Martin

    @Mallard Filmore: That seems a bit low, to be honest. Data out of China was ~20% needed ICU + ventilator.

    I mentioned earlier that Italy is exploring rationing for ICU beds. Considering something like rejecting patients over a certain age (e.g. 80) because they expect to run out within the next 2ish weeks.

    If our numbers don’t calm down a bit, we might be there as early as April.

  118. 118.

    J R in WV

    @Suzanne:

    One potential good thing: I have heard that it doesn’t do well with temps over about 75 degrees. We are skimming highs of 80. So perhaps this thing will recede for the year and give us time to develop a vaccine.

    I have seen that it (the virus) appears to be doing well in Singapore, which is pretty much a tropical city. So I don’t expect a warm season to make much difference in this virus and how it occurs in a population.

  119. 119.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Suzanne: I have heard that it doesn’t do well with temps over about 75 degrees.

    Uh, from who?

    ETA: I saw some competing models yesterday. One suggested a sweet spot around 40(?) degrees F, but the difference was an R0 (#infections caused by each infected person) of 1.75 vs. 2.5. So it’s not like it goes to near-zero, unlike the flu. Another suggested no relationship to weather. A third suggested it is emerging as a seasonal disease.

  122. 122.

    Suzanne

    @Major Major Major Major: I read this piece a few days ago, because I was wondering how it was moving in the Southern Hemisphere. I should note that I am in absolutely no way a scientist or epidemiologist, so I am merely responding to what may be bad information.

  123. 123.

    Martin

    Reminder that 2 weeks ago, Italy had 9 cases. They just put a hard quarantine on 16 million people and have 233 reported deaths.

    2 weeks.

  125. 125.

    Jackie

    @Sister Golden Bear: I live in southeastern WA. Same concerns. My family – excepting me has been battling colds and flu. I’ve isolated myself as best I can, flu shot in Oct, vitamins and Airborne… but, now fighting allergies? Or cold? Or…? ????for both of us!

  127. 127.

    Another Scott

    @Martin:

    AlJazeera:

    The total number of cases in the country was up to 5,883 compared to 4,636 announced on Friday, showing that contagion shows no sign of slowing down.

    1247 new cases in one day in Italy.

    :-(

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  128. 128.

    Suzanne

    @Major Major Major Major: I had seen some info cross my FB page about the virus not being able to handle heat very well, which I didn’t necessarily believe because FAKE NEWS or at least rumor, but it did get me to thinking…. so far, it doesn’t seem to be as severe in the global south. Which is not what I would expect, seeing as how the countries of the global south on average have less developed healthcare systems. So I did some looking. Again, it could be totally wrong. Caveat caveat caveat.

    It’s already getting hot here. I came this close to turning on the AC today. But now it’s about 73 beautiful degrees.

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