Project Veritas Files Motion to Retrieve Data Seized by Justice Department

Following last month’s news from Microsoft that the Justice Department (DOJ) seized Project Veritas’ emails, Apple and Google disclosed new information, shedding even more light on the alleged spying scandal.

In a new video, James O’Keefe says Apple and Google disclosed that between November 2020 and March 2021, the DOJ issued nine subpoenas to access Project Veritas employees’ Apple and Google accounts. The government went far beyond reading emails — to scrutinizing text messages, private photographs, browsing history and even location data. O’Keefe saliently pointed out that this included the identity of confidential sources, in the case of Project Veritas’ journalists.

Unfortunately, these tactics aren’t new or limited to activist groups, as he explains:

After the DOJ obtained Project Vertias’ emails, attorneys sent a gag order to Microsoft, preventing the company from telling Project Veritas that the government had access to its emails.

Prosecutors investigating the odyssey of Ashley Biden’s lost diary deliberately undermined the judge’s authority. She had appointed a neutral third party to ensure investigators followed her orders and that the government did not violate Project Veritas’ “journalistic privileges.”

Instead of arguing with the judge, federal prosecutors obtained gag orders against Microsoft from magistrates sympathetic to their cause. Of course, we now know that’s not all they did.

As was the case with Microsoft, the Justice Department compelled Apple and Google to keep their subpoenas secret.

Per Project Veritas:

Paul Calli, an attorney for Project Veritas, pointed out that the actions from the government were disproportionate, in addition to arguing the DOJ violated the Privacy Protection Act, the First and Fourth Amendments, and Common Law Reporter’s Privilege.

“By no reasonable measure can the wholesale seizure of newsgathering materials, attorney-client privileged communications, and irrelevant personal information be considered a proportional response to an alleged low-grade larceny, much less to a non-crime,” said Calli in Project Veritas’ motion filed in response to the disclosures from Microsoft.

The DOJ’s spying campaign represents the latest example of governmental misconduct in, what appears to be, a politically motivated investigation.  President Biden’s Department of Justice has placed its crosshairs squarely on Project Veritas’ newsgathering activities pertaining to apparent allegations against then-candidate, Joe Biden, which were made by his daughter, Ashley Biden, in her diary. 

“The government knows the truth: Project Veritas engaged in journalism protected by the First Amendment,” said Project Veritas founder and CEO, James O’Keefe, echoing a line from Veritas’ most recent court filing.

O’Keefe claims that Project Veritas received Ashley Biden’s diary from “tipsters” after she had left it abandoned. Ultimately, Project Veritas decided not to publish it because they couldn’t verify its authenticity.

O’Keefe then turned the diary over to the police.

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