Well! It seems like James O'Keefe is his own worst enemy! Who would imagine that an egotistical punk and a habitual liar like O'Keefe couldn't handle running a multimillion-dollar company like Project Veritas? His board of directors is expected to vote on his dismissal tomorrow. Via New York magazine:
Over the dozen years since he founded the nonprofit in a carriage house behind his parents’ home in suburban Westwood, New Jersey, the group has grown from a shoestring YouTube prank operation into a large, ideologically driven news organization with an annual operating budget of more than $20 million. But former employees describe O’Keefe as an erratic and often angry boss. According to a letter dated February 6, which was circulated by Project Veritas staff who were critical of O’Keefe’s management, he “berated” and fired the organization’s CFO, Tom O’Hara, and its chief strategy officer, Barry Hinckley. Hinckley later wrote a message to the staff saying he had “stood up to a bully” and had lost his job as a result. The letter included an 11-page list of testimonials from anonymous current employees, describing O’Keefe, in the words of one, as a “power drunk tyrant.”
On Monday, Project Veritas staffers presented the nonprofit’s board with the document covering his behavior, saying they were “troubled and frustrated” by O’Keefe’s management style. Later that day, the board voted to reinstate two executives O’Keefe had fired a week earlier, while O’Keefe went on paid leave.
“James will be taking a few weeks of well-deserved [paid time off],” Project Veritas executive director Daniel Strack wrote Monday in an internal Project Veritas group chat obtained by The Daily Beast.
Huh. Who would have thought? Ha ha, everybody thought! Via Rolling Stone:
In the memo acquired by The Daily Beast, employees wrote that working for O’Keefe at Project Veritas could mean being “publicly humiliated” by the founder and “public crucifixions.” Employees also claimed that staff could even be required to undergo lie detector tests, that O’Keefe was a “power drunk tyrant” (according to one complaint), and that the chairman once took a sandwich from a pregnant woman because he was hungry.
“I was yelled at in front of jurors because he was hungry and then he took the 8-month pregnant woman’s sandwich,” the account by an employee alleged, detailing an incident during a Sept. 2022 trial against a Democratic consulting firm that O’Keefe ultimately lost.
But wait! Who knew that O'Keefe really wanted to be Randy Rainbow all along?
In the memo, employees also brought up the use of Project Veritas money to boost O’Keefe’s own theatrical interests. In December, Project Veritas said it provided a prohibited $20,500 in “excess benefits” to O’Keefe last year to pay for staff to accompany him to Virginia when he starred in a 2021 production of “Oklahoma!”
“All the theatre stuff and how that is handled makes me very uneasy,” the memo stated, and added, “In the end, we are in a deficit now, our fans and potential fans beyond do not respond positively to all of that stuff.” The memo also raised concerns that the money dedicated to musicals risked alienating donors.
In February last year, Rolling Stone’s Laura Jedeed attended O’Keefe’s American Muckrake book launch party that included a 50-minute musical-theater production dedicated to telling O’Keefe’s story in song, dance, and strobe lights.
Oh, and among other things, O'Keefe is accused of spitting in the face of an employee over a tweet.
This is so sad! Why is he not allowed to abuse his employees while he pursues his dream of being Randy Rainbow or Hugh Jackman? THIS IS NOT AMERICA, PEOPLE.
