AMY GOODMAN: In Wyoming. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. You know, there seemed to be - what it showed was, you know, Prince is well-traveled and is always looking for business opportunities. GOLDMAN: It's not clear to me. But what is clear is if Beau and Sofia made these campaign contributions - right? I also think that - I think recently, too, O'Keefe, did a photo op or made a video with Donald Trump. GOLDMAN: That's a good question. However, after the Powell Tribune questioned some apparent inaccuracies in his Sept. 16 statement, Prince acknowledged misstating a couple of his connections to the state. Ms. Gore ended up rejecting the proposal because it was too expensive people with knowledge of the plan said it would start in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. According to Prince, the tech adviser determined that the emails were not authentic.. Last month, Project Veritas made public secretly recorded video of a longtime ABC News correspondent who was critical of the networks political coverage and its emphasis on business considerations over journalism. Adam Goldman, welcome back to FRESH AIR. According to its latest publicly available tax filing, Project Veritas received $8.6 million in contributions and grants in 2018. A man named Samuel Chamberlain who matched the description of the one employed by Mr. OKeefe denied he worked for Project Veritas. There's an annual one, Nellie T. Ross Banquet, and I believe it's in Cheyenne every February. He added, With Trump getting 70 percent of the vote, it shows how the Democrats have been able to control our elections with putting on a Republican coat., Mr. Gordon took office in January 2019. And in the end, you know, O'Keefe would release them and, you know, make a big deal out of them. So I thought to myself, why are they giving money to these people, these Democratic politicians? You know, she used that to hobnob with people. There were steps taken to advance this plan, but in the end, it didn't happen because McMaster was fired. For example, the co-authors of the piece in dispute, Cole and Alex Emmons, say theyre New York and Washington, D.C., residents whove never been to Wyoming. 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. document.write (document.charset ? I'm not sure that just because he's a conservative, this is something he wanted to help. They also did the secret interviews at the airport in Cody in the - at the Prince hangar. James OKeefe, the head of Project Veritas, last year at a White House social media summit. Reached by phone, Ms. Halverson said: Frankly, I have nothing to say on the subject. She then hung up. So we had never seen something like that. And they admitted doing, you know - engaging in political activity while working for these government institutions, which Project Veritas asserted was, you know, wrong or even, you know - I can't remember if they said it was illegal or not. And, you know, these were - they were not really long-term operations. Remind us who he is. . So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. And then he stays on working for a Project Veritas till roughly June of '18. Of course. This is when there was the special Senate election in Alabama, right? 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. He's a former British intelligence officer who served in Washington, D.C., and in Pakistan and eventually leaves the British Secret Intelligence Service and develops some relationship with Erik. This is FRESH AIR. - not quick-hit videos or, you know, shorter-term operations, which I think people say Mr. O'Keefe wanted to do. GOLDMAN: She was very active. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. To continue reading, you will need to either log in to your subscriber account, or purchase a subscription. A spokesman for Mr. So what exactly was the plan to (laughter) catch McMaster saying something he shouldn't? The New York Times published an article chronicling a Wapiti, Wyoming-based espianoge effort. She and Mr. GOLDMAN: Yeah, I would say an active - sure, an active player in certain parts of Trump's world, yeah, or conservative - the conservative world. And this was not - you know, James O'Keefe has said Project Veritas was unaware of this, and they adamantly deny knowing anything about this. The Powell Tribune was unable to learn Prince's voter history from 2002 and 2017. We are speaking with Adam Goldman. Prince took on the role of celebrity pitchman, according to interviews and documents, raising money for Mr. Seddons spying operation, which was aimed at gathering dirt that could discredit politicians and activists in several states. 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. That same day Oct. 9, 2017 Prince obtained a Wyomings drivers license, which he touted in another interview with Breitbart a few days later. DAVIES: Adam Goldman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times. GOLDMAN: I believe that O'Keefe has interacted with Trump. You mentioned that he was recruited by Erik Prince. 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. 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. Trumps agenda. I think Trump pardoned at least one. DAVIES: Did any of them have opinions about whether these two had done damage? This item is available in full to subscribers. Prince have ties to President Trumps aides and family. And they - you know, I think they - it seemed like they were seeking revenge. 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. In 2018, Ms. Jorge infiltrated the congressional campaign of Ms. Spanberger, posing as a campaign volunteer. Whether any Trump administration officials or advisers to the president were involved in the operations, even tacitly, is unclear. Erik Prince doesn't live in the state, he's from the same party as the incumbent, Sen. John Barrasso, and he's best known for founding a private security firm, Blackwater, that was kicked out of . Prince turned to Mr. Seddon to help train the Project Veritas operatives. Richard Seddon, in 2018, I guess, decided to stop working with Project Veritas. DAVIES: So he is the guy who hires this British spy, Richard Seddon, to train operatives to, you know, gather intelligence from, you know, Democrats and progressives. 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. The Times previously reported that, in 2016 and 2017, Mr. And that was their logo. Efforts to locate Mr. Thomas were unsuccessful. Prince said he should have named a different company Moyock Medical Supplies LLC as an example of an entity he owns thats registered to his address in Wapiti. Last year, Project Veritas submitted a proposed list of witnesses for the trial over the lawsuit. It's not clear to me how close he is to Trump. Mr. Seddon launched his privately funded spying effort after leaving Project Veritas in 2018. His attorneys allege the outlet is trafficking in lies, showed an obvious and intentional disregard for the truth and effectively made Prince out to be a traitor. And as part of this effort, Richard Seddon was brought on to handle training and really professionalize Project Veritas' undercover operations. The New York Times broke the news of Princes potential run on Oct. 8, 2017, saying hed recently traveled to Wyoming to explore ways to establish residency there., The following day, Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow asked Prince whether the Times report was real or fake news, mentioning, Im not 100% positive on your connection to Wyoming.. 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. But what we know is there was an arrangement made, and Erik Prince allowed Project Veritas to use his farm to train its operatives. - 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. Wagner which The Intercept described as a semi-private military force that operates in countries or conflicts where the Russian government seeks plausible deniability for its activities reportedly turned down Princes offer. What was going on there? By Derek Royden - July 2, 2021 2466 SOURCE NationofChange 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. It also seems, to me, murky. 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. DAVIES: Coming up, rock critic Ken Tucker reviews new songs by veteran artist Tom Jones, Jackson Browne and John Mayer. They broke into the DNC. Mr. Seddon used other former Project Veritas employees to help with the Wyoming operation, including James Artherton, a British operative code-named kimchi who was involved in a Project Veritas plan targeting an editor for The New York Times in London in 2017. WASHINGTON A British former spy recruited by Erik Prince, the security contractor close to the Trump administration, played a central role in a secretive effort to hire dozens . However, lawyers for the publication say they should not have to reveal who told them about Princes alleged meeting with Wagner Group or where they were told it occurred. And they stopped the - they would actually stop the operatives in a car. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. GOLDMAN: Well, they - you know, they - Beau is from Cody, Wyo., so he had some Wyoming roots. The Powell Tribune has expanded its online content. It is, instead, an entity dedicated to a specific political agenda.. (Last week, Trump pardoned the four Blackwater guards who were convicted of crimes in connection with the killings in Baghdad.). GOLDMAN: Well, that's a great question and one we struggle with at the Times in trying to put this in context. While he has not been actively involved in Wyoming politics specifically, Prince comes from a political family he is the brother of U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and is an active political donor. And they were deeply critical of Trump. In 2016, a Project Veritas operative infiltrated Democracy Partners using a fake name and fabricated rsum and made secret recordings of the staff. But I didn't reveal that I knew Beau and Sofia had lived at that house at the time because we were working - concurrently, we were working on this larger story about them. 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. He comes in late '16 or '17 - around that time period. Princes parents, Elsa Prince and the late Edgar Prince, bought the 940-acre Double E Ranch in the Wapiti Valley in the early 1990s. DAVIES: He was at a meeting in the Seychelles, the islands in the Indian Ocean, January of 2017. Prince declined to comment. Erik Prince, a political novice and former Navy SEAL who made a fortune in contracting security services to the U.S. Military, said in an interview with Breitbart that he will announce in the coming weeks whether he will challenge Barrasso in the Republican primary. 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. Anyone can read what you share. You know, and each time, you know, money is wired in furtherance of that crime, you know, that's also - that could be a possible count of mail fraud. McMaster. James OKeefe, a conservative activist, founded Project Veritas. It's not clear to us why Prince decided to help Project Veritas. And I think the end goal was make a video and, if necessary, try to get the White House to fire McMaster. GOLDMAN: Project Veritas is founded by James O'Keefe. He recruited a British commando to help - this guy Gaz Thomas, who I guess had knew Seddon through his days at MI6. Mr. The whole thing was completely - was really weird. And, you know, and he is - you know, he's an international businessman. You know, again, as when Barbara Ledeen, the staffer for the Senate Judiciary Committee, which was run by Chuck Grassley, you know, was trying to find Hillary Clinton's missing emails, and Prince gets involved in that, too. Is he actually providing those kinds of services? (SOUNDBITE OF BRUNO COULAIS' "SPINK AND FORCIBLE"). And this photo of James O'Keefe, who's, you know, the founder of Project Veritas, firing a weapon with a silencer, apparently, at Erik Prince's ranch - were they being trained in firearms there? contractor who is best known as the founder of the private military firm Blackwater and whose sister, Betsy DeVos, was Mr. Trumps education secretary has drawn scrutiny over the years for Blackwaters record of violence around the world and his subsequent ventures training and arming foreign forces. The job put her in a position to gain valuable information about which Republican candidates the group was supporting with independent advertising. Wapiti resident Erik Prince is one of several people associated with a Wyoming-based effort to infiltrate political campaigns and get "dirt" to sabotage candidates. [I] was a Wyoming resident for many years, he told Brietbart. Prince noted he owned a home in Wyoming and had been connected to the state since 1992. And, you know, there were a whole range of people they went after. Is that what these interviews were about? Tell us about them. Well, that and - by the way, at some point - I don't know the time period. 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. He's a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times. Prince registered to vote in Park County back in 1992, but that registration lapsed after he failed to vote in the countys 2002 elections, according to county records. And, you know, I'm not sure when the relationship started. We are speaking with Adam Goldman. The documents also show that, beyond Ms. Gore, other prominent Republicans in Wyoming were involved in Mr. Seddons spying operation. 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