Project Veritas, one of the most reputable investigative journalism organizations in the country, has had enough of being defamed by 'state media' outlets like CNN and The New York Times, so the group has filed a lawsuit against both, as well as CNN host Ana Cabrera.
The suit filed against CNN on Monday claims that the cable news channel permitted "false statements" to be made about Project Veritas, honing in on a specific incident.
The org claimed in its federal filing that on Feb. 14, Cabrera said that Project Veritas was permanently banned from Twitter three days before as part of the platform's "crackdown to try to stop the spread of misinformation."
According to Twitter, the organization was kicked off on Feb. 11 for "posting private information" in reference to an interview that took place outside the home of a Facebook executive.
“Cabrera knew what she was reporting was false,” Project Veritas said in a press release. “Just days earlier, Cabrera had tweeted that the ban was in fact for an alleged violation of Twitter’s privacy policies – not for misinformation as Cabrera stated.”
"Ana Cabrera is the host that lied about us and said that we were taken down for, she mentioned misinformation, that’s just simply not so," O’Keefe would go on to tell Fox News's Sean Hannity. "Actual malice is the standard in the United States, we believe we can win against CNN.
Twitter's actions also prompted a defamation lawsuit from Project Veritas chief James O'Keefe, who said in a filing in New York state court after his own account was taken down April 15 for allegedly operating "fake accounts," which he has denied.
“All of this is in a lawsuit that we have filed in New York state,” O’Keefe said on Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures” program. “And, again, for those of you who think I’m bluffing or these lawsuits don’t matter, Project Veritas has never lost a lawsuit in our corporate history because we don’t settle.”
In addition to the suit against CNN, Project Veritas has also filed a similar suit against the Times; a state court refused in March to grant the Times' request to dismiss the case.
“Perhaps the greatest irony here is everyone in the media accuses us of misinformation when that is precisely what they do,” said O'Keefe in a video discussing the suits.
In a post on the organization's website, Project Veritas explained that the Times has since been forced to respond to the lawsuit.
"The lawsuit was filed last fall in response to a series of defamatory New York Times stories by political reporter Maggie Astor and media news reporter Tiffany Hsu, calling Veritas’ Minnesota Ballot Harvesting videos 'deceptive' and accusing Veritas of being part of 'a coordinated disinformation effort' -- because Veritas shared an advance copy of the video with influencers and reporters," the site reported in a news release.
"In the answer filed last week, the New York Times admits it did the same thing: having received an advance copy of the blog post they reported on, before the post was published," said the news release.
The Times is insisting that its news reports claiming that Project Veritas' Minnesota ballot harvesting story was deceptive were opinion pieces, not hard news.
But the investigative journalism org knows the difference between hard news and op-eds, and insists the Times stories were news, not opinion.
The Times has since been forced to admit that one of its writers was likely incorrect and that Project Veritas was in the right because the ballot harvesting reported by the org “may not have been illegal, because a district court judge in July temporarily suspended Minnesota’s ban on ‘ballot harvesting.'"
“These are not hard things to figure out,” said O’Keefe, who added that "no amount of money" is good enough for him to reach a settlement. He wants a jury trial.
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