Koch-Linked Charity Bankrolled Project Veritas as It Worked With Ex-Spies to Infiltrate Liberal Groups - 2020-03-17

Erik Prince, the former head of private mercenary firm Blackwater Worldwide, recruited ex-spies to work with right-wing sting operation Project Veritas to infiltrate liberal groups, The New York Times reported on March 7. He also gave Project Veritas staff access to his Wyoming ranch, where they took "surveillance and elicitation training" from a former British MI-6 officer, as The Intercept reported in May 2019.
In 2017, the former British spy helped direct an operation to copy files and record conversations in a Michigan office of the American Federation of Teachers, a major teachers' union that his sister, Education Sec. Betsy DeVos, and her husband's family have fought for years. The same operative who went undercover at the union infiltrated the campaign of now-Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) the following year.
The DeVos family is one of the right wing's major political donors. (The Prince family is also very wealthy and gives money to conservative causes.) While the DeVos family foundations have not donated directly to Project Veritas, several of their wealthy political allies, and multiple donor-advised fund sponsors, have been bankrolling the group. It's not clear who paid the ex-spies to work with Project Veritas, or if they were paid.
- 2009
- 2012
- 2014
- 2015
- 2016
- 2017
- 2018
- 2019
- 2020
- Accuracy in Media
- Adam Guillette
- Adolph Coors Foundation
- Alex Kotch
- American Federation of Teachers
- Americans for Prosperity
- Barack Obama
- Betsy DeVos
- Blackwater
- Bob Dole
- Breitbart
- Center for Media and Democracy
- Charity
- Charles Koch
- Charles Koch Foundation
- Dark Right
- DeVos family
- DeVos Foundation
- Donald J Trump Foundation
- Donald Trump
- Donors Capital Fund
- DonorsTrust
- Dunn Foundation
- Erik Prince
- EXPOSED by CMD
- ExxonMobil
- Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund
- Fidelity Investments
- Florida
- Gravitas Maximus
- Houston
- James O'Keefe
- Jewish
- Kansas
- Knowledge and Progress Fund
- Koch Bro
- Making America Great
- Mercer Family Foundation
- Michigan
- National Christian Foundation
- National Philanthropic Trust
- New York Times
- News article
- Pentagon
- Project Veritas
- Reason Foundation
- Rebekah Mercer
- Renaissance Technologies
- Republican
- Robert Mercer
- Schwab Charitable
- Searle Freedom Trust
- Spies
- The Intercept
- Thomas Beach
- Vanguard Charitable
- White House (Trump)
- Wyoming