James O’Keefe has been placed on paid leave by Project Veritas, as the board of the organisation decides whether to kick him from the top job.
According to New York Magazine, Daniel Strack, the Executive Director of Project Veritas, told employees that O’Keefe would be taking “a few weeks of well-deserved PTO.” The message noted that the PTO came at a “distracting time,” with a board meeting set to be held on Friday to discuss “the health of the organization.”
While the board had “not come up with final solutions yet, we have made a few immediate decisions,” according to the internal message. At least two of those immediate decisions were the reinstatement of the recently fired COO Barry Hinckley, and CFO Tom O’Hara.
Hinckley and O’Hara were reportedly fired by O’Keefe, after a letter dated February 6th featuring testimonials from anonymous Project Veritas employees, was circulated, describing him as a “power-drunk tyrant,” among other accusations. Hinckley later told staff that he was fired because he “stood up to a bully.”
Michael Swartz, the founder of Old Row, tweeted that a source from inside Project Veritas had informed him that O’Keefe had been “stripped of all authority” at the organisation, and was subjected to a “six and a half-hour struggle session” where the board “subjected him to constant derision and insults.”
The alleged “coup” was reportedly orchestrated by two “ringleaders,” which he claimed were Hinckley, and Matthew Tyrmand, an investigative journalist.
“At the insistence of Tyrmand, O’Hara, and Hinckley; about ten employees aired their grievances about James, which essentially boiled down to him being a tough boss to work for,” the source claimed:
“At the end of this six hour struggle session, Tyrmand and fellow board member John Garvey put him on leave and stripped him of all authority. It was literally a stalinesque kangaroo court trial. The thing that is so very profound to me that no one seems to grasp: John Garvey and the rest of the Board did NOTHING to stop it. Matt Tyrmand had it all scripted. All six f**king hours.”
In a statement, a Project Veritas spokesman noted that “like all newsrooms at this stage, the Project Veritas Board of Director and Management are constantly evaluating what the best path forward is for the organization.”
“There are 65+ employees at Project Veritas dedicated to continuing the mission to expose corruption, dishonesty, waste, fraud, and other misconduct in both public and private institutions,” it continued, without addressing O’Keefe in particular. “To our supporters: We hear you, we care about you, and we will never give up.”
The news regarding O’Keefe comes only weeks after Project Veritas orchestrated a sting operation on a Pfizer employee, where they admitted that the they are currently “mutating” the COVID-19 virus to “preemptively develop new vaccines.”
This news and commentary by Jack Hadfield originally appeared on Valiant News.
