WATCH: Project Veritas hostile takeover based on false claims against founder

Project Veritas board members have reportedly taken on both the founder of the organization, James O'Keefe, and a group of the dozens of “employees who are perceived to be loyal to O’Keefe,” stripping him of all powers and placing him on leave while preparing the ground work for potentially removing him altogether, according to a report by New York Magazine.

Demanding boss

The organization has been mum as to why O'Keefe was put on leave, but Twitter user Swig quoted an inside source saying that the board members berated him for six-hours with complaints that amounted to him “being a tough boss to work for” after which the board "put him on leave and stripped him of all authority."

One example of a complaint that has circulated on social media is that O'Keefe was extremely rude to a donor. That donor Dianna Remmers, however, posted a video refuting the claim, explaining that the source of the alleged rudeness was simply O'Keefe not being pleased to take a picture with her at a busy time. She added that she had a “great conversation” with O'Keefe right after the picture, they have since become “great friends” and she's even organized events for him. She concludes the video saying, 

I'm really very disappointed in the petty allegations towards him. They're actually completely false and ridiculous. So I'm going to continue supporting James because . . . without James Project Veritas is nothing.

Fighting the fighters of corruption

Project Veritas, whose stated mission is “to investigate and expose corruption, dishonesty, self-dealing, waste, fraud, and other misconduct in both public and private institutions,” has publicized a string of scandals since first going viral with an undercover operation catching employees of the government subsidized ACORN organization giving advice on how to prevent detection of a child prostitution ring. Despite Barack Obama’s years-long “service as a key figure in Acorn’s leadership-training seminars,” the group lost all government funding as a result of O'Keefe's sting operation.

Legacy media, which once uncovered corruption, now attacks the leading investigator of corruption, labeling O'Keefe reporting as “dubious” despite his record of posting corruption videos with the words of the insiders themselves, both in edited versions and in full, and complaining that rather than backing down when challenged, he “doubles down,” as in this hit piece by Rolling Stone.

O’Keefe has an over dozen year track record of dubious reporting practices, and his resume of issuing few retractions is nothing to be proud of: ethical journalists correct their mistakes, O’Keefe doubles down. 

The Leftist Wikipedia, for its part, describes O'Keefe as a "provocateur who founded Project Veritas, a far-right activist group that uses deceptive editing techniques. As an example, they cite O'Keefe's entry into ACORN facilities in a regular jacket while showing video of himself wearing a pimp's jacket while walking towards the facility. They fail to mention that the video of the ACORN employees themselves, advising how to avoid taxes on child prostitution, are accurate.

Donors rally 

Swig updated his reporting with a copy of a Cease and Desist Letter several Project Veritas donors sent to its board of directors, 

Our firm represents a large group of significant donors to Project Veritas. . . . We are concerned that the Board may already be acting in violation of Virginia charitable solicitation and trust law and ask that the Board refrain from taking further actions to fundamentally undermine the purposes for which Project Veritas was established. We also ask that the funds donated to Project Veritas be preserved and not spent for purposes not [sic] contrary to those for which they were solicited.

Third Rail?

While O'Keefe's previous sting operations led to broad backlashes and even made him the subject of criminal investigations, they never led to an attempted coup by his own board. His latest undercover work, though, forced Pfizer to admit they are engineering new viruses, and are actually required to do so by the government.

This has led some to believe O'Keefe is proof that revealing Big Pharma secrets is the third rail in journalism. 

Swig lists the leaders of the Project Veritas board's coup attempt.