This is FRESH AIR. A local farmer was utilizing the land to grow corn and soybean crops, but the potential for the ranch was far from being realized. And they - you know, I think they - it seemed like they were seeking revenge. Why did they want to embarrass him and get him out of the government? So somebody was just waiting - and it turned out to be me and Mark - to come along and make the connection between the Sofia de LaRocca (ph) out in Wyoming and "Maria," quote, unquote, on the Project Veritas Exposed website. What was going on there? There was a meeting at lunch which led to a resignation, I believe, of GOLDMAN: They targeted our editor, Dean Baquet. But her picture was on this website. In 2016, Republican operatives believed they had obtained deleted Hillary Clinton emails from the dark web, and sought Mr. Princes assistance to authenticate them, an episode investigated by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel in the Trump-era Russia inquiry. Neither party wants to be, you know, exposed to this kind of spycraft - right? And so, you know, I can't tell you right now it hasn't, that somebody else isn't doing this. DAVIES: He was at a meeting in the Seychelles, the islands in the Indian Ocean, January of 2017. The parties are currently awaiting a ruling from Judge Johnson, who could choose to allow the case to proceed in Wyoming; permit some more limited fact-gathering about the appropriate jurisdiction; transfer the case to New York; or throw it out entirely. He comes in late '16 or '17 - around that time period. 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. DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. The documents also show that, beyond Ms. Gore, other prominent Republicans in Wyoming were involved in Mr. Seddons spying operation. To do so would potentially reveal the sources identity, in breach of a promise of confidentiality made to the source, and creating personal risk for the source, they wrote, adding Princes real motive in bringing this lawsuit obtaining the identity of [The Intercepts] confidential source is plain., Further, if Prince is allowed to take discovery of The Intercept, the lawyers say they should be allowed to probe Princes ties to Virginia versus Wyoming, since he already has been forced to admit [his sworn statements] contained certain falsehoods.. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. Seddon left the project in 2018, before O'Keefe started releasing low-impact "unmasking the deep state" videos. And it all kind of went south when the Post exposed it. We'll talk more about his stories on undercover operations by conservatives to infiltrate Democratic and progressive groups after a short break. Back in December, county commissioners approved a rezoning request for a multi-billionaire to develop an exclusive guest ranch in the southernmost part of the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem. Prince and former British spy Richard Seddon both did work for the organization. It was unclear whether Mr. Seddon was involved in planning that operation. Mr. OKeefe and others shared social media photos of taking target practice with guns at the ranch, including one post from Mr. OKeefe saying that with the training, Project Veritas will be the next great intelligence agency. Mr. Princes attorneys responded that, if the judge has any doubts about Wyoming being the appropriate venue for the case, they should be allowed to learn the identity of The Intercepts confidential sources. Did it expand the number of people that they had? DAVIES: And then Beau and Sofia married, right? With @Project_Veritas's special training, we will be the next great intelligence agency. However, he ultimately did not challenge Barrasso in 2018 nor did he vote in those off-year elections, Prince acknowledged in Octobers revised declaration. In fact, I wrote a memo about what I had found. There's a long backstory there. 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 document is dated December 2018 and said that Mr. Talbott was another of the names of corrupt individuals from Marti.. The campaign discovered the operative and fired her. That's how you found them, and that's what raised the question? Adam Goldman reports on the FBI and national security for the Times and was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for national reporting on Russia's meddling in the presidential election. This includes participating in marches or rallies in support of a movement or giving money to, or raising money for, any political candidate or election cause. I'm not sure that just because he's a conservative, this is something he wanted to help. On Sept. 30, Prince personally visited the Park County Elections Office, registered and cast a general election ballot, according to the clerks office. In 2018, Ms. Jorge infiltrated the congressional campaign of Ms. Spanberger, posing as a campaign volunteer. Prince also allowed Project Veritas to use his familys Wyoming ranch for training. I'm Dave Davies, in for Terry Gross, who's off this week. GOLDMAN: Erik Prince is the well-known founder of Blackwater, the security contractors who were involved in the massacre in Iraq. document.write (document.charset ? GOLDMAN: Well, I don't know if he is primarily the guy. What's interesting about that Instagram post - and you can see it yourself, it's still out there - they like to describe themselves as journalists. DAVIES: They'd gotten formal training in this. And they would find people, and they would go out with them. 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. For example, a 2017 meeting he attended with a crown prince of the United Arab Emirates and an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin became a part of the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, whom he has served as informal adviser. I knew something was off immediately. His uncle is the conservative commentator Glenn Beck. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. As education secretary, Ms. DeVos has been a vocal critic of teachers unions, saying in 2018 that they have a stranglehold over politicians at the federal and state levels. The plan was reportedly to send a female operative to Tosca, a restaurant McMaster frequented, to engage him in drinks and conversation and record him disparaging Trump or making other inappropriate remarks on camera. And as we quoted an expert in our story, you know, if there's a sudden pattern of somebody giving money to the Democrats and they had never done that before, you know, that could also raise suspicions. Key figures in the operation are a former British spy named Richard Seddon and private security contractor Erik Prince, a staunch supporter of Donald Trump. Prince turned to Mr. Seddon to help train the Project Veritas operatives. Sofia is from Maryland. You know, I think part of Mr. O'Keefe's motto - I think it's important for him to have regular and consistent content - right? In early 2017, Prince reportedly welcomed James OKeefe and others from the conservative group Project Veritas, which describes itself as an army of guerrilla journalists. That February, OKeefe tweeted an image of himself taking aim with a silenced handgun amid snowy mountains, saying the team was undergoing intense training from a classified location as we make Project Veritas the next great intelligence agency. The Intercept ultimately identified the site as the Prince ranch in a 2019 article. In 2017, he met with White House and Pentagon officials to pitch a plan to privatize the Afghan war using contractors in lieu of American troops. And so I was able to piece that together. Mark Gordon, who was viewed as a RINO in some Wyoming conservative circles. And he was pitching that plan, but it never got anywhere. - not one expose every year. (Photo: Gerry Broome/AP) MIDDLEBURG, Va. A cheery fire warmed the glass-walled conservatory of the Goodstone Inn in Virginia's. DAVIES: Let me reintroduce you again. For his part, Prince swears he never met with anyone from Wagner Group a denial The Intercept included in its reporting. Both operations were run by Project Veritas, a conservative group that has gained attention using hidden cameras and microphones for sting operations on news organizations, Democratic politicians and liberal advocacy groups. DAVIES: But the idea was that these public officials or FBI agents were secretly - they were part of the deep 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. The ex-undercover British spy, Richard Seddon, trained conservative operatives first at the Prince family ranch in Wyoming, then at a large, $10,000-a-month house near Georgetown University. 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. Mr. Seddon owns a cabin that he keeps stocked with guns, food and other supplies as preparation for a cataclysmic event in the United States. So we had never seen something like that. Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Thomas were on the list. Prince said he regularly host[s] customers, investors, employees and other business associates at my Wyoming ranch.. It was Maria (ph). We are speaking with Adam Goldman. Do we know? 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 Prince, a security contractor, and ends up being director of field operations at the conservative group known as Project Veritas. In that deposition, Mr. OKeefe defended the groups undercover tactics, saying they were part of a long tradition of investigative journalism going back to muckraking reporters like Upton Sinclair. For example, Rolling Stone published an investigative piece in October, The New York Times broke the news of Princes potential run on Oct. 8, 2017, in another interview with Breitbart a few days later, identified the site as the Prince ranch in a 2019 article, asserting Prince participated in a plan to dampen turnout among Black voters, Powered by Creative Circle Media Solutions. What does that tell us about Erik Prince? And they both say they didnt interview anyone in the state for the article. DAVIES: Right. He was leading training. Comments ( 40) Last week, the New York Times reported that Erik Prince is considering running to represent Wyoming in the United States Senate. You know, this is something we haven't seen, right? And ultimately, it did blow up in their face. There is little publicly available information about the company, but multiple Prince ventures, including Blackwater, have been based out of Moyock, North Carolina. GOLDMAN: I was going to say, you know, talking to Republicans, moderate Republicans, I mean, moderate - these guys are pretty conservative, by the way - when we're describing it as moderate Republicans they were targeting. I believed that to be true at the time that I signed my declaration, Prince wrote, but I have since come to learn that I was mistaken.. What did they show? You know, they were always - you know, always on the lookout for connections they could make. And then I talked to somebody else. - and, you know, that probably in terms of, you know, Iran - not pulling out of the agreement with Iran, the JCPOA, and, you know, McMaster, you know, wanting to keep, I guess, troops in Afghanistan. WASHINGTON Erik Prince, the security contractor with close ties to the Trump administration, has in recent years helped recruit former American and British spies for secretive. Those contentions have become a key point of early proceedings in the case. Prince declined to comment. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. One celebrated alum: Betsy DeVos's brother, Erik Prince, 49, the swashbuckling military contractor who has come to the serious attention of investigators looking into the Trump team's alleged. They had a private security firm. DAVIES: That's a really fascinating example of the power of, you know, database reporting now because you knew they were doing the thing in Georgetown, but their campaign contributions in Wyoming have to be publicly reported. So there has been - the two have interacted, I think, even before Trump was president. GOLDMAN: Yeah. Separately, Ms. Gore unsuccessfully tried to raise money for the project from Foster Friess, a billionaire Wyoming businessman, during a January 2019 meeting, three people said. In August 2017, Ms. Jorge wrote to Mr. Seddon that she had managed to record a local union leader talking about Ms. DeVos and other topics. While the state is currently solidly Republican, Mr. Seddon and Ms. Gore believed it was in danger of turning toward the Democrats, as Colorado has. We're still trying to fully understand how Project Veritas, which is founded by James O'Keefe, actually came into contact with Erik Prince. Prince has previously been involved in trying to find dirt on Democratic politicians. Erik 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. "He is not registered in Park County or [Wyoming] presently, unless he is not going by Erik Dean Prince and has changed his name," Park County Elections Deputy Pat Cole said in a Sept. 17 email; he said Prince hadn't voted in Wyoming since 2000. We'll talk about Project Veritas in a moment. AFT Michigan sued Project Veritas in federal court, alleging trespassing, eavesdropping and other offenses. GOLDMAN: Yeah, and the Justice Department prosecuted a number of individuals. Erik Prince, the founder of controversial private military firm Blackwater and a supporter of former President Donald Trump, jumped into the COVID-19 business late last year with a deal to . 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. Amid his globe-trotting, however, Prince says he does most of his work from Wyoming and calls Park County home. DAVIES: Right. The Intercept, however, wants the complaint dismissed. Anyone can read what you share. We know that political operatives will gather opposition research as it's called - right? We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. And they - the purpose for - they themselves will launch this undercover operation and then, you know, secretly record you - audio, video - and then make a video out of it and, you know, expose what they describe as wrongdoing. Mr. 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. I mean, this is - you know, he no doubt sees them as a conservative ally, like other conservative networks. Mr. Seddon launched his privately funded spying effort after leaving Project Veritas in 2018. For example, Rolling Stone published an investigative piece in October asserting Prince participated in a plan to dampen turnout among Black voters in the 2016 election. Copyright 2021 NPR. GOLDMAN: Beau does. I mean, people did shoot guns. And Mr. O'Keefe disclosed that Foster Friess had actually given Project Veritas money. It's a conservative organization. If you would like to purchase a subscription click here. And then Seddon - you know, he stays on. It is, instead, an entity dedicated to a specific political agenda.. He said that numerous sources were coming to the group providing confidential documents, insights into internal processes and wearing hidden cameras to expose corruption and misconduct.. Erik Prince, the founder of private military company Blackwater, whose sister Betsy DeVos was Trump's education secretary, trained the spies Their job was to find out who was disparaging Trump. Was he primarily the guy who got this thing moving? One February 2019 report said that a new undercover will be joining the team and tasked with targeting Mr. Harshman. He was the one who replaced Michael Flynn after he was fired. This is FRESH AIR. GOLDMAN: Well, that's a great question and one we struggle with at the Times in trying to put this in context. Now, this couple weren't really the committed Democrats they presented themselves as, right? From 1986 through the present, hes made roughly 100 contributions totaling more than $630,000 to Republican causes and Congressional candidates, according to Federal Election Commission records. 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. Defendants wrote and published a false and defamatory article about a Wyoming residents Wyoming-based business activities knowing that it would cause harm principally in Wyoming, New York attorney Matthew Schwartz charged in one filing. Prince noted he owned a home in Wyoming and had been connected to the state since 1992. That's a name some people will know. 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. DAVIES: Now, one of the more well-known operations - because, well, you reported on this - was an effort to embarrass Trump's national security adviser, H.R. After Mr. So he had pitched this idea of a private security force to largely replace American troops in Afghanistan. Citing his ties to the state, his attorneys opted to file Princes defamation case against The Intercept in Wyomings U.S. District Court in May. Prince is separately under investigation by the Justice Department on unrelated matters, according to people familiar with the case. The list included John Cox, then the director of the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services, and Scott Talbott, then the director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. GOLDMAN: That's a good question. if (!document.MAX_used) document.MAX_used = ','; In apparent response to inquiries from the Tribune about the two companies ties to Wyoming, Princes revised declaration said he misidentified the names of the entities. The two men had known each other since Mr. Princes days running Blackwater, and shared an affinity for guns and the American West. It seems like the Democrats have figured out this party switch deal to their advantage, Mr. Friess wrote in an email obtained by Wyofile, a political news site in Wyoming. She was attending, you know, Democratic fundraisers. They went after a Democratic staffer in Washington. The Intercept, however, has stood behind its reporting and has described the suit as an improper attempt to learn the identity of its sources. 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