FBI Searches Home of Project Veritas Founder O'Keefe: Neighbors

James O'Keefe, the founder of Project Veritas, is seen in Washington on Oct. 12, 2019. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

The FBI searched the home of Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe on Nov. 6, about a day after the agency had executed a search warrant at homes belonging to Veritas associates.

In a statement to The Epoch Times about whether O'Keefe’s home was searched, an FBI spokesperson confirmed that “a court-authorized law enforcement action” was carried out “in furtherance of an ongoing investigation.”

Representatives for Project Veritas didn’t immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment. O'Keefe hasn’t made any public statements on whether his home was searched and instead posted a video of himself reading a chapter from George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984.”

O'Keefe neighbor Jimmy Maynes confirmed to local New York media that the Veritas founder’s home in Mamaroneck, New York, was searched by federal law enforcement agents, a process that lasted several hours.

“They asked for James,” he said. “I thought they were banging on my door. I opened the door.”

“Agents told me to close the door and I closed the door. That’s exactly what happened. It was still dark.”

Brent Mickol, another neighbor who lives across the hall, said the agents announced “something along the lines of ‘FBI Warrant. Open up,’” he told the New York Post.

In a statement uploaded to YouTube on Nov. 5, O‘Keefe confirmed that the FBI is investigating his group and conducted searches at the homes of current and former Project Veritas journalists. Although he was told in a grand jury indictment to not discuss the search, O’Keefe said that New York Times reporters contacted Project Veritas reporters for comment soon after the raids were carried out, begging the question of how the NY Times obtained information about the searches.

“Apartment and homes of Project Veritas journalists and former journalists had been raided by FBI agents,” he said, noting that he believes that the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York is targeting the group.

In late 2020, Project Veritas was contacted by individuals who claimed to have obtained a copy of a diary belonging to Ashley Biden, President Joe Biden’s youngest daughter, O'Keefe said in the video. Alleged tipsters told the organization that the diary was found “abandoned in a room” after she left and that the diary contained “explosive allegations against then-presidential candidate Joe Biden.”

Project Veritas never published the contents of the diary, although other media outlets did in 2020. Instead, his group turned the diary over to law enforcement.

“At the end of the day, we made the ethical decision that because, in part, we could not determine if the diary was real, if the diary in fact belonged to Ashley Biden, or if the contents of the diary occurred, we could not publish the diary and any part thereof,” O'Keefe said on Nov. 5.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.