That was the idea. New details reveal the ambitions of an operation intended to infiltrate opponents of Donald Trump, including moderate Republicans as well as progressives and Democrats. Reaching out to several intelligence veterans and occasionally using Mr. Seddon to make the pitch Mr. That got a lot of attention, was investigated by Robert Mueller. She said the support she got from other teams was 'overwhelming. His attorney did not provide an on-the-record response to questions about his clients voting history while elections officials in Virginia said any requests for voter information must be made in person, at the location where the individual registered. And Las Vegas was the - you could almost say it was the pinnacle, the apex of their operation. They'd been recruited and trained in an operation led by a former British spy and security contractor Erik Prince, an avid supporter of Donald Trump. And it was interesting to hear some of these Wyoming Republicans, you know, thank us for our reporting, you know, being The New York Times, because Trump has, you know, vilified us. Read more about the operation and its cast of characters at The New York Times. To continue reading, you will need to either log in to your subscriber account, or purchase a subscription. Mr. Seddon was not. And by the way, as we began reporting this, we started learning more about Beau's connection to people. 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. Im not ashamed of the methods that we use or the recordings that we use, he said. 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. Our understanding of the operation is that Mr. Seddon, while employed, in fact, at Project Veritas, was involved in this. I mean, people did shoot guns. And her picture wasn't her name GOLDMAN: It was a fake name, Maria. DAVIES: So an active player in the Trump world. So they were looking to mine that, to exploit that territory. And, you know, they targeted somebody from the State Department, and they targeted somebody from GAO. Was he primarily the guy who got this thing moving? You know, Princes are pretty savvy. [I] was a Wyoming resident for many years, he told Brietbart. Erik Prince, the failson face of privatized war If the face long associated with modern mercenaries were more successful at his business, we might already live in a much more dystopian world. Presiding Judge Johnson, who is based in Cheyenne, has himself signaled some uncertainty about whether Wyoming is the right place for Princes case to be heard; in early November, Johnson asked the parties to submit additional briefs on either transferring the case to another district or delving further into the issues related to jurisdiction. He gave the examples of Jones Creek and CMNS Systems. However, neither of those entities appear to be registered to do business in Wyoming; the only reference the Tribune could find to a company named CMNS Systems was an LLC formed in Delaware in August months after Prince filed his suit. 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. You know, you say in one of these stories, this operation's use of spy craft to manipulate the politics of several states over the years greatly exceeds the tactics of traditional political tricks operations. (Photo: Gerry Broome/AP) MIDDLEBURG, Va. A cheery fire warmed the glass-walled conservatory of the Goodstone Inn in Virginia's. That includes a pair of donations he made in March and October, in which he apparently listed his address as a post office box in Middleburg, Virginia. DAVIES: We need to take a break here. Mr. Seddon used other former Project Veritas employees to help with the Wyoming operation, including James Artherton, a British operative code-named kimchi who was involved in a Project Veritas plan targeting an editor for The New York Times in London in 2017. DAVIES: Right. Mr. Seddon was a longtime British intelligence officer who served around the world, including in Washington in the years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. DAVIES: Right. Regardless, Princes residency is not the real issue in the case. In an archived version of her LinkedIn page, Ms. Jorge wrote she had a deep interest in the conservative movement and hoped one day to serve on the Supreme Court after attending law school. Currently, Prince leads a Hong Kong-based firm providing security, logistics, insurance and infrastructure services in parts of Africa and other high-conflict areas. One of the undercover operatives also got a job working for a consortium of wealthy liberal donors the Wyoming Investor Network which had made a strategic decision to support Republican moderate candidates over those more closely aligned with Mr. Trumps agenda, the documents say. A document that month said that Mr. Seddons operatives had identified three potential sources in the new governors administration and have begun accelerated cultivations with a view to early recruitment., Later in January, the operatives wrote that they had successfully recruited another source with a role in the new governors administration, adding that the source has agreed to provide insights, help expose corruption and assist with eventual placement of undercovers.. Not saying this is the case with Mr. O'Keefe, but it's sort of hard to fundraise that way if you're only doing one thing a year or if it's - you know, there are long periods of silence between each expose. They targeted The Washington Post. Reached by phone, Ms. Halverson said: Frankly, I have nothing to say on the subject. She then hung up. Richard Seddon, in 2018, I guess, decided to stop working with Project Veritas. McMaster. GOLDMAN: Project Veritas is founded by James O'Keefe. Once a small operation running on a shoestring budget, Project Veritas in recent years has had a surge in donations from both private donors and conservative foundations. He was the one who replaced Michael Flynn after he was fired. 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. 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. Mr. Their attorneys wrote that the story did not focus its efforts on or in Wyoming, nor would it have any reason to do so . There's an annual one, Nellie T. Ross Banquet, and I believe it's in Cheyenne every February. DAVIES: What are Erik Prince's contacts or associations with Donald Trump and the Trump family? 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. And I certainly don't think he thought he was going to get dragged into this. DAVIES: It was a risk because she couldn't effectively work undercover if they'd been exposed by this organization that's critical of Veritas? Drawing on information from three unnamed sources, The Intercept reported Prince met with a top official from Russias Wagner Group at an undisclosed location earlier this year and offered his mercenary forces to support the firms operations in Libya and Mozambique.. 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. Were just trying to hold them accountable for this industrial espionage.. AFT Michigan sued Project Veritas in federal court, alleging trespassing, eavesdropping and other offenses. Along with gathering intel, Maier and LaRocca sought to bait individuals associated with Better Wyoming into making statements they could secretly record and hand over to their clients. There's a long backstory there. And then I talked to somebody else. That's a name some people will know. zoneId = '8'; But "one of the most brazen operations of the campaign" was an attempt to take down H.R. And they said, well, you know, she worked for Project Veritas. I think Trump pardoned at least one. 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. And they admitted doing, you know - engaging in political activity while working for these government institutions, which Project Veritas asserted was, you know, wrong or even, you know - I can't remember if they said it was illegal or not. DAVIES: Right. Female undercover operatives tried to entrap FBI agents, sometimes using fake dating app profiles, and State Department employees, the Times reports. The Times previously reported that, in 2016 and 2017, Mr. (SOUNDBITE OF BRUNO COULAIS' "SPINK AND FORCIBLE"). Attorneys for the outlet say The Intercept has no particular connection to the state and Princes ties are uncertain. Emails sent to Mr. Seddon went unanswered. I'm Dave Davies, in for Terry Gross, who's off this week. DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. 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. But they thanked us for bringing, you know, putting some sunlight on this. We'll talk about Project Veritas in a moment. Two weeks later, on Oct. 14, Prince submitted a new sworn statement in his defamation case, in which he acknowledged he had not registered to vote in Wyoming in 2017. Efforts to locate Mr. Thomas were unsuccessful. GOLDMAN: Yeah. And that one was made public. She and Mr. There was a meeting at lunch which led to a resignation, I believe, of GOLDMAN: They targeted our editor, Dean Baquet. And they - you know, I think they - it seemed like they were seeking revenge. GOLDMAN: That's a good question. I know that, you know, one of the first instances of his association with this - or maybe the first instance of his association - was in an Intercept article in which O'Keefe had posted a picture of himself firing a pistol with a silencer on Instagram. And his son - he brought his son, who was a former army officer, on board to help. And, of course, that was an entree into a larger circle of prominent Democrats. That same day Oct. 9, 2017 Prince obtained a Wyomings drivers license, which he touted in another interview with Breitbart a few days later. DAVIES: Right. As the founder of Blackwater USA, now Academi, a private military company, Prince headed the organization. They had a private security firm. Prince said he wanted the Project Veritas employees to learn skills like how to recruit sources and how to conduct clandestine recordings, among other surveillance techniques. He was leading training. He was dismayed, three former Project Veritas employees told the Times, with "O'Keefe's desire to produce quick media content rather than to run long-term infiltration operations." The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. This espionage operation was aimed at perceived enemies of Trump and included a planned sting operation against former national security adviser H.R. Prince declined to comment. We know that political operatives will gather opposition research as it's called - right? DAVIES: So he is the guy who hires this British spy, Richard Seddon, to train operatives to, you know, gather intelligence from, you know, Democrats and progressives. 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. On the subject Ms. Halverson said: Frankly, I guess, decided to stop working with Project in... 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