GAO investigating after employee featured in Project Veritas video

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Thursday it’s investigating a video from conservative activist group Project Veritas that depicts an employee acknowledging he contributes to the local Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) chapter during work hours.

“We are aware of the video and investigating the serious issues it raises, and we have also communicated with the GAO Inspector General,” the GAO said in a statement.

GAO released the following statement on the Project Veritas video: We are aware of the video and investigating the serious issues it raises, and we have also communicated with the GAO Inspector General.

— U.S. GAO (@USGAO) September 20, 2018

The office was responding to a video posted Thursday that purports to show GAO auditor Natarajan Subramanian detailing his involvement in the Washington, D.C., chapter of DSA.

{mosads}Subramanian explained in the video that he does social media work for DSA, and contributes to the organization for an estimated 20 hours a week.

“Technically, everything I’m doing for DSA is stuff that I am not supposed to be doing for work,” Subramanian said in the video, adding that he knows a number of DSA members who hold government or political jobs.

The Project Veritas video appears to have been filmed surreptitiously and edited selectively. The individual speaking with Subramanian does not appear on camera, and Subramanian’s responses come from multiple recordings.

The Washington, D.C., chapter of DSA pushed back against the Project Veritas video, calling the organization “wildly unethical.”

“This campaign, which wrongly targets both these dedicated public servants’ privacy and their freedom to exercise their 1st amendment right, is just the latest in a long line of failed political attacks from a group desperate to remain relevant,” the organization said in a statement to The Hill.

The GAO response to the video comes one day after the Department of Justice (DOJ) said it was looking into a separate Project Veritas video that depicted DOJ employee and DSA member Allison Hrabar talking about efforts to resist certain Trump administration policies.

Wednesday’s video, which also featured a former Department of Health and Human Services employee who spoke about how a current government employee had leaked a policy document, also appeared to be secretly recorded and selectively edited.

The videos are the latest in a series of efforts by Project Veritas to highlight alleged bias within the federal government, the media and at technology companies through secretly recorded videos.

Last year, the group attempted to plant a fake story in The Washington Post when one of its members pretended that she had a sexual relationship as a teenager with then-Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore. The Post discovered through its reporting that the woman was a member of Project Veritas who had spent months working to gain access to individuals “within journalism or left-leaning politics.”