Project Veritas, a conservative activist organization that specializes in undercover operations to target left-leaning political organizations, academic figures and the media may be in jeopardy of losing its ability to raise money in New York, state officials announced Thursday.
The 501(c)(3) organization has two weeks to explain why it did not disclose founder James O’Keefe’s 2010 criminal conviction in Louisiana in addition to other omissions on paperwork submitted to the state, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (D) said in a letter to the group on Wednesday, according to The Washington Post.
O’Keefe was sentenced to three years of probation, 100 hours of community service and a $1,500 fine after pleading guilty in 2010 to misdemeanor charges surrounding his role gaining entry to then-Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-La.) office in Baton Rogue.
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If no explanation can be provided, Schneiderman’s letter warned that O’Keefe’s organization could lose the ability to raise money in New York, where the Project Veritas offices are located, the Post reported.
It is not known how much money Project Veritas raises in New York.
The news comes on the same day O’Keefe defended his organization after failing to dupe The Washington Post into reporting a farcical sexual assault allegation against Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore.
Moore, 70, is accused of sexual misconduct and assault by several women who said he made advances toward them when they were teenagers as young as 14 and he was in his 30s.
“I don’t have an opinion on it honestly. I can’t speak intelligently about it. The Washington Post seems to want a Nobel Prize for vetting a source correctly. Our work is sort of changing human nature and making people cautious,” O’Keefe said.