Prince to help him secure funding is just one of the new details about Mr. Seddons operation revealed in documents obtained by The Times and interviews with people familiar with his plans. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. And we're speaking with New York Times reporter Adam Goldman. I have a Wyoming drivers license, I am a Wyoming resident, and exploration is underway, Prince said of his potential Senate bid. GOLDMAN: Well, that's a great question and one we struggle with at the Times in trying to put this in context. var m3_r = Math.floor(Math.random()*99999999999); And Las Vegas was the - you could almost say it was the pinnacle, the apex of their operation. Were just trying to hold them accountable for this industrial espionage.. 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 intelligence-gathering operations that included infiltrating Democratic congressional campaigns, labor organizations and other groups considered hostile to the Trump agenda, according to interviews and documents. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. However, after the Powell Tribune questioned some apparent inaccuracies in his Sept. 16 statement, Prince acknowledged misstating a couple of his connections to the state. And, you know, and he is - you know, he's an international businessman. He did not respond to follow-up phone messages or an email. 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. The Powell Tribune was unable to learn Princes voter history from 2002 and 2017. Mr. #Veritas pic.twitter.com/4IFvjKurGK, In the pending defamation case, Princes attorneys have cited that reporting as evidence The Intercept knew Prince did his business from Wyoming, going as far as to allege the articles unstated focus was on Princes reputation and livelihood in Wyoming., The Intercept attorneys, however, pointed to past statements from Prince and records indicating he lives in Virginia. You know, they targeted the teachers unions. 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. And they received what was essentially clandestine training at a ranch in Wyoming that's owned by the family of Erik Prince. There's an annual one, Nellie T. Ross Banquet, and I believe it's in Cheyenne every February. And this is FRESH AIR. They need some spy training and covert military, paramilitary training at his ranch. So what I'm saying is from Richard Seddon's standpoint, the fact that she had a picture up on Project Veritas Exposed, that was a real risk they were taking, right? One of the documents indicates that Marti Halverson, a former Wyoming state lawmaker, provided a list of people for the operatives to target. She went to meetings. But then January 6 happened, you know, the insurrection. McMaster. You mentioned that he was recruited by Erik Prince. Prince submitted his own declaration to presiding U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson in September, disputing The Intercepts reporting and laying out some of his bona fides as a Wyomingite. But when I learned about Beau and Sofia last year - there's a website, Project Veritas Exposed. There was a massacre at a plaza in Iraq. And they targeted a reporter, a Washington - a very good Washington Post reporter named Stephanie McCrummen, who - they picked up on it very, very, very quickly GOLDMAN: And figured out that this woman was not who she said she was. Prince, saying he lied about the circumstances of his meeting with a Russian banker in the Seychelles in January 2017. Now, you mentioned Project Veritas. DAVIES: Did any of these result in resignations, firings, criminal investigations GOLDMAN: You know, and in the end, the people who were involved, I think, were, you know, slightly humiliated. GOLDMAN: It's not clear they're actually being trained in firearms training. 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. I knew something was off immediately. GOLDMAN: Richard Seddon is a former MI6 spy. And so I was able to piece that together. It's not clear to me how close he is to Trump. DAVIES: When Richard Seddon and Erik Prince got connected with Veritas and cooperated on some of these operations, what was the effect on Veritas? [CDATA[ You know, O'Keefe has clearly raised a lot of money, you know, millions of dollars. Blackwater founder Erik Prince arranged for political activist James O'Keefe's conservative group Project Veritas to receive more than one round of "training in intelligence and elicitation. However, he ultimately did not challenge Barrasso in 2018 nor did he vote in those off-year elections, Prince acknowledged in Octobers revised declaration. GOLDMAN: These were videos - you can find them on Project Veritas', you know, website or on YouTube now. And then I talked to somebody else. 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.. 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. McMaster? Erik Prince, founder and CEO of Blackwater Worldwide, in 2008. document.write ('&cb=' + m3_r); We are speaking with Adam Goldman. DAVIES: But the idea was that these public officials or FBI agents were secretly - they were part of the deep state. And they thought McMaster had fired, you know, several people who the president had brought on and - or Mike Flynn, his former - his first national security adviser had brought on. GOLDMAN: Well, I think it was - our latest story revealed, you know, at least one person who had been working for the Democrats thought that Sofia likely might have gotten some damaging information about Democratic efforts to help, you know, moderate Republicans. 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 authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. Blackwater Worldwide founder Erik Prince is considering a Republican primary challenge to Wyoming Senator John Barrasso, a senior member of the Senate GOP leadership team, in a race that could pit the party's establishment against insurgents inspired by allies of President Donald Trump. 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. When does he do this, and do we know why? The New York Times published an article chronicling a Wapiti, Wyoming-based espianoge effort. So there has been - the two have interacted, I think, even before Trump was president. Did it expand their operations? GOLDMAN: Yes. However, in all of the 74 campaign donations hes made since 2002 including a $3,042.86 donation to the Wyoming Republican Party in 2016 Prince has been identified with a Virginia address. Mr. And they were deeply critical of Trump. According to its latest publicly available tax filing, Project Veritas received $8.6 million in contributions and grants in 2018. They - you know, there's a wide range of targets, and many of them have been exposed. I'm not sure that just because he's a conservative, this is something he wanted to help. One February 2019 report said that a new undercover will be joining the team and tasked with targeting Mr. Harshman. She actually got a contract fundraising gig with the Democrats, right? 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. Prince a former C.I.A. And I think the end goal was make a video and, if necessary, try to get the White House to fire McMaster. You'd have to ask Mr. O'Keefe. GOLDMAN: It's my understanding that they met during a training at the Prince ranch in Wyoming in the spring of '17 and then grew closer over time. At the time, Prince was exploring the possibility of mounting a Republican primary challenge to incumbent U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo. I don't know. One target in particular was Gov. Jim Mattis, then the defense secretary, rejected the idea. Mr. 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. Mr. OKeefe earned about $387,000. Connor Wroe Southard. So he had pitched this idea of a private security force to largely replace American troops in Afghanistan. That's a strawman campaign donation. He is married to an American diplomat, Alice Seddon, who is serving in the American consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. This is FRESH AIR. GOLDMAN: It's not clear to me. 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. 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. DAVIES: But Sofia was just - she was active. The scope of that investigation is unclear. GOLDMAN: She was very active. DAVIES: You know, the other thing that I wanted to just clarify to the extent I can is how much of a driving force Erik Prince was in this. Mr. Seddon directed an undercover operative to secretly tape the unions local leaders and try to gather information that could be made public to damage the organization, documents show. If you're a print subscriber, but do not yet have an online account, click here to create one. So flesh out the picture a bit. Several of them confirmed their donations. Last year, the House Intelligence Committee made a criminal referral to the Justice Department about Mr. There is little publicly available information about the company, but multiple Prince ventures, including Blackwater, have been based out of Moyock, North Carolina. var width = jQuery(window).width(); officer who went on to win an important House seat in Virginia as a Democrat. DAVIES: Right. Erik Prince, a political novice and former Navy SEAL who made a fortune in contracting security services to the U.S. Military, said in an interview with Breitbart that he will announce in the coming weeks whether he will challenge Barrasso in the Republican primary. So it was a fascinating moment in time last year when I realized what I suspected Beau and Sofia were doing. 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. You know, we had - we talked to many, many people who worked there, and, you know, they described Seddon as wanting to do more long-term operations - right? Prince and Mr. Seddon said the goal of the private spying operation was to gather dirt both on Democrats and RINOs slang in conservative circles for Republicans in name only. The plan was to begin in Wyoming, they said, and expand operations from there. Prince have ties to President Trumps aides and family. And they would find people, and they would go out with them. James OKeefe, the head of Project Veritas, last year at a White House social media summit. Part of it involved a rented, rather large house in Georgetown in Washington, D.C., right? You know, they were always - you know, always on the lookout for connections they could make. [I] was a Wyoming resident for many years,, That same day Oct. 9, 2017 Prince obtained a Wyomings drivers license, which he touted, 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, Other outlets, however, have continued writing about the contractor. She was involved in that. Erik Prince Helped Raise Money for Conservative Spy Venture, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/08/us/politics/erik-prince-spy-operation-trump-democrats.html. The teachers union is asking for more than $3 million in damages, accusing the group of being a vigilante organization which claims to be dedicated to exposing corruption. In particular, you know, Sofia targeted a employee with the GAO. Beyond involving a different pool of jurors and a different judge, Prince may have a better chance of learning the identity of The Intercepts sources if the case stays in Wyoming, where there is no specific shield law protecting the confidentiality of reporters sources. We are speaking with Adam Goldman. Did it help, you know, Project Veritas raise more money? How Times reporters cover politics. This espionage operation was aimed at perceived enemies of Trump and included a planned sting operation against former national security adviser H.R. Funneling money surreptitiously to campaigns through other donors known as straw man donations would violate federal campaign finance laws. GOLDMAN: Yeah, I would say an active - sure, an active player in certain parts of Trump's world, yeah, or conservative - the conservative world. The Times previously reported that, in 2016 and 2017, Mr. 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. And as the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press summarizes, New York provides absolute protection from forced disclosure of materials received in confidence by a professional journalist, including the identity of a source.. if( width > 480 ){ I mean, he - it seems that - it's our understanding that Prince introduced Seddon to Project Veritas. And this website is devoted to revealing the identities of Project Veritas operatives. It is, instead, an entity dedicated to a specific political agenda.. And I think the Intercept geolocated that photo and determined it was Erik Prince's ranch. The Trump Foundation gave $20,000 to Project Veritas in 2015, the year that Mr. Trump began his bid for the presidency. Did it expand the number of people that they had? He worked with the former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn during the presidential transition. We'll continue our conversation in just a moment. For example, the co-authors of the piece in dispute, Cole and Alex Emmons, say theyre New York and Washington, D.C., residents whove never been to Wyoming. 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. Copyright 2021 NPR. Whether any Trump administration officials or advisers to the president were involved in the operations, even tacitly, is unclear. Mr. Seddon wrote that Ms. Jorge copied a great many documents from the file room, and Mr. OKeefe bragged that the group would be able to get a ton more access agents inside the educational establishment.. Prince declined to comment. This is FRESH AIR. DAVIES: We need to take a break here. Tell us about them. 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. Park County records show he also skipped Augusts primary election, but Prince said he had intended to vote in Wyoming this year. Prince said he learned he wasnt registered when I went to cast my early vote for the general election in late September. What does that tell us about Erik Prince? DAVIES: Right. What kind of inroads did they make? To continue reading, you will need to either log in to your subscriber account, or purchase a subscription. Trump, of course, wanted to pull out. And as part of this effort, Richard Seddon was brought on to handle training and really professionalize Project Veritas' undercover operations. Despite making multiple comments about Princes ties to Virginia, The Intercepts legal team said its immaterial to their jurisdictional arguments, which center on the publications own lack of ties to Wyoming. You know, I've covered politics for a long time myself, mostly at the state and local level. This couple, Beau and Sofia - they spent real time and effort trying to ingratiate themselves with Democrats and progressives. So they were looking to mine that, to exploit that territory. With @Project_Veritas's special training, we will be the next great intelligence agency. The Intercept, however, has stood behind its reporting and has described the suit as an improper attempt to learn the identity of its sources. 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? DAVIES: Right. met with White House and Pentagon officials. And he was pitching that plan, but it never got anywhere. Prince provided funding to hire a tech adviser to ascertain the authenticity of the emails. And then Seddon - you know, he stays on. New details reveal the ambitions of an operation intended to infiltrate opponents of Donald Trump, including moderate Republicans as well as progressives and Democrats. We're still trying to fully understand how Project Veritas, which is founded by James O'Keefe, actually came into contact with Erik Prince. But we were unaware of that. Prince a former C.I.A. 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. 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.. DAVIES: So an active player in the Trump world. Mr. Seddon regularly updated Mr. OKeefe about the operation against the Michigan teachers union, according to internal Project Veritas emails, where the language of the groups leaders is marbled with spy jargon. 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. 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. This is FRESH AIR. I think Trump pardoned at least one. And it's not clear to us if he was making any money off of this. Mr. 1-307-754-2221. 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. Im not ashamed of the methods that we use or the recordings that we use, he said. The year after the sting, Democracy Partners sued Project Veritas, and its lawyers have since deposed Mr. OKeefe. 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. During a meeting in a Las Vegas suburb last April of employees of Ms. Gores organization, the Wyoming Liberty Group, Mr. Seddon pitched a proposal to build a website where other so-called preppers could buy their own supplies and communicate with each other in the event of what he called a Black Swan moment a major terrorist attack, another pandemic or a civil war. It's not clear, though, if any of that was actually used in a way that thwarted anybody's candidacy or damaged their political reputation. This is when there was the special Senate election in Alabama, right? The Defense Department didn't go for it. 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. NY Times reporter Adam Goldman describes an undercover effort, headed up by an avid Trump supporter, that trained conservatives in espionage techniques and sent them to dig up dirt on progressives. GOLDMAN: Beau does. 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. Prince is separately under investigation by the Justice Department on unrelated matters, according to people familiar with the case. So he's certainly moved in this world before. 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. DAVIES: Wow. - not one expose every year. That got a lot of attention, was investigated by Robert Mueller. Is that what these interviews were about? Reaching out to several intelligence veterans and occasionally using Mr. Seddon to make the pitch Mr. There was a meeting at lunch which led to a resignation, I believe, of GOLDMAN: They targeted our editor, Dean Baquet. It's not clear to us why Prince decided to help Project Veritas. document.write ("