Watchdog group Project Veritas appears to be in free fall six months after the group ousted its founder, James O’Keefe.
In a now-deleted message posted on X, the official PV account wrote, “SOS Hannah Giles just fired us all.”
Giles took over as CEO in the wake of O’Keefe’s February departure.
I'm told almost all of Project Veritas was just laid off and this is legit
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) August 17, 2023
"All of production, all of field ops, all of comms, all of legal. Only remaining are office admin, HR person, a couple development people & IT" pic.twitter.com/X65CQBgK7A
What is going on at @Project_Veritas?
— E (@ElijahSchaffer) August 17, 2023
They just posted this 🆘 saying their CEO had fired everyone
Deleted it
They were gaining 200k followers a month before @JamesOKeefeIII was ousted
Now they’re consistently bleeding followers. No traction on stories
What is going on? pic.twitter.com/alXdeGV4r2
Reporting from The Post Millennial claimed to have confirmed that multiple staffers were let go—a handful on Monday and another 20 on Thursday. Project Veritas CFO Tom O’Hara allegedly resigned as well.
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An unnamed source told the site that in the wake of O'Keefe's ouster, "the donations dried up" and "never resumed."
There is a new CFO @project_veritas - George Skakel @Righthinker2 - the previous CFO Tom O’Hara resigned after seeing all his colleagues be fired. pic.twitter.com/CDYOtid0fp
— Gavin Elwes (@GavinElwes) August 17, 2023
A letter obtained by The Post Millennial from a PV attorney reads:
"On August 9, 2023 I was informed that the PV board of directors voted on August 8, 2023 to no longer indemnify Spencer Meads and Eric Cochran. I had a meeting with George Skakel, Hannah Giles, and John Sullivan later that afternoon to express my concerns. I was told the main reason for the decision was to save money which seemed disingenuous considering the outstanding balances of Spencer’s attorney and Eric’s attorney, when combined, total roughly $45,000.00, according to Tom O’Hara. To compromise on the values and ethics held by the employees of this organization is simply wrong. It sets a dangerous precedent that at any given moment, Project Veritas can withhold providing legal protection to current journalists operating legally in the field. After expressing my concerns, I was told that I should postpone contacting their attorneys while the board reconsidered their decision.
"This afternoon, at 2:38 p.m., I received a text from Hannah stating, 'Hey, go ahead and tell Eddie the above, and alert Spencer & Eric’s Attorney’s about the decision the board made the other night. It currently stands as is.'"This email is in response to the directive I was given. Not only is it unethical to no longer protect journalists that have gone out into the field and risked their livelihoods to for the betterment of our country, I believe ceasing to do so will open Project Veritas to legal liability. Ten days ago, on July 31, 2023, we published the Ashley Biden Diary story (against the wishes of Eric Cochran and others) with a main goal of raising money for the legal defenses of our journalists. In the piece, Hannah states 'we continue to provide representation to all of them.' All of them means Spencer Meads, Eric Cochran, and James O’Keefe.
"There are serious issues with honesty in telling the public we are providing representation for Spencer and Eric and then mere days later voting to cease that representation. There may also be fraud given Project Veritas solicited funds based upon that claim which is now no longer true. In that vein, with all respect to all involved, I must and do hereby decline to participate in this decision or the execution of it."
BREAKING: Just received word Project Veritas has fired virtually its entire staff. Only a skeleton crew of HR and a few fundraisers remain.
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) August 17, 2023
Turns out @JamesOKeefeIII was pretty important, wasn’t he?