I previously wrote about deep concerns over the FBI investigation of Project Veritas over the missing diary of Ashley Biden, daughter of President Joe Biden. The use of the FBI in a case involving a missing diary is itself difficult to square with its priorities, let alone the different treatment given the New York Times. Now, counsel for Project Veritas has filed a motion detailing what could be a very serious violation of court orders as well as an attack on free speech and free press.
There has been relatively little attention to the extraordinary efforts of the Biden Justice Department in pursuing those connected with the disappearance of the diary of the President’s daughter. The concern is that the FBI is acting like a Praetorian Guard in acting on what is a crime ordinarily handled on a local level.
The controversy over Ashley Biden‘s diary began during her father’s campaign for the presidency in 2020. Like her brother Hunter, Ashley has struggled with addiction and was living in a two-bedroom house in Delray Beach, Fla., with a friend. According to the New York Times, she decided to go to Philadelphia but to leave some belongings in two bags in the Delray house. The owner later allowed a friend named Aimee Harris and her two children to move in. The Times strongly suggests that Ms. Harris searched the possessions, noting that she was hard up for money and was also a Trump supporter. The Times then simply says “exactly what happened next remains the subject of the federal investigation.”
Project Veritas and its founder, James O’Keefe, maintained that they were given the diary by a “tipster” but decided not to use it. Indeed, the group later turned over the material to law enforcement.
As noted by the New York Times, court records show that on Oct. 12, 2020, O’Keefe told Project Veritas staff that said they would not publish a story about the diary. He explained that, while they had “no doubt the document is real,” he was concerned that publishing the diary would be seen “as a cheap shot.”
Now we have new details of the lengths that the government has gone in this case, including allegedly evading a court order to protect the confidentiality of journalistic and attorney-client material.
In its 45-page court filing, counsel accused the Department of Justice of such circumvention after Microsoft recently revealed that the DOJ had previously seized Project Veritas documents from a cloud account using a warrant. I testified on such abuses recently in Congress.
The Project describes the investigation as “retributive” on behalf of the Biden Administration. It did so with “extreme measures that violate the First Amendment and corrode freedom of the press,” according to the filing.
Judge Torres appointed a special master, retired U.S. District Judge Barbara S. Jones, to protect confidential information on Dec. 8, 2021 in the Southern District of New York. The court specifically recognized that “potential First Amendment concerns that may be implicated by the review of the materials seized from Petitioners.” However, the letter from Project Veritas counsel states:
“We have recently learned, however, that the government already had in place mechanisms for circumventing these protective processes and invading the First Amendment and attorney- client privileges of Project Veritas and its journalists, the existence of which the government concealed from counsel for Project Veritas and its journalists and, we believe, from this Court. We have discovered that from November 2020 to April 2021, the government used compulsory demands, including secret warrants and 18 U.S.C. § 2703(d) orders, to obtain voluminous materials from Microsoft, the email services provider used by Project Veritas, spanning the email accounts of eight journalists and Project Veritas’s Human Resources Manager.
…It appears that the government misled this Court by omission, failing to disclose during the briefing and arguments over the appointment of a Special Master that the government had already obtained through these surreptitious actions many of the privileged communications this Court charged the Special Master with protecting. The government’s clandestine invasions of journalist’s communications corrode the rule of law.”
That is a familiar pattern and was discussed at the prior congressional hearing.
Some of the search demands clearly would implicate areas that the court previously sought to protect with the appointment of Judge Brown as special master. That includes:
According to court papers attached to the letter, here is some of what the feds were after:
b. Evidence of communications regarding or in furtherance of the Subject Offenses, such as communications with or regarding Ashley Biden, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (and representatives thereof), and/or Ashley Biden’s associates regarding her stolen property.
c. Evidence of the location of Ashley Biden’s property and the location of the user of the Subject Account at times relevant to the Subject Offenses, such as communications that reference particular geographic locations or refer to the property being located in a particular place.
d. Evidence of the identity and locations of potential co-conspirators, such as communications with other individuals about obtaining, transporting, transferring, disseminating, or otherwise disposing of Ashley Biden’s stolen property, including but not limited to communications reflecting the knowledge of co-conspirators that the property obtained from Ashley Biden had been stolen, and communications that contain personally identifiable information of co-conspirators and references to co-conspirators’ places of residence or locations at particular points in time.
e. Evidence regarding the value of any of Ashley Biden’s stolen property, such as communications about the resale or market value of any of the items stolen from her, or any plans to sell or market the same.
f. Evidence of steps taken in preparation for or in furtherance of the Subject Offenses, such as surveillance of Ashley Biden or property associated with her, and drafts of communications to Ashley Biden, President Biden, and Ashley Biden’s associates regarding her stolen property and communications among co-conspirators discussing what to do with her property.
Any search of those sweeping terms would net confidential and privileged information.
Putting aside the concerns over a crackdown on a journalistic organization, there remain unanswered questions over why this extraordinary effort was launched by the FBI over a missing diary.
The concerns over the Project Veritas investigation continue to mount, but neither Congress nor the media have demanded answers from the Biden Administration.
Think you are going to get change with the two party system. MAYBE if it was a two to three or so Citizens Coalition with citizens running it instead of the party Comrades. Not much difference between RINOs and DINOs and no relationship at all to the founders dream of self governing citizens.
The “abandonment of property” argument doesn’t really add up. Supposedly the “tipster” is not the owner of the apartment building. The story appears to say that the “tipster” is just another tenant that did indeed steal the property (regardless of who the owner is).
If the apartment owner owns the so-called “abandoned property”, that owner is a friend of Ms. Biden and would have returned the property to her.
It was a home, not an apartment. We’re assuming Ms. Biden was a friend instead of “just another tenant”. We’re assuming the property owner didn’t know about the diary and didn’t play a role. I’m not sure if anyone knows how many times the diary changed hands or how many copies were made prior to making it’s way to Project Veritas who turned it over to authorities.
@Svelaz
I suggest you go back and look at Ellsberg and the NYT vs US 1973(??) SCOTUS decision.
While Ellsberg would/should have been charge if not for the Feds mucking it up… the NYT was able to publish the material it got from Ellsberg who broke the law in taking the said documents.
Then if you actually paid attention to the story… Regardless of how PV got the material, they were never involved in the alleged theft… they didn’t use it and they turned it over to Law Enforcement.
Ignoring that this isn’t a Federal Crime and that the FBI shouldn’t have been engaged…. the burden of the FBI is to show probable cause where they clearly had none. The Feds clearly violated PV’s constitutional rights… to a point where their actions could be viewed as actionable by PV. (Meaning PV could sue Feds along w potential criminal prosecution against Federal Agents involved. )
Turley is correct in that this use of FLE is very concerning.
-G
Anonymous, I agree that stolen property can be published and is protected under the 1st amendment. However there’s more to the story than Turley’s let’s on.
According to one article in Vanity Fair,
“ Meanwhile, Project Veritas reportedly sent a man named Spencer Meads to Florida “to do more investigative work,” which, depending on who you believe, either involved obtaining more of Ashley’s items that “sources” claimed had been “abandoned,” or straight up stealing them. According to Project Veritas, it did nothing wrong and its actions are protected under the First Amendment. But federal prosecutors have said the group has made “false or misleading and are directly contradicted by the evidence” and that “even members of the news media ‘may not with impunity break and enter an office or dwelling to gather news.’”
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/03/ashley-biden-elizabeth-fago-project-veritas/amp
If the investigators have evidence that project veritas was involved in removing stolen property or stealing property besides the diary they would have enough convincing evidence to have a warrant.
We don’t know the full details of how PV really obtained the diary and PV isn’t exactly known for being honest with its claims.
Their own lawyer turned in the diary to the police stating that it was possible stolen property. If it’s well within their right to publish the contents under the 1st amendment why were they worried that it was stolen property? There’s something else not being disclosed that prevented PV from publishing. It’s possible they learned they may be legally liable for some reason.
The Justice Department primarily through it’s various agencies gets to be involved on anything it wants. Who, What, Where,Why etc.
You may recall how their former Director
Who got Hillary off the hook by carefully choosing which part of the law he chose AS OPPOSED TO THE ONE USED FOR LOWER RANKING MILITARY. Intent was used as part of it the one time, the other it was curiously
ABSENT for Clinton. In most cases intent is the first thing one looks. Clinton got to endlessly repeat I had no intent or knowledge etc. The submARINE SAILOR GOT NO SUCH A PASS COLLECT TWO MILLION …ETC.
It helps to be in the ruling class of the LEFTS CLASSLESS SOCIETY. ASK Putin He identified the Demos as the neEAREST THING TO THE CCCP’s version correctly identifying our far left.
Our House Loons on the Left that attend here never cease to fail in their ability to conjure up some form of attack on Project Veritas.
The FACTS that the Diary came TO Project Veritas…..and after careful consideration it transferred the Diary to Law Enforcement and declined to use any of it in any way…..clearly indicates that PV complied with a high standard of ethics and the Law.
It matters not how they got it…..the facts clearly show they were only recipients and not the ones that “obtained” the material and were not instrumental in that taking of the material.
PV did not publish any of the material prior to turning it over to Law Enforcement.
Media is not obliged to identify its sources…..otherwise Anonymous sources beloved by the Leftists of today’s media would have nothing to print.
Except for it being a. Biden Family “thing”….the FBI would immediately reject any investigation into such a matter…..say for instance my Daughter’s Diary being thrust into the news of the day…..there would be zero interest at the FBI.
Let’s face it….despite a continuous flow of allegations against the Clintons, Biden’s, Kerry, any number of other Liberal Democrats….the FBI remains focused upon Parents at School Meetings, Protestors at the Capital, and Police Officers involved in arrests of non-white Perps.
The DOJ and FBI have. compromised themselves repeatedly over the past couple of Decades and we rightly should hold them in contempt.
From Waco, Ruby Ridge, to more current failures…..the FBI and DOJ continue to refuse to actually clean house.
Ralph Chappell,
“ The FACTS that the Diary came TO Project Veritas…..and after careful consideration it transferred the Diary to Law Enforcement and declined to use any of it in any way…..clearly indicates that PV complied with a high standard of ethics and the Law.”
It’s not the fact that it “came to project veritas, it’s the fact that they were in possession of stolen property. The allegations that the diary was abandoned are not corroborated. The reason why the diary was turned over to the police is because being in possession of stolen property is not protected under the 1st amendment. Project veritas own lawyer strongly believed it was stolen.
“ On October 16, 2020, shortly after the call to Ashley, a lawyer for Project Veritas asked for an on-camera interview with Joe Biden to discuss the diary, which the campaign obviously did not agree to. Less than a week after that, the group wired Kurlander and Harris $40,000 for the rights to publish the diary, “and signaled that [they] planned to soon publish it, according a person with knowledge of the case.” In the end, it didn’t, and a right-wing website published excerpts in October. Shortly after that, a lawyer for Project Veritas brought the items to the Delray Beach Police Department, saying they were “possibly stolen.”
They paid $40,000 for the right to publish the contents of possibly stolen property.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/03/ashley-biden-elizabeth-fago-project-veritas/amp
Turley is well known for leaving certain pertinent facts off his columns.
Vanity Fair is not a reliable source.
Agreed.
I missed the part where you explain why the Justice Department is involved at all. Just because the diary was the property of the president’s daughter does not make its theft a federal crime. What has happened here is that the Justice Department has become the personal police department and muscle for Joe Biden and the protector of all things democrat. Why are you not concerned about that?
There is no need. In a one party three named or more system why bother with worrying about outcomes? They can always spread more diseases and reopen those death houses in New York.
The possibility of blackmail is a serious enough issue that it may require DOJ intervention.
You made up out of thin air that the diary is stolen.
Great post and I think you could have said all that without calling anyone names. Let’s all try to keep it civil as Mr. Turley requests.
Biden is going to have to retire after this term.
What are the chances he would reason a bit early and turn it over to one even less qualified or second choice have his beep beep veep beep resign and replace with something closer to……..Never happen and the choices are far worse. See wny the PARTY System is such a failure?
It’ll be Brandon till he’s 90.
You’re hoping.
As a Constitutional Centrist with 24 years infantry I’m more and more convinced the RINO/DINO two party system is a failure and, in my case, as an Independent a Constitutional Centrist Coalition is more and more the way to go.
Coalitions are not limited to Centrists by any means however as there Citizen Member have complete control not some coalition of the LEFT, RIGHT, OR worse controlled by Socialists by just another name.
We tried it with President Trump and what a BATTLE THAT WAS.
Time to refine it into a true representation of Citizens. notification blocks have two checks.
“Putting aside the concerns over a crackdown on a journalistic organization, there remain unanswered questions over why this extraordinary effort was launched by the FBI over a missing diary.”
A diary, which had already been found and returned to LE, before the investigation began over the missing diary.
Turley: “Microsoft recently revealed that the DOJ had previously seized Project Veritas documents from a cloud account using a warrant.”
+++
A ‘cloud account’ is just someone else’s hard drive .
Don’t put anything there that you don’t want others sorting through with or without legal authority. You can no longer trust the integrity of federal law enforcement, the courts, the Congress or the media. They cheat and they lie, all of them.
Can you say, “Gestapo”?
I knew you could.
Turley seems to be either very naive or just plain obtuse here.
There’s still the mystery on how project veritas got ahold of the diary. Project veritas claims it was given to them by a tipster, but the claims of a trump supporter who was hard up for cash came across it when the diary was discovered in the apartment. Project veritas credibility isn’t exactly stellar as it has been found guilty of manipulating video to portray a false narrative before. Who is to say it didn’t pay this trump supporter for the diary?
This is the president’s daughter and her diary may be a legitimate concern for the possibility of blackmail. What Turley doesn’t go into much is the fact that there were warrants issued which means there were convincing explanations from the FBI that are not publicly known and a judge agreed. Anything that presents a possibility of harming the president or their children from blackmail is a serious issue. It is likely why even project veritas turned over the diary to authorities.
Given project veritas reputation as an exploitative organization and known for manipulating evidence the FBI would be failing it’s duty if it didn’t make sure that project veritas wasn’t holding on to something that could be used to blackmail the president or his daughter.
The fact that it’s the president’s daughter gives this case a higher level of attention. I would expect the same thing if this was Barron Trump’s dairy and it was in the hands of a radical left wing organization. I’m sure Turley would have a much different opinion because it’s Trump.
“Project veritas credibility isn’t exactly stellar as it has been found guilty of manipulating video to portray a false narrative before. Who is to say it didn’t pay this trump supporter for the diary?”
************************************
Manipulating? Says who? the Dims? Oh and PV freely admits it paid for the diary as many news organization do for materials in their stories. Plus the diary has now been verfied as true so they ought to publish it now. You ought to remember that the same argument about illegally obtained documents (though there is no proof it was stolen by PV) being unfit to publish was made in the Pentagon Papers case but that argument was soundly rejected by the Supreme Court (even when the docs were national secuity docs). PV DIDN’T publish the diary because it couldn’t be verified which of course if real journalism something the Left has forgotten.
Turley is naive or obtuse. Project much Svelaz? Do you really believe you understand the legal ramifications concerning this issue better than Turley? The diary is not the issue. Project Veritas is not the issue. The investigation into the diary is not the issue. The issue is that the FBI failed to disclose to the court and counsel that they had seized materials before the court appointed a special master to protect confidential information.
Project veritas credibility isn’t exactly stellar as it has been found guilty of manipulating video to portray a false narrative before
PV puts up the entire video on their web site, the same time they break a story. The edited story, will have edited video. Like most all video posted online. The difference is PV does put up the raw minutes of video.
If you have some evidence, you failed to provide a link
may be a legitimate concern for the possibility of blackmail.
‘may be’ is in no legal framework I can find, for seeking a warrant.
Given project veritas reputation as an exploitative organization and known for manipulating evidence
Again. Facts not in evidence.
The fact that it’s the president’s daughter gives this case a higher level of attention.
Jen Psaki has lectured the media that the President’s children do not work for the federal govt. Their actions are of no concern to the Executive Branch
Project veritas credibility isn’t exactly stellar as it has been found guilty of manipulating video to portray a false narrative before.
That’s a lie.
Easy to lie when you hide behind a false name and provide zero proof or even some opinion or anecdote. Those who don’t aRE ALMOST 100 shills for the socialists. Tends to drive honest citizens to the other side. The FBI Director and his shilling for Comrade Clinton just one example. You lose Comrade.
“We didn’t love freedom enough.” –Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
One big failure of the Trump presidency was not to drain the swamp. In fact, like other presidents, he surrounded himself with swamp rats and until all the swamp rats, hangers on, lobbyists etc. are dispersed out of D.C. we will never function as the founders intended.
Deadarmadillo: Hate to tell you but barring nuclear holocaust centered in DC, the swamp will never be drained. The love of money and power is just too great.
which is the main rationale for a small, limited, federal government; and our founding fathers were well aware of that fact. They gave us the tools to prevent just such a mess within which we find ourselves, but we failed miserably and added to the mess when we allowed unionized government workers.
You really don’t drain a swamp to kill it. You bury it six feet under.
Mespo, you better control your micro aggressions.
IB:
I think thats a macro one! Don’t get me started on the “Death to Tyrants” thingy.:D
I so totally agree, moaning about the latest miscarriage of justice or over-reach of government flunkies is worthless. It is the same as putting a first aid treatment on a bleed-out wound. Until we virtually replace all government employees down to city dog catcher and eliminate unionized bureaucracies we will NEVER heal this nation, if at all. But using the prosecution of illegal actions by government would be a start, that is if there were any honest government officials available and willing to do that job.
This would appear to be a good time to look at the FBI and dismantle it. I would not just move it but destroy it and start over. These episodes of secret searches, abuse of power, destruction of patient client privilege have gone to far. Possibly even trying to destroy a presidency. In medicine we would probably call for the excision of this cancerous lesion from the body and send it to pathology to determine it’s origins, it’s metastasis pattern, and develop a treatment or process to prevent it’s recurrence in the affected body (politic) and to prevent it spreading to other healthy bodies. Possibly isolate in a formalin body and leave it there for future generations to learn from. One of the key risks of mortality in covid 19 has been excessive weight. The Federal Government needs to excise a great deal of weight otherwise it will drag down the entire body to destruction and oblivion.
Amen, brother, amen! Drop the mic! It is PAST way time
If the court finds that any FBI or DOJ attorneys engaged in misconduct, they should be reported to their respective state bars for disciplinary action. Employment by a federal agency does not exempt an attorney from his or her ethical obligations.
FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith fabricated evidence and he got probation and community service. He did not even get disbarred. He’s back in ‘good standing’ with the bar, after a gentle slap on the wrist.
I’m shocked that the FBI would lower itself to this level. No, not really.
I am amazed that the JT did not mention the role of the prosecutors from SDNY in this matter. Failure to disclose material facts to the presiding judge is bad enough. The use of non-disclosure orders to Microsoft issued by magistrates that were either unaware of the presiding judge’s order in the case is an indictment of the (lack) of professional ethics and standards.
These actions once again illustrate why there is a lack of confidence in the FBI and the DOJ.
Not to be facetious, but I am certain that there was a lack of confidence in the SS for all the same reasons but as long as those in power protect them, nothing will happen. I am afraid that the swamp is so tainted that these agencies have enough on most swamp dwellers to keep them silent and impotent. Other means of eliminating them may be required.
The filing keeps using the term ‘stolen’ nothing was stolen. Objects abandoned at a rental property, are the property of who ever has control of that residence.
The Times then simply says “exactly what happened next remains the subject of the federal investigation.”
Exactly how does federal jurisdiction attach to this diary?
I blame judges for allowing this massive abuse of power.
Regardless of who Ashley Biden is related to, she still has 4th Amendment rights, property rights and constitutional due process rights. How could any court bypass her 4th Amendment rights – testifying under penalty of perjury to probable cause of a past crime to obtain a warrant?
The dangerous precedent here is what if the name wasn’t “Ms. Biden” but “Thomas Edison” or “Elon Musk”? Could the government seize their private intellectual property? Could they spy on or steal that private property?
Ever since Russia Russia Russia all the intel agencies are looking pretty bad. What is going on in our country, every citizen should be very concerned. I keep thinking what Jonathan Gruber said: “the stupidity of the American voter”, that’s what DC thinks of us.
Margot, you are so right.
Well Jonathan Gruber only failed to include himself in that stupidity of the American people. Of course by excluding himself, he raised the intelligence of the American people by an astronomical amount. He also failed to understand that designing a health plan is only the first step and he failed there. The more major steps are actually implementing and running of said plan and being ready to quickly change aspects of the plan when they become obviously untenable. He failed the first rule of plans and possible the second rule. No plan survives contact with the enemy (adversary) and the enemy (adversary) always has a vote even if you don’t plan to given them that option. Otherwise i agree with your statement.
Christopher Wray is another “institution man” more concerned with his career than with doing right.
And the DOJ has shown itself to be partisan at the behest of the Dems.
Watch our resident lefties ignore the issues
and attack Turley as biased.
Stories like this convince me that the DOJ/FBI need to be overhauled and moved out of DC – say to Omaha or Tulsa. In this age, there is no need to have all federal agencies in the confines of DC, where they share the same ideology and continue to feed off each other
This is the modern day equivalent of the watergate breakin. Without any press scrutiny!
The DOJ, FBI, FDA, NIH, and all of the other Federal agencies in the District of Corruption: A miasmic circle jerk in a germ-laden hot tub! They need to be thoroughly dredged and sanitized.
DimunistEradicator – I suggest we move Washington, D.C. to the Badlands of South Dakota.