It's a conservative group, and they conduct undercover operations, for instance, to expose bias or what they would describe as, you know, wrongdoing primarily in liberal circles. To do so would potentially reveal the sources identity, in breach of a promise of confidentiality made to the source, and creating personal risk for the source, they wrote, adding Princes real motive in bringing this lawsuit obtaining the identity of [The Intercepts] confidential source is plain., Further, if Prince is allowed to take discovery of The Intercept, the lawyers say they should be allowed to probe Princes ties to Virginia versus Wyoming, since he already has been forced to admit [his sworn statements] contained certain falsehoods.. DAVIES: So he is the guy who hires this British spy, Richard Seddon, to train operatives to, you know, gather intelligence from, you know, Democrats and progressives. And they will get, you know, negative information from public records. Adam Goldman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times. So, you know, this is not something I had ever done as a - you know, this is not something journalists do. 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.. And as we quoted an expert in our story, you know, if there's a sudden pattern of somebody giving money to the Democrats and they had never done that before, you know, that could also raise suspicions. Attorneys for the outlet say The Intercept has no particular connection to the state and Princes ties are uncertain. She was doing outreach to, you know, Democratic figures in Wyoming. AMY GOODMAN: In Wyoming. They were, in fact, undercover spies who had been building a cover as eager Democrats when, in fact, they were anything but that. We'll continue our conversation in just a moment. Good stuff, Mr. Seddon wrote back. Erik Prince, a Park County resident and founder of the controversial private military firm Blackwater, is suing a national news organization in federal court in Wyoming after it published an. Project Veritas tax filings list Mr. Halderman as a project manager.. - where you have people in your organization who aren't who they say they are, you know, collecting intelligence, if that's what you want to call it. So there has been - the two have interacted, I think, even before Trump was president. As further evidence of his ties to Wyoming and the business he conducts in the state, Princes initial declaration said he owned several operating entities registered to his residence in Wapiti. Although he owns a home in Wapiti, Prince is not generally known as a Wyoming businessman. 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. document.write ('&cb=' + m3_r); He's proposed similar things in other countries, hasn't he? How Times reporters cover politics. At the center of the scheme was an unusual cast: a former British spy connected to the security contractor Erik Prince, a wealthy heiress to the Gore-Tex fortune and undercover operatives like. There was eventually litigation about that, wasn't there? Mr. Seddon used other former Project Veritas employees to help with the Wyoming operation, including James Artherton, a British operative code-named kimchi who was involved in a Project Veritas plan targeting an editor for The New York Times in London in 2017. 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 a YouTube video, Mr. OKeefe described the lawsuit as frivolous and pointed to a portion of the deposition in which David Hecker, the president of AFT Michigan, said that one of the goals of the lawsuit was to stop Project Veritas from doing the kind of work that it does., Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement: Lets be clear who the wrongdoer is here: Project Veritas used a fake intern to lie her way into our Michigan office, to steal documents and to spy and they got caught. Regardless, Princes residency is not the real issue in the case. I have a Wyoming drivers license, I am a Wyoming resident, and exploration is underway, Prince said of his potential Senate bid. Prince declined to comment. You know, she used that to hobnob with people. "He's a very nice man," Prince said of Barrasso in the Breitbart interview. GOLDMAN: Well, some people have speculated this was some sort of back channel to Russia because there was a - I believe there was a Russian investment manager there who has ties to Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia. DAVIES: Right. Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Thomas were on the list. We know that because Glenn put it up on his Instagram account. And I think the Intercept geolocated that photo and determined it was Erik Prince's ranch. Last week, our guest, reporter Adam Goldman, co-authored a story about a couple who ingratiated themselves with Democrats in Wyoming, often making substantial political contributions to ensure their access to valuable information. Prince grew up in Michigan, where their father made a fortune in the auto parts business. However, lawyers for the publication say they should not have to reveal who told them about Princes alleged meeting with Wagner Group or where they were told it occurred. They had a - someone came to the Post. That same day Oct. 9, 2017 Prince obtained a Wyomings drivers license, which he touted in another interview with Breitbart a few days later. And, I mean, they were both active, but she was literally, you know, infiltrating these Democratic groups. The training was done by a guy - a lot of the training was done by a guy named Richard Seddon, S-E-D-D-O-N. Who is he? DAVIES: Right. 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. You know, she attended that. GOLDMAN: Well, as we started reporting on Erik Prince and Richard Seddon, I became deeply interested in learning who, in fact, was working for this organization. GOLDMAN: That's a good question. McMaster. Mr. Other Project Veritas employees on the emails include Joe Halderman, an award-winning former television producer who in 2010 pleaded guilty to trying to extort $2 million from the comedian David Letterman. 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 identified the site as the Prince ranch in a 2019 article. They make significant political contributions, right? There was a meeting at lunch which led to a resignation, I believe, of GOLDMAN: They targeted our editor, Dean Baquet. GOLDMAN: Yes, very wealthy and very conservative. And I got swept away reporting on that and eventually was able to come back to it. There's a long backstory there. I mean, this is - you know, he no doubt sees them as a conservative ally, like other conservative networks. They were going to bug it. DAVIES: Let me reintroduce you again. 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. And, you know, eventually she starts using this to meet other prominent Democrats in the state. An attorney for The Intercept reportedly told Princes lawyer in the spring the piece was one in a series of planned articles concerning Mr. Princes activities, though it has not published any further pieces to date. 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. It's not clear to me how close he is to Trump. A former British spy and Republican mega-donor Erik Prince, a founder of the private military contractor Blackwater (now rebranded as "Academi) and brother to former U.S. Education Secretary. For example, Rolling Stone published an investigative piece in October asserting Prince participated in a plan to dampen turnout among Black voters in the 2016 election. 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. And so these people were brought on to help manage these many, many, many, many operations. At the time, Ms. Spanberger was running to unseat a sitting Republican congressman in a race both parties considered important for control of the House. So he's going to pop up in all sorts of different places. DAVIES: Right. If he enters the race, he would be challenging Republican incumbent John Barrasso in the 2018 primaries, with the encouragement of Steve Bannon. 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. 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. Of course, everybody's familiar with Watergate, right? We know that political operatives will gather opposition research as it's called - right? How Times reporters cover politics. And they were doing this - it appears that they were doing this from the house where Beau and Sofia lived with others. Not saying this is the case with Mr. O'Keefe, but it's sort of hard to fundraise that way if you're only doing one thing a year or if it's - you know, there are long periods of silence between each expose. The website for Mr. OKeefes coming wedding listed Donald Trump Jr. as an invited guest. Set some context for us here. You know, they were always - you know, always on the lookout for connections they could make. The two men had known each other since Mr. Princes days running Blackwater, and shared an affinity for guns and the American West. 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. One target in particular was Gov. Ms. Jorge was eventually exposed and kicked out of the campaign office. Tell us about them. Adam Goldman reports on the FBI and national security for the Times and was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for national reporting on Russia's meddling in the presidential election. If you would like to purchase a subscription click here. 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. This is FRESH AIR. [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. But the effort is a glimpse of a vigorous private campaign to try to undermine political groups or individuals perceived to be in opposition to Mr. Trumps agenda. WASHINGTON A British former spy recruited by Erik Prince, the security contractor close to the Trump administration, played a central role in a secretive effort to hire dozens . But then January 6 happened, you know, the insurrection. And Mr. O'Keefe disclosed that Foster Friess had actually given Project Veritas money. At the time I signed my [September] declaration I believed Jones Creek and CMNS to be Wyoming entities, but I have subsequently learned they are not; I believe they are Delaware entities, Prince wrote in the document, which he signed from California. They were, in fact, going to use a former Project Veritas operative named Tarah Price, who lives in the Dallas area, to, you know, possibly ensnare McMaster at a restaurant, get him to say something ill toward or maybe negative about Trump, something that would compromise him. Presented with the details of the operation, Ledeen told the Times she was just a messenger, "not part of a plot.". And, you know, Seddon then reached out to, you know, a family - an old friend who had worked at the FBI. document.write (document.charset ? On Sept. 30, Prince personally visited the Park County Elections Office, registered and cast a general election ballot, according to the clerks office. And then on a parallel but different track, you know, Sofia is trying to make her way through the Young Democrats of Wyoming, the Wyoming Democratic Party, you know, building her bona fides as an eager, young Democrat. And Las Vegas was the - you could almost say it was the pinnacle, the apex of their operation. But I think - you would think that Democrats and Republicans would all be united, that this is a bipartisan issue, right? And then they married last week. And GOLDMAN: Involving Roy Moore - exactly. Connor Wroe Southard. DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR, and our guest is Adam Goldman. DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. So flesh out the picture a bit. Prince noted he owned a home in Wyoming and had been connected to the state since 1992. However, the story quoted a former U.S. Treasury official who suggested simply making an offer to assist Wagner might have violated current U.S. sanctions in place against the Russian firm. A spokesman for Mr. And they stopped the - they would actually stop the operatives in a car. Reached by phone, Ms. Halverson said: Frankly, I have nothing to say on the subject. She then hung up. And, you know, Seddon was out at the farm. But Trump would, from time to time, cite Project Veritas videos in his, you know, comments, public comments and speeches, right? And so, you know, I can't tell you right now it hasn't, that somebody else isn't doing this. DAVIES: When Richard Seddon and Erik Prince got connected with Veritas and cooperated on some of these operations, what was the effect on Veritas? In fact, I wrote a memo about what I had found. I'm not sure that just because he's a conservative, this is something he wanted to help. document.write ("