Justice Department secretly obtained emails from Project Veritas journalist

The U.S. Justice Department issued a secret warrant to Microsoft on Jan. 26, 2021, to obtain emails and contacts of a Project Veritas journalist as part of its investigation of a diary stolen from President Joe Biden’s daughter, Ashley Biden.

The name of the employee whose emails were targeted was redacted in the warrant, but in a later court filing, attorneys for Project Veritas identified the person as a journalist.

The warrant was one of five issued to the technology company for communications of eight journalists from Project Veritas, which is known for hidden-camera sting operations of liberal politicians and nonprofits. As a result of the warrants, the government collected nearly 200,000 emails and other files, attorneys for Project Veritas said in a court filing.

In the other secret warrants, federal agents sought emails and contacts from Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe, Project Veritas journalists Eric Cochran and Spencer Meads, and four additional unidentified Project Veritas journalists.

A U.S. District Court ordered that the Jan. 26 warrant be sealed for two years, but Microsoft threatened to sue to make it public, along with that for Cochran and Meads. The Justice Department then lifted the gag order early and Microsoft alerted Project Veritas of the warrants on March 11, 2022, according to The New York Times and court filings.

Project Veritas, which identifies itself as a nonprofit investigative outlet, purchased the Biden diary in September 2020 from two people who later pleaded guilty to conspiring to transport stolen materials, a felony. Project Veritas never published the diary and gave it to police on Nov. 8, 2020.

The Department of Justice, however, opened an investigation into the outlet and its journalists concerning alleged conspiracy to transport stolen property across state lines, conspiracy to possess stolen goods, interstate transportation of stolen property and possession of stolen goods.

The secret warrant sought the journalist’s emails, contacts and Microsoft subscriber information. Prosecutors said in the warrant that they were looking for information mentioning Ashley Biden, her associates or her father; anything regarding her stolen property and where it was located; their alleged co-conspirators; plans to sell the stolen items and the value of them; surveillance of Ashley Biden; and any other evidence of a conspiracy.

The warrant for the unidentified journalist, along with Cochran and Meads, sought information going back to January 2020, although Project Veritas had only received the diary that September.

“The fact that the government secretly obtained emails from three different Project Veritas journalists dating from eight months prior to the newsgathering conduct that the government is scrutinizing shocks the conscience,” Project Veritas lawyers wrote in a request for preliminary relief from U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres. It does not appear from court records that the court ruled on this request.

The various orders and subpoenas also sought emails and contacts from a human resources manager.

Separately, search warrants were carried out at the homes of O’Keefe, Cochran and Meads in November 2021, alarming free speech advocates, including Freedom of the Press Foundation, of which the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is a project. A special master was appointed to determine what seized information could be shared with prosecutors.

Editor’s Note: This report has been corrected to reflect that the warrant was ordered sealed for two years, as was the warrant for Eric Cochran and Spencer Meads. Three other warrants targeting Project Veritas journalists were ordered sealed for just one year.