By Dan Murphy
State Supreme Court Judge Charles Wood, a native of Yonkers who sits in the 9th Judicial District, which includes Westchester County, has made two rulings conerning a legal battle between Project Veritas and its publisher James O’Keefe and the New York Times publishing company.
Project Veritas is the controversial, conservative media outlet-website that uses undercover reporters to film and record unsuspecting subjects to make shocking disclosures, with the goal of exposing unethical behavior, usually from liberal and progressive organizations. They have offices in Westchester County in Mamaroenck.
Judge Wood has ruled in favor of Project Veritas and against the New York Times in his decisions. The legal and media war between Veritas and the NY Times started in September of 2020, when Veritas released videos exposing what they claimed were evidence of election misconduct in Minnesota. In their coverage of this story, the NY Times called the video “deceptive.”
Project Veritas sued the NY Times for defamation based on their coverage of the Minnesota Veritas video-story.
On Nov. 11, 2021, the NY Times ran a different story based on memos they obtained from Project Veritas’ attorney, which outline legal guidance and strategy. Nobody knows how the times obtained the memos.
Judge Wood ruled that the Times must return or destroy any memos that they have concerning Veritas’ conversations with their attorneys, and also issued a temporary order restraining the Times from reporting on this matter any further.
“The New York Times‘ intrusion into Project Veritas’ protected attorney-client relationship is an affront to the attorney-client privilege and the dignity of the judicial process..Do not utilize the legal memos given by Project Veritas’ lawyer, Benjamin Barr, or information gleaned from those papers in this lawsuit for any purposes whatsoever,” Wood said in his order, additionally ordering the NY Times to “cease further efforts to solicit or acquire” any additional materials.
In essence, Judge Wood has ruled in favor of Veritas, and James O’Keefe, over the mighty New York Times. And this has infuriated many freedom of the press organizations and the NY Times, who claim that their First Amendment rights have been violated by Judge Wood’s ruling.
“This ruling is unconstitutional and sets a dangerous precedent. When a court silences journalism, it fails its citizens and undermines their right to know. The Supreme Court made that clear in the Pentagon Papers case, a landmark ruling against prior restraint blocking the publication of newsworthy journalism. That principle clearly applies here. We are seeking an immediate review of this decision,” said NY Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet, in an email response to the media.
Baquet’s statement referred to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1971 rejection of the Nixon administration’s bid to stop the Times and the Washington Post from publishing the Pentagon Papers, which detailed U.S. military involvement in Vietnam.
Bruce Brown, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, “This is the first prior restraint entered against the New York Times since the Pentagon Papers, and it is an outrageous affront to the First Amendment, and among the most serious threats to press freedom.”
O’Keefe said,“The paper needs to decide if it is in favor of press freedom for all, or only itself, because it can’t have it both ways,”
NY Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger stated, “This court has stopped The New York Times from publishing material concerning a significant and important organization that they obtained legally in the normal course of reporting..A client seeking guidance from its lawyers simply cannot be a matter of broad interest and public worth and concern. This verdict should raise alarms not only for champions of press freedoms but for anybody worried about the risks of government overreach into what the public may and cannot know. We are appealing quickly.”
Another piece to this story is that the FBI recently raided the offices of Project Veritas and O’Keefe concerning the stolen diary of Ashley Biden, daughter of President Joe Biden. O’Keefe and Veritas never published Ashley Biden’s diaries, but they were given the journals, which they returned.
