The letter sent by 16 staffers to the Project Veritas board of directors was revealed on Thursday, after it became clear that founder James O’Keefe may be ousted from the organization. As the news broke, “James O’Keefe IS Project Veritas” began to trend on Twitter.
That letter reveals complaints that staffers have with O’Keefe, about whom the board is expected to make a decision on Friday. The letter was obtained and published by Timcast.
“The undersigned are troubled and frustrated with James’ management style and business acumen,” it begins.
“These behaviors and actons are antithetial to our core values, and it came to a head this week. Most recently, the treatment of Barry Hinckley and Tom O’Hara. These 2 highly respected individuals did what they thought was right for the beOerment of the organizaion and got berated in public on Tuesday and effectively terminated by Thursday.”
In the letter, the 16 staffers, listed as Michael Villani, Eric Spracklen, Mario Balaban, Jake Mantel, Patrick Van Duyne, Sal Gueli Journalists: Arden Young, Preston Scagnelli, Bobby Harr (Lithium), Bethany Rolando, Joanne Sumner, Gillian Pietrowski, Jonathan Bailey, Joshua Hughes, Nick Mehaj, and Angelo Martinez, say that “James has become a power drunk tyrant and he is exactly who he pontificates on who we should be exposing.”
Other statements also site professional relationships that apparently soured between O’Keefe and others, including an instance where O’Keefe called Spencer Meads a “pussy.”
“James went as far as to call Spencer a pussy in Vegas, and Spencer heard him say it. Both of these guys were mission driven and suffered through it. They were raided and James still called Spencer that name – he never forgave them for making a decision to leave for their own mental wellbeing,” the letter reads.
Issues cited include that “airing grievances” has led to termination, which hs prevented the undersigned from previously speaking up. Lack of transparency in decision making was a concern, as well we O’Keefe being difficult to work with, belligerant, and mean, with “bullying” listed as a concern.
Others took issue with O’Keefe’s forray into musical theater, saying “All the theatre stuff and how that is handled makes me very uneasy. I understand it is rationalized as “raising awareness of our brand,” but the cost of that both in a financial sense as well as personnel and resources, becomes priority over why donors actually give us money, which is to conduct undercover investigations which expose waste fraud and abuse. In the end, we are in a deficit now, our fans and potential fans beyond do not respond positively to all of that stuff because all they want is for us to carry out the mission.”
Project Veritas has been hemmoraging followers in the wake of the news that its creator and founder may be iced out, with staff and board attempting to continue without the man who made the company what it is.
Veritas, which issued a statement after the news broke in New York Magazine and the Daily Beast that O’Keefe’s tenure was in question, said that they were confident in their ability to stay the course and continue to deliver on the mission O’Keefe set out for them, whether he was helming the project or not.
The letter references Barry Hinckley, who was fired by O’Keefe. A thread emerged on Twitter about Hinckley, alleging that he is “desperate for fame and fortune,” and had “recruited 11 other @Project_Veritas employees to sign a letter declaring @JamesOKeefeIII a ‘power-drunk tyrant’ which he presumably sent to PV’s board of directors in an effort to oust him from the company.”
The full letter was shared by Timcast.
