After just seven months of ousting its founder James O’Keefe, Project Veritas has come to a halt due to a lack of funds. This surprising turn of events was made known in a letter written by the organization’s Human Resources director Jennifer Kiyak on Wednesday, laying off six staff members including all remaining journalists and a development associate. In the letter, she explained that the nonprofit was forced to pause all operations in order to preserve its future existence.
According to Mediaite, CEO Hannah Giles and ten other staffers remain at Project Veritas while six others have been let go. Upon hearing the news, former chief investigative journalist Christian Hartsock, who himself was laid off in August, questioned the legitimacy of the nonprofit’s continued operations. He stated, “what exact ‘operations’ has she been continuing with remaining donor money – given for the sole purpose of journalism production – for the past month?” It seems that there may have been no operations left to suspend, as Hartsock claims that Giles “canned the entire production staff of a production company, and the entire journalist leadership staff” at the same time he was let go.
The departure of founder James O’Keefe in February sparked a series of events that eventually led to the organization’s current state. After being placed on leave by his board, employees accused O’Keefe of being “outright cruel” to staff and mishandling the organization’s funds. In response to these allegations, O’Keefe launched the new O’Keefe Media Group in March.
In a September internal meeting, Giles reportedly called the organization “bankrupt.” This raises questions about how the remaining funds were used and whether they were used appropriately.
O’Keefe’s lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman says the lack of funds is “highly suspect.” In his statement to Mediaite, he emphasized the need for a full audit of Project Veritas’ finances in order to determine where the money was actually spent. It seems that O’Keefe’s concerns about the organization’s financial management were not unfounded.
It is truly surprising to see an organization with such potentially impactful operations come to a halt due to a lack of funds. It begs the question of what could have been done differently to avoid this outcome. O’Keefe’s departure and the subsequent management changes seem to have had a significant impact on the organization’s stability.
In the end, it is unfortunate that Project Veritas was not able to sustain its operations but it would be fair to speculate that it was always part of the plan to begin with. Fox News pulled that same move, and we see where it got them.