James O’Keefe Announces Connecticut Attorney General Has Threatened Project Veritas with Subpoena as Lawyers for News Organization Hit Back with Response Letter
Key Points
At an event in Greenwich, Connecticut, Project Veritas founder and CEO, James O’Keefe, announced that the news organization was sent a records hold request and a threat of being subpoenaed by the office of Connecticut Deputy Associate Attorney General, Greg O’Connell.
O’Connell anticipates, “issuing subpoenas for relevant material,” adding that if the investigation “substantiates a pattern or practice of illegal conduct, we may initiate appropriate litigation to enforce federal and state law.”
In response, Project Veritas attorneys Paul Calli and Charles Short replied, in part, “At the federal level, before a prosecutor or agent may attempt to speak or serve process on a journalist to obtain any materials or information from the journalist, permission must first be granted by the Attorney General of the Unites States.”
Our attorneys also cited to the: “Protection from Compelled Disclosure of Information Obtained by News Media law found in Section 52- 146t of the Connecticut General Statutes (the ‘Shield Law’). If you have read the Shield Law, you know it expressly prohibits the action your letter threatens to take against Project Veritas.”
The threat of subpoena from the Connecticut Attorney General’s office comes in the aftermath of Project Veritas reporting showing Cos Cob Elementary School Principal, Jeremy Boland, discussing discriminatory hiring practices.
[GREENWICH, CT – Sept. 12, 2022] At an event in Greenwich, Connecticut, Project Veritas founder and CEO, James O’Keefe, announced that the news organization was sent a records hold request and a threat of being subpoenaed by the office of Connecticut Deputy Associate Attorney General, Greg O’Connell.
After a Project Veritas investigation into Cos Cob Assistant Principal, Jeremy Boland, attracted local and national news, O’Connell sent Project Veritas a letter on September 2nd stating that the Attorney General’s Office had “opened a civil rights investigation into the possibility of discriminatory employment practices in the Greenwich Public Schools.”
The letter then states that his office anticipates “issuing subpoenas for relevant material,” adding that if the investigation “substantiates a pattern or practice of illegal conduct, we may initiate appropriate litigation to enforce federal and state law.”
In a response, Project Veritas Attorneys, Paul Calli and Charles Short, noted a few problems with O’Connell’s approach, first being that “At the federal level, before a prosecutor or agent may attempt to speak or serve process on a journalist to obtain any materials or information from the journalist, permission must first be granted by the Attorney General of the Unites States.”
More from Calli and Short’s letter:
“Protection from Compelled Disclosure of Information Obtained by News Media” law found in Section 52- 146t of the Connecticut General Statutes (the ‘Shield Law’). If you have read the Shield Law, you know it expressly prohibits the action your letter threatens to take against Project Veritas. Specifically, subsection (b) of the Shield Law provides that ‘No judicial, executive or legislative body with the power to issue a subpoena or other compulsory process’ – that means you – ‘may compel the news media’ – that means Project Veritas – ‘to produce or otherwise disclose any information obtained or received . . . by the news media in its capacity in gathering, receiving or processing information for potential communication to the public…’ Connecticut’s Shield Law requires in subsections (c) to (e) that after negotiating with Project Veritas but prior to issuing your threatened subpoena you first make a showing by clear and convincing evidence that: (1) ‘There are reasonable grounds to believe that a crime has occurred;’ (2) The information you seek from Project Veritas is ‘critical or necessary to the investigation;’ (3) The information ‘is not obtainable from any alternative source;’ and (4) ‘there is an overriding public interest in the disclosure.’
Attorneys for Project Veritas further noted that the letter from the Connecticut Attorney General’s office “neither cites this law, purports to have complied with this law, nor frankly evidences even cursory knowledge of this law.”
About Project Veritas
Project Veritas is a non-profit investigative news organization conducting undercover reporting. Project Veritas investigates and exposes corruption, dishonesty, self-dealing, waste, fraud, and other misconduct in both public and private institutions to achieve a more ethical and transparent society. Project Veritas is a registered 501(c)(3) organization.