Erik Prince, the founder of controversial private military firm Blackwater and a supporter of former President Donald Trump, jumped into the COVID-19 business late last year with a deal to . Private property rights are a major cornerstone to how Wyoming operates, but so is prioritizing a rural, quiet lifestyle - ultimately, the former won out in Sublette County. document.write ("&loc=" + escape(window.location)); Emails sent to Mr. Seddon went unanswered. The Powell Tribune was unable to learn Prince's voter history from 2002 and 2017. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. For example, the co-authors of the piece in dispute, Cole and Alex Emmons, say theyre New York and Washington, D.C., residents whove never been to Wyoming. And Mr. O'Keefe disclosed that Foster Friess had actually given Project Veritas money. In 2010, Mr. O Keefe and three others pleaded guilty to a federal misdemeanor after admitting they entered a government building in New Orleans under false pretenses as part of a sting. DAVIES: Coming up, rock critic Ken Tucker reviews new songs by veteran artist Tom Jones, Jackson Browne and John Mayer. The Times previously reported that, in 2016 and 2017, Mr. But he was extremely wealthy conservative in Wyoming named Foster Friess, who had actually run for governor in '18. GOLDMAN: They were thwarting the president's agenda. And, you know, Seddon was out at the farm. Currently, Prince leads a Hong Kong-based firm providing security, logistics, insurance and infrastructure services in parts of Africa and other high-conflict areas. And, you know, typically they would have a male individual working for Project Veritas who would accompany these women on these dates as sort of, like, security. Many conservatives have gleefully pounced on Project Veritass disclosures, including one particularly influential voice: Donald Trump Jr., the presidents eldest son. GOLDMAN: What - the training they got was when they worked for an outfit called Project Veritas. DAVIES: Adam Goldman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times. Erik Prince, founder of private security contractor Blackwater and brother of former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, recruited a former British spy in 2016 to professionalize the undercover. He's a reporter for The New York Times. Given Mr. Princes extensive personal and professional ties to Wyoming, it is certainly plausible that some or all of [The Intercepts] sources to the extent they exist at all were located in Wyoming, Princes legal team wrote. You know, there was one exercise, I believe, where they had a cop - you know, a local cop who was there. if (document.MAX_used != ',') document.write ("&exclude=" + document.MAX_used); Attorneys for the outlet say The Intercept has no particular connection to the state and Princes ties are uncertain. He was leading training. Once a small operation running on a shoestring budget, Project Veritas in recent years has had a surge in donations from both private donors and conservative foundations. So, you know, this is not something I had ever done as a - you know, this is not something journalists do. I think it was called "Deep State Exposed" or "Deep State Uncovered." You know, O'Keefe has clearly raised a lot of money, you know, millions of dollars. The documents also show that, beyond Ms. Gore, other prominent Republicans in Wyoming were involved in Mr. Seddons spying operation. Is this stuff a crime? The financial document also listed the names of others who gave much smaller amounts to Project Veritas last year. Erik Prince, Betsy DeVos's brother, is also deeply steeped in far-right militancy. I have always understood him to be a resident of Northern Virginia, the lead writer of The Intercepts April story, Matthew Cole, wrote in a declaration. Read more about the operation and its cast of characters at The New York Times. You know, she attended that. They'd been recruited and trained in an operation led by a former British spy and security contractor Erik Prince, an avid supporter of Donald Trump. Efforts to locate Mr. Thomas were unsuccessful. He said that he did not think so. He's proposed similar things in other countries, hasn't he? The Powell Tribune was unable to learn Princes voter history from 2002 and 2017. But when I learned about Beau and Sofia last year - there's a website, Project Veritas Exposed. They also did the secret interviews at the airport in Cody in the - at the Prince hangar. Prince might have approached for money for Mr. Seddons venture besides Ms. Gore. Citing his ties to the state, his attorneys opted to file Princes defamation case against The Intercept in Wyomings U.S. District Court in May. And they admitted doing, you know - engaging in political activity while working for these government institutions, which Project Veritas asserted was, you know, wrong or even, you know - I can't remember if they said it was illegal or not. Did it expand their operations? The special counsels report said that Mr. So Erik Prince, the private security contractor who is an ally and avid supporter of President Trump, connects with Project Veritas, who does these videos, and then they develop this whole different operation. contractor who is best known as the founder of the private military firm Blackwater and whose sister, Betsy DeVos, was Mr. Trump's education secretary has drawn. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Mr. Using a different alias the next year, the same undercover operative infiltrated the congressional campaign of Abigail Spanberger, then a former C.I.A. And they - the purpose for - they themselves will launch this undercover operation and then, you know, secretly record you - audio, video - and then make a video out of it and, you know, expose what they describe as wrongdoing. Mr. Seddon used other former Project Veritas employees to help with the Wyoming operation, including James Artherton, a British operative code-named kimchi who was involved in a Project Veritas plan targeting an editor for The New York Times in London in 2017. Those contentions have become a key point of early proceedings in the case. And they will attend their rival's news conferences, public events and gather information. DAVIES: Right. Prince provided funding to hire a tech adviser to ascertain the authenticity of the emails. You mentioned that he was recruited by Erik Prince. Prince invited Project Veritas operatives including Mr. OKeefe to his familys Wyoming ranch for training in 2017, The Intercept reported last year. We're going to take a break here. He's a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times. On Sept. 30, Prince personally visited the Park County Elections Office, registered and cast a general election ballot, according to the clerks office. There's an annual one, Nellie T. Ross Banquet, and I believe it's in Cheyenne every February. To do so would potentially reveal the sources identity, in breach of a promise of confidentiality made to the source, and creating personal risk for the source, they wrote, adding Princes real motive in bringing this lawsuit obtaining the identity of [The Intercepts] confidential source is plain., Further, if Prince is allowed to take discovery of The Intercept, the lawyers say they should be allowed to probe Princes ties to Virginia versus Wyoming, since he already has been forced to admit [his sworn statements] contained certain falsehoods.. Remind us who he is. (SOUNDBITE OF FRANK ZAPPA'S "EAT THAT QUESTION"). The campaign discovered the operative and fired her. Amid his globe-trotting, however, Prince says he does most of his work from Wyoming and calls Park County home. As further evidence of his ties to Wyoming and the business he conducts in the state, Princes initial declaration said he owned several operating entities registered to his residence in Wapiti. In a YouTube video, Mr. OKeefe described the lawsuit as frivolous and pointed to a portion of the deposition in which David Hecker, the president of AFT Michigan, said that one of the goals of the lawsuit was to stop Project Veritas from doing the kind of work that it does., Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement: Lets be clear who the wrongdoer is here: Project Veritas used a fake intern to lie her way into our Michigan office, to steal documents and to spy and they got caught. [I] was a Wyoming resident for many years,, That same day Oct. 9, 2017 Prince obtained a Wyomings drivers license, which he touted, In early 2017, Prince reportedly welcomed James OKeefe and others from the conservative group Project Veritas, which describes itself as an army of guerrilla journalists. That February, OKeefe tweeted an image of himself taking aim with a silenced handgun amid snowy mountains, saying the team was undergoing intense training from a classified location as we make Project Veritas the next great intelligence agency. The Intercept ultimately, Other outlets, however, have continued writing about the contractor. Princes parents, Elsa Prince and the late Edgar Prince, bought the 940-acre Double E Ranch in the Wapiti Valley in the early 1990s. WASHINGTON Erik Prince, the security contractor with close ties to the Trump administration, has in recent years helped recruit former American and British spies for secretive. Prince a former C.I.A. Neither party wants to be, you know, exposed to this kind of spycraft - right? So there has been - the two have interacted, I think, even before Trump was president. You know, they were always - you know, always on the lookout for connections they could make. DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. And Las Vegas was the - you could almost say it was the pinnacle, the apex of their operation. So he's going to pop up in all sorts of different places. And Glenn Beck, Beau's uncle, gave a toast. People have probably heard of this organization. You know, they were angry too, right? DAVIES: So how did you come upon this couple, Beau and Sofia? This espionage operation was aimed at perceived enemies of Trump and included a planned sting operation against former national security adviser H.R. Ms. Jorge was eventually exposed and kicked out of the campaign office. GOLDMAN: She was very active. He's a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times. You know, was it effective? DAVIES: Right. And so we're all familiar with that, I think, to some extent. In a Jan. 15 order, U.S. District Court Judge Alan Johnson of Cheyenne tossed out Prince's defamation lawsuit against The Intercept. DAVIES: So he is the guy who hires this British spy, Richard Seddon, to train operatives to, you know, gather intelligence from, you know, Democrats and progressives. Ledeen said "someone she trusted" contacted her to help with the McMaster operation. GOLDMAN: Erik Prince is the well-known founder of Blackwater, the security contractors who were involved in the massacre in Iraq. And they will get, you know, negative information from public records. DAVIES: What are Erik Prince's contacts or associations with Donald Trump and the Trump family? Did it expand the number of people that they had? Did it help, you know, Project Veritas raise more money? Mr. Halderman was copied on several messages providing updates about the Michigan operation, and in one message, he gave instructions to Ms. Jorge. The woman was claiming she had been impregnated by the Senate candidate, thinking that The Washington Post would be so excited to get dirt about a conservative that they would publish a bogus story. They were critical of Donald Trump and his agenda. At the time I signed my [September] declaration I believed Jones Creek and CMNS to be Wyoming entities, but I have subsequently learned they are not; I believe they are Delaware entities, Prince wrote in the document, which he signed from California. It is, instead, an entity dedicated to a specific political agenda.. But I don't know how close they are. In August 2017, Ms. Jorge wrote to Mr. Seddon that she had managed to record a local union leader talking about Ms. DeVos and other topics. GOLDMAN: I think - yeah, I think the latest is - you know, he's worked - his latest adventure is in Libya. GOLDMAN: Yes. Prince and former British spy Richard Seddon both did work for the organization. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Prince have ties to President Trumps aides and family. During a meeting in a Las Vegas suburb last April of employees of Ms. Gores organization, the Wyoming Liberty Group, Mr. Seddon pitched a proposal to build a website where other so-called preppers could buy their own supplies and communicate with each other in the event of what he called a Black Swan moment a major terrorist attack, another pandemic or a civil war. Regardless, Princes residency is not the real issue in the case. DAVIES: What did you learn about how Beau and Sofia met? And we all sort of wracked our brains to try to figure out if, like, has this been done before? She was involved in that. Prince also allowed Project Veritas to use his familys Wyoming ranch for training. McMaster was thwarting the president's agenda - right? But Trump would, from time to time, cite Project Veritas videos in his, you know, comments, public comments and speeches, right?