{"id":1010650,"date":"2021-11-14T10:13:39","date_gmt":"2021-11-14T15:13:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1010650"},"modified":"2021-11-14T10:13:41","modified_gmt":"2021-11-14T15:13:41","slug":"politico-fbi-okeefe-raid-sparks-questions-about-press-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/politico-fbi-okeefe-raid-sparks-questions-about-press-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"Politico: FBI O&#039;Keefe Raid &#039;Sparks Questions About Press Freedom&#039;"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fpolitico-fbi-okeefe-raid-sparks-questions-about-press-freedom%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1010650&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/GettyImages-882518794-640x335-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\"><em>Politico<\/em> published the first article in an establishment media publication on Saturday questioning the legitimacy of the FBI\u2019s recent raid on the home of Project Veritas founder James O\u2019Keefe and warning that it could be a \u201cthreat to press freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/the-media\/2021\/11\/07\/fbi-raids-james-okeefes-house-over-ashley-biden-diary\/\">raid<\/a> took place last Saturday at O\u2019Keefe\u2019s home in New York, and ostensibly involved a search for clues about a stolen diary belonging to President Joe Biden\u2019s daughter, Ashley, which Project Veritas says it obtained legally and which it did not use in any media coverage, turning it over to law enforcement last year instead.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p><em>Politico<\/em>\u2018s Josh Gerstein <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2021\/11\/13\/raid-veritas-okeefe-biden-press-521307\">wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"31\">\n<p>The Biden administration\u2019s effort to establish itself as a committed champion of press freedom is facing new doubts because of the Justice Department\u2019s aggressive legal tactics against a conservative provocateur known for his hidden-camera video stings.<\/p>\n<p>A predawn FBI raid last weekend against Project Veritas founder James O\u2019Keefe and similar raids on some of his associates are prompting alarm from some First Amendment advocates, who contend that prosecutors appear to have run roughshod over Justice Department media policies and a federal law protecting journalists.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is just beyond belief,\u201d said University of Minnesota law professor Jane Kirtley, a former executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. \u201cI\u2019m not a big fan of Project Veritas, but this is just over the top. I hope they get a serious reprimand from the court because I think this is just wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2026<\/p>\n<p>At the center of the gathering legal storm is a pivotal question: Is O\u2019Keefe a journalist in the eyes of the law?<\/p>\n<p>\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Lawyers tracking the case say the publicly available facts suggest two possibilities: the Justice Department deemed O\u2019Keefe did not qualify as a journalist under DOJ guidelines and federal law known as the Privacy Protection Act, or concluded that he was a member of the media, but that Project Veritas\u2019 personnel may still have committed a crime.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Read the full&nbsp;<em>Politico<\/em> article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2021\/11\/13\/raid-veritas-okeefe-biden-press-521307\">here<\/a>. The Privacy Protection Act is described <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.epic.org\/privacy\/ppa\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In recent years, leading Democrats have <a href=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/dick-durbin-wants-to-stop-you-from-being-a-journalist\/\">proposed<\/a> clamping down on the independent press by declaring that the government should be able to define who is, and who is not, a \u201cjournalist\u201d for the purposes of press freedom.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>In his confirmation hearing, Attorney General Merrick Garland promised not to allow the Department of Justice to become politicized \u2014 a commitment that has been questioned in recent weeks.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"video-src-attr\">C-SPAN<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Until now, the media had been quiet about the O\u2019Keefe raid, or had even celebrated it. The&nbsp;<em>New York Times<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/11\/06\/us\/politics\/james-okeefe-project-veritas-ashley-biden.html\">reported<\/a> it almost right away, and later published an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/11\/11\/us\/politics\/project-veritas-journalism-political-spying.html\">article<\/a> based on leaked memoranda written by Project Veritas lawyers.<\/p>\n<p>It is not clear that the memos were leaked by law enforcement, but one of the journalists who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/11\/11\/us\/politics\/project-veritas-journalism-political-spying.html\">contributed<\/a> to the story, Michael S. Schmidt, was part of the team that won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of a supposed link between Russia and President Donald Trump\u2019s 2016 campaign, which is now seen as a hoax. The&nbsp;<em>Times<\/em> and the&nbsp;<em>Washington Post<\/em> relied on leaks from law enforcement and intelligence agencies to report the hoax.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, a federal judge <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2021\/11\/12\/court-halts-doj-extraction-of-james-okeefes-smartphone-data\/\">barred<\/a> the Department of Justice from obtaining further information from O\u2019Keefe\u2019s smartphone pending a hearing &nbsp;on the appointment of a \u201cspecial master\u201d who would review the materials seized by the FBI in the raid, and bar the government from using anything that implicated attorney-client privilege or other rights.<\/p>\n<p><em>Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of <\/em>Breitbart News Sunday<em> on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Neither-Free-nor-Fair-Presidential-ebook\/dp\/B08PNN54BB\">Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election<\/a>. His recent book, <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.centerstreet.com\/titles\/joel-b-pollak\/red-november\/9781546099840\/\">RED NOVEMBER<\/a><em>, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at <a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/joelpollak\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">@joelpollak<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Politico published the first article in an establishment media publication on Saturday questioning the legitimacy of the FBI\u2019s recent raid on the home of Project Veritas founder James O\u2019Keefe and &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1010650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1010650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1010650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1010650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1010650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}