Washington (AP) – a former FBI agent and Pentagon contractor is judging the founder of a conservative non -profit purpose, known for his hidden sting on the camera for secretly recorded videos showing the performer who criticizes President Donald Trump to a woman who thinks he has taken a meeting.
Jamie Manina says in her trial that he was misled by a woman who met on a dating website who behaved as a politically liberal nurse, but who actually worked with the conservative activist James O’Keff in the “manna”, which can make a “inflammation” online.
The clips of their conversations in January were knit together to look like Manina “essentially trying to launch an illegal coup against President Trump”, and articles released online with videos, slander Manina, painting it as part of a “de -deed”.
Manina does not deny the comments in the lawsuit, but says his words have been taken out of the context, edited and collected in a way designed to paint it in a fake light, including in a written YouTube description, which accompanies the publication of one of the records.
O’Kefe founded Project Veritas in 2010, but was removed from the organization in 2023 against the backdrop of allegations that he abused workers and unlawful resources. He continued to use such hidden cameras as part of a new organization that created the O’Kefe Media Group, which was also listed in the lawsuit with the woman who was pretending to meet Manina. Her identity is unknown, the lawsuit said.
O’Kefe told the Associated Press on Wednesday that Manina “voluntarily” offered the comments in the record and that it is important for the public to hear the remarks of Manina. O’Kefe said that Colombia County requires the consent of only one country and not both to record a conversation. He called the case a “attack on the first amendment” and stated that he was ready to fight him in a court of appeal, if necessary.
“He said what he said. We did not take him out of the context. The words we reported came out of his mouth,” O’Kife said, adding, “We are standing until our reporting.”
The lawsuit includes claims of slander, false light, deceptively misrepresentation and violations of the federal eavesdropping law. Although the case acknowledges that the DC consent Act to record talks, he claims that the law still prohibits “the interception and recording of communication, if it was for the purpose of a torturous act.”
The complaint arises from a pair of dates that Manina had in January with the woman and a series of videos that O’Kefe released in the coming days. During her first meeting, the lawsuit claims, the woman expressed her dislike for Trump and repeatedly pressed Manina on his political views and her work with the government. Manina told her that he included working as a “spy hunter” a few years earlier when he was a FBI counterintelligence agent.
A record that O’Kefe has released shows that Manina has been requested at one point by a woman whose name has not been revealed in the trial process regarding his “overall evaluation of Trump”.
“He is a sociopathic narcissist who is only interested in the proclamation of his name, his wealth and glory,” Manina can be heard. Asked about the record if there was something he could do to “protect the American people,” Manina replied that she was in conversation with some retired generals to study what could be done.
The lawsuit says that Manina and the woman met for a second meeting at noon, and as they left the restaurant, a man with a microphone approached Manina and said, “Jamie, you are a spy hunter, you say. The man was O’Kife, the lawsuit said.
Manina was quickly fired by Booz Allen, where he worked as a contractor after O’Kefe contacted the press and presented at least parts of the video on both dates.
The trial was filed by Mark Zaid, a prominent lawyer in Washington, who routinely represents civil servants and signals. Zaid himself filed a lawsuit against Trump last week after the president canceled his security permit.
“Lying or misleading someone in a dating application, which is no doubt that this is not what this trial seeks to cope,” Zaid says in a statement to the AP. “Creating a false profile for the specific goals of targeting people for deliberately insidious and harmful goals is what crosses the line.”
The lawsuit states that the O’Kefe media group draws Manina in a fake light, wrongly breeding his words and title, including in an article published on his website, which says: “Breaking Video: Top Pentagon Advisor reveals to the” conversation of the hidden cameras ” Trump. “
According to the lawsuit, Manina’s characteristic as “Pentagon’s Top Advisor”, when he was actually “one of the countless number of defense contractors,” was intended to support “convenient claims that Manina essentially tried to start an illegal coup against President Trump.”
The lawsuit does not directly say why Manina was directed, but it was noted that in 2017, when he worked at the service of the director of national intelligence, he published three articles in The Huffington Post and the Hill newspaper that are critical of Trump.