FBI Must Stop Data Extraction on James O’Keefe’s Phones, per Judge’s Order – Opinion

Project Veritas founder and Journalist James O’Keefe just received good news from the United States District Court of Southern New York.

Harmeet Dhillon, his attorney sent this tweet:

BREAKING The federal court has just ordered the DOJ to STOP extracting data from our client, journalist James O’Keefe’s phone, and ordered a hearing. Project Veritas Counsel asked for this hearing yesterday. pic.twitter.com/nBrmf4myuj

— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) November 11, 2021

Analisa Torres (District Court Judge) ordered the following:

• By November 12, 2021, the Government must confirm that it has paused its extraction and review of the contents of the O’Keefe’s phones;
• By November 16, 2021, the Government must provide the Court with its response to Petitioners’ motion;
• By November 19, 2021, O’Keefe reports back to the court the Government’s reply.

On November 4, the FBI raided the homes of Project Veritas journalists and former journalists, allegedly to retrieve Ashley Biden’s diary. The New York Times breathlessly reported the details, and once O’Keefe isolated the collusion between the FBI and the NY Times. Then, and only then, did O’Keefe call it out in a video posted Friday, November 5.

“Our efforts were the stuff of responsible, ethical journalism and we are in no doubt that Project Veritas acted properly at each and every step.” pic.twitter.com/IUWaYAinmT

— Eric Spracklen🇺🇸 (@EricSpracklen) November 5, 2021

On November 6, O’Keefe was also subjected to an FBI raid, where they took his phones which contained his reporters notes, Project Veritas funding contacts, and other confidential information. The NY TimesThis was all too fast.

After my VIP piece on the raiding of O’Keefe’s home and the attack on our First Amendment freedoms, one of our astute readers made the comment that the raid’s intention was less about Ashley Biden’s diary, and more to get to O’Keefe phones, which held his story notes and details on future investigations. Another reader pointed out that the FBI could also be looking to plant things on O’Keefe’s phones that were not there previously.

Dhillon quickly acted to have it in front of a judge. Her efforts were successful.

We will look toward those dates to see what action (if any) has been taken by the FBI to restore O’Keefe’s property.