Justice Department Ends Investigation Into Project Veritas Over Ashley Biden Diary

The Justice Department said Wednesday that it will not file criminal charges against employees of Project Veritas who were investigated after they obtained a copy of Ashley Biden’s diary. 

The Biden administration first launched a probe into the conservative organization in November 2021, after it purchased a copy of Joe Biden’s daughter’s diary in the lead-up to the 2020 election. Project Veritas decided not to publish the diary and instead handed it over to authorities.

As part of its investigation, the FBI conducted armed raids on the homes of O’Keefe and other Project Veritas employees, taking battering rams to their doors. The tactics used by the Biden administration even raised concerns from liberal groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, who said the investigation raised First Amendment concerns. 

The announcement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York means that Project Veritas Founder James O’Keefe and former employees Spencer Meads and Eric Cochran will no longer face criminal charges over the diary. 

“Based on information currently available to the Government, no additional criminal charges are forthcoming,” the Justice Department wrote to Federal Judge Analisa Torres. 

Paul Calli, a lawyer for Project Veritas who defended the organization during the Biden administration’s probe, told The Daily Wire that he was thankful for the DOJ’s decision. 

“This meek letter from the United States Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York ends their attack on the First Amendment,” he told The Daily Wire. “I am grateful that our effort to protect the freedom of the press was successful.”

The DOJ also requested Torres to terminate the special master Calli appointed to go through the devices that were confiscated for the case. 

“As the New York Times reporters giddily carried water for the so-called ‘sovereign district’ as that office sought to desecrate the First Amendment for partisan political reasons, the ACLU and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press zealously guarded the First Amendment,” Calli said. “Those organizations should be lauded and are on the right side of history.”

O’Keefe, who now runs his own media group, noted that the Justice Department told Torres it would have no issues with releasing the documentation used to justify the heavy-handed FBI raids

“The Government has no objection to unsealing the Search Warrant Materials with redactions to protect third party privacy and law enforcement interests,” a separate letter on Wednesday from the DOJ to Torres says. This would include unsealing “the search warrant application, supporting affidavit, return, and any other judicial documents filed in connection with the November 5, 2021 search warrant.”

O’Keefe said that this unsealing would shed light on how the government justified the raids, adding that he might end up suing the government over the investigation. 

“We’re finally going to understand what possible justification they had for taking battering rams to journalist homes, hopefully never again in the United States of America shall the U.S. government use the politics of fear to try to intimidate, coerce, and chill out the First Amendment just because you don’t like the journalists and the stories they do,” he said. 

Last April, a woman was sentenced to a month in prison after she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property after she and an associate sold the diary to Project Veritas. While some outlets questioned the authenticity of the diary after excerpts started being published online, the diary was later confirmed to belong to Ashley Biden.