erik prince wyoming ranch

And he comes from a wealthy, conservative family in Michigan, right? I know that, you know, one of the first instances of his association with this - or maybe the first instance of his association - was in an Intercept article in which O'Keefe had posted a picture of himself firing a pistol with a silencer on Instagram. And they received what was essentially clandestine training at a ranch in Wyoming that's owned by the family of Erik Prince. Prince also allowed Project Veritas to use his familys Wyoming ranch for training. And, you know, eventually she starts using this to meet other prominent Democrats in the state. We're still trying to fully understand how Project Veritas, which is founded by James O'Keefe, actually came into contact with Erik Prince. Prince recruited Mr. Seddon to join the conservative group Project Veritas to teach espionage skills to its operatives and manage its undercover operations. met with White House and Pentagon officials. WASHINGTON During the summer of 2018, as Richard Seddon, a former British spy, was trying to launch a new venture to use undercover agents to infiltrate progressive groups, Democratic campaigns and other opponents of President Donald J. Trump, he turned for help to a longtime friend and former colleague: Erik Prince, the private military contractor. Prince noted he owned a home in Wyoming and had been connected to the state since 1992. Ledeen said "someone she trusted" contacted her to help with the McMaster operation. In 2018, Ms. Jorge infiltrated the congressional campaign of Ms. Spanberger, posing as a campaign volunteer. Anyone can read what you share. You know, she used that to hobnob with people. They targeted NPR. GOLDMAN: I think - yeah, I think the latest is - you know, he's worked - his latest adventure is in Libya. That's a strawman campaign donation. DAVIES: Let's talk about some of the people who are behind this. We know that political operatives will gather opposition research as it's called - right? One target in particular was Gov. It's my understanding he designed the training exercises, which could have included, like, you know, going out to bars in Cody and trying to get people's names and numbers, how to pitch somebody in an elevator, how to spot people who could potentially provide you information. Oct. 21, 2020. What's interesting about that Instagram post - and you can see it yourself, it's still out there - they like to describe themselves as journalists. Wapiti resident Erik Prince is one of several people associated with a Wyoming-based effort to infiltrate political campaigns and get "dirt" to sabotage candidates. officer who went on to win an important House seat in Virginia as a Democrat. His willingness to support Mr. Seddons operation is fresh evidence of his engagement in political espionage projects at home during a period when he was an informal adviser to Trump administration officials. He was leading training. DAVIES: What was on those videos? He gave the examples of Jones Creek and CMNS Systems. However, neither of those entities appear to be registered to do business in Wyoming; the only reference the Tribune could find to a company named CMNS Systems was an LLC formed in Delaware in August months after Prince filed his suit. You know, O'Keefe has clearly raised a lot of money, you know, millions of dollars. You know, they were angry too, right? Prince a former C.I.A. We'll talk about Project Veritas in a moment. Do we know? We'll continue our conversation in just a moment. She was doing outreach to, you know, Democratic figures in Wyoming. He's a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times. These two are conservatives, right? I mean, if the idea was to get inside information, which would be useful to, you know, Republicans and conservatives, did they succeed? Did you receive the spare camera yet?. And they both say they didnt interview anyone in the state for the article. 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. In apparent response to inquiries from the Tribune about the two companies ties to Wyoming, Princes revised declaration said he misidentified the names of the entities. NY Times reporter Adam Goldman describes an undercover effort, headed up by an avid Trump supporter, that trained conservatives in espionage techniques and sent them to dig up dirt on progressives. It was unclear whether Mr. Seddon was involved in planning that operation. What did they show? By Derek Royden - July 2, 2021 2466 SOURCE NationofChange The life of Erik Prince has been a complicated globe-trotting journey complete with extensive mercenary activities, spying on American citizens, brokering arms deals with despotic regimes and essentially taking advantage of any situation he can in order to line his personal pockets. At the time, Prince was exploring the possibility of mounting a Republican primary challenge to incumbent U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo. So somebody was just waiting - and it turned out to be me and Mark - to come along and make the connection between the Sofia de LaRocca (ph) out in Wyoming and "Maria," quote, unquote, on the Project Veritas Exposed website. Presented with the details of the operation, Ledeen told the Times she was just a messenger, "not part of a plot.". DAVIES: Let me reintroduce you again. He did not respond to follow-up phone messages or an email. The training was done by a guy - a lot of the training was done by a guy named Richard Seddon, S-E-D-D-O-N. Who is he? And this website is devoted to revealing the identities of Project Veritas operatives. And, you know, Seddon then reached out to, you know, a family - an old friend who had worked at the FBI. Blackwater Worldwide founder Erik Prince is considering a Republican primary challenge to Wyoming Senator John Barrasso, a senior member of the Senate GOP leadership team, in a race that could pit the party's establishment against insurgents inspired by allies of President Donald Trump. contractor who is best known as the founder of the private military firm Blackwater and whose sister, Betsy DeVos, was Mr. Trumps education secretary has drawn scrutiny over the years for Blackwaters record of violence around the world and his subsequent ventures training and arming foreign forces. Trump, of course, wanted to pull out. DAVIES: Right. And the operatives had to give a - you know, had to give a cover story under duress. GOLDMAN: I was going to say, you know, talking to Republicans, moderate Republicans, I mean, moderate - these guys are pretty conservative, by the way - when we're describing it as moderate Republicans they were targeting. You know, was it effective? document.write ("'><\/scr"+"ipt>"); And then as I sort of gathered - started to gather information on this, I knew this was going to be a story. And they targeted a reporter, a Washington - a very good Washington Post reporter named Stephanie McCrummen, who - they picked up on it very, very, very quickly GOLDMAN: And figured out that this woman was not who she said she was. document.write (document.charset ? And last year, I learned that Beau and Sofia had been working out of this house in Georgetown. And they said, well, you know, she worked for Project Veritas. DAVIES: That's the Government Accountability Office. People have probably heard of this organization. Mr. Seddon owns a cabin that he keeps stocked with guns, food and other supplies as preparation for a cataclysmic event in the United States. Richard Seddon, in 2018, I guess, decided to stop working with Project Veritas. For his part, Prince swears he never met with anyone from Wagner Group a denial The Intercept included in its reporting. Prince said he wanted the Project Veritas employees to learn skills like how to recruit sources and how to conduct clandestine recordings, among other surveillance techniques. 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. [CDATA[ Mr. She said the support she got from other teams was 'overwhelming. Richard Seddon, trained conservative operatives first at the Prince family ranch in Wyoming, then at a large, $10,000-a-month house near Georgetown University. James OKeefe, the head of Project Veritas, last year at a White House social media summit. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Mr. Prince a former C.I.A. Prince has previously been involved in trying to find dirt on Democratic politicians. Last year, Project Veritas submitted a proposed list of witnesses for the trial over the lawsuit. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. Did it expand their operations? But they thanked us for bringing, you know, putting some sunlight on this. There was a meeting at lunch which led to a resignation, I believe, of GOLDMAN: They targeted our editor, Dean Baquet. It's a conservative group, and they conduct undercover operations, for instance, to expose bias or what they would describe as, you know, wrongdoing primarily in liberal circles. They were going to bug it. But I think - you would think that Democrats and Republicans would all be united, that this is a bipartisan issue, right? GOLDMAN: It's not clear to me. And, you know, I'm not sure when the relationship started. It seems like the Democrats have figured out this party switch deal to their advantage, Mr. Friess wrote in an email obtained by Wyofile, a political news site in Wyoming. This espionage operation was aimed at perceived enemies of Trump and included a planned sting operation against former national security adviser H.R. 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. In 2016, a Project Veritas operative infiltrated Democracy Partners using a fake name and fabricated rsum and made secret recordings of the staff. [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. Click here to see your options for becoming a subscriber. Erik Prince doesn't live in the state, he's from the same party as the incumbent, Sen. John Barrasso, and he's best known for founding a private security firm, Blackwater, that was kicked out of . What was going on there? We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. You know, again, as when Barbara Ledeen, the staffer for the Senate Judiciary Committee, which was run by Chuck Grassley, you know, was trying to find Hillary Clinton's missing emails, and Prince gets involved in that, too. So flesh out the picture a bit. So, you know, this is not something I had ever done as a - you know, this is not something journalists do. And I think the Intercept geolocated that photo and determined it was Erik Prince's ranch. Prince declined to comment. Both Project Veritas and Mr.