In December 2017, I wrote an article about how Donald Trump and then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo were working on a plan to create a private global spy network accountable only to Trump. This secret spy network would be used to counter the so-called “deep state” activities of Trump’s political enemies and pretty much anyone else opposing his presidency.
This idea originated with Erik Prince, the founder and former CEO of the government services and security company formerly known as Blackwater (now known as Academi).
Prince has strong ties to the Trump administration. He’s the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos; he was a major donor to Trump’s 2016 campaign, and he served on the transition team as an advisor to the president on intelligence and defense matters. He’s currently under investigation over whether he lied to a congressional committee examining Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
According to a former senior intelligence official at the time, the spy network would be a “direct-action arm” of the president and would operate “totally off the books” for optimum secrecy and effectiveness.
When this Robert Ludlum-esque agency was first proposed, there were many unanswered questions:
- How would it be built?
- How would it be financed?
- How would financing be kept “off the books?”
- How would it be used once created?
These questions are no longer unanswered.
Do you remember Project Veritas? This is the organization founded by James O’Keefe in 2010 to “investigate and expose corruption, dishonesty, self-dealing, waste, fraud, and other misconduct in both public and private institutions in order to achieve a more ethical and transparent society.”
O’Keefe’s claim to fame prior to Project Veritas was his secret undercover recordings exposing Planned Parenthood and ACORN, work that led Andrew Breitbart to financially support O’Keefe in 2010. But in true Everything Trump Touches Dies fashion (H/T Rick Wilson), O’Keefe has abandoned his original mission in order to be Trump’s personal spy network.
And he’s doing so with the help of Erik Prince. It’s just been reported that Prince has been recruiting former American and British spies to work for O’Keefe, gathering intelligence by infiltrating Democrat Congressional campaigns, labor organizations, and other groups considered hostile to Trump and his agenda.
Prince first showed interest in using former spies to train Project Veritas operatives in espionage tactics during the 2016 campaign. His goal was to show Project Veritas employees how to recruit sources and how to conduct clandestine recordings and other surveillance techniques.
Project Veritas used to be a small operation, but thanks to a surge in donations to the 501(c)3, the enterprise is swimming in millions of dollars from private donors and so-called conservative organizations.
Now we know how the questions about Trump’s secret spy network have been answered:
- How would it be built? Trump and Prince would built it using an existing but relatively small private company owned by O’Keefe. No government agency involved.
- How would it be financed? By the millions of dollars received in contributions and grants from donors, including donations from Trump and his family.
- How would the financing be kept ‘off the books’? Even though, as a 501(c)3, Project Veritas has records of its donors, most of its funding comes anonymously via an organization known as Donor’s Trust. As a “donor-advised fund,” Donor’s Trust is under no legal obligation to provide the identity of its donors, thus allowing them to remain anonymous (off the books).
- How would it be used? It would be used primarily to target Trump’s political enemies and destroy the Constitution.
Any doubt on this last point was eliminated a few months ago when lawyers for Trump and his campaign (Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.) announced they would be suing CNN for its anti-Trump bias. This past Friday, Project Veritas issued a press release taking credit for providing the “reporting” Trump used to file his lawsuit.
Donald Trump, Erick Prince, and Project Veritas have made the dream of a global secret spy network a reality.
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative.
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