Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe hit back at a “bogus” FOX 9 report on Tuesday that alleged that a bribe was offered during a recent video release that allegedly showed ballot harvesting taking place in Minnesota.
The pushback from O’Keefe comes after the local news station reported:
Liban Osman is featured prominently in a video released last week by the conservative media operation Project Veritas claiming there is “massive voter fraud” in Minnesota orchestrated by Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
In his first interview, Liban Osman tells the FOX 9 Investigators he was offered $10,000 by community activist Omar Jamal to say he was collecting ballots for Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
Osman later told the news station that he did not accept the money that he claims that he was offered and that he walked away.
“Before the story aired last night, we talked to the reporter, Tom Lyden. We told him there was no $10,000 bribe offered to Liban Mohamed, also known as Liban Osman,” O’Keefe said in a statement. “We told Tom Lyden our Project Veritas Insider Omar Jamal did not recant or backpedal away from the video of cash for ballot documents exchange.”
“In fact, we told Lyden that our court-certified translator verified that Jamal did not recant — he told us that he did not have his own translator,” the statement continued. “In the Fox9 report, Liban admits to having 20 ballots in his car, instead of 300 — that is still more than six times the legal limit. We told Tom Lyden Minnesota’s ban on individuals handling more than three ballots was not suspended — he even acknowledged to us that he understood that enforcement of the three-ballot rule was suspended pending a court-challenge, but it was not overturned.”
The statement ends by noting, “Lyden also acknowledged to us that when Minnesota’s high court on Sept. 4 affirmed the three-ballot limit that any violations were open for prosecution — all of this was left on the cutting room floor.”
O’Keefe also released a fiery video giving an extended breakdown of the entire situation with FOX 9.
WATCH:
Following the explosive video release by Project Veritas last week, the Minneapolis Police Department announced on Twitter: “ALLEGATIONS OF VOTER FRAUD BEING EVALUATED. ✅ The MPD is aware of the allegations of vote harvesting. We are in the process of looking into the validity of those statements. No further information is available at this time on this.”
ALLEGATIONS OF VOTER FRAUD BEING EVALUATED. ✅ The MPD is aware of the allegations of vote harvesting. We are in the process of looking into the validity of those statements. No further information is available at this time on this.
— Minneapolis Police (@MinneapolisPD) September 28, 2020
Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman’s office said in a separate statement following the video’s release: “The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office has received no information or cases involving so-called ballot harvesting in any elections held in Hennepin County this year. If Project Veritas has evidence of election law violations, they should provide it to the Minneapolis Police Department.”
President Donald Trump responded by writing on Twitter: “This is totally illegal. Hope that the U.S. Attorney in Minnesota has this, and other of her many misdeeds, under serious review??? If not, why not??? We will win Minnesota because of her, and law enforcement. Saved Minneapolis & Iron O Range!”
Democrat Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (HI) responded by writing on Twitter that ballot harvesting needed to be banned.
“Congress needs to pass our bipartisan bill to ban ballot harvesting so no one can exploit our sacred right to vote,” Gabbard wrote on Twitter, later adding: “Project Veritas offers further evidence of the need to ban ballot harvesting. It’s not a partisan issue. It’s been abused to help both R & D candidates, including in North Carolina & California. Please help by telling your congressional rep to pass our bipartisan bill HR8285.”