A federal judge has reversed course and will now not restrict James O’Keefe from traveling to attend a conservative conference in California he told me on the radio recently in a story that has garnered national attention.
“Rick I will give you the breaking news story”, he said. “I will be joining you in California on June 10th for the Eagle Forum Conference. I have a very good lawyer named Michael Maddigan. The judge has granted my request for work purposes. My mission is a good mission (referring to his non-profit called Project Veritas). There’s a lot of people we’re training now, so even if they stop me, they’re not going to stop us.”
O’Keefe said his presence at the conference falls under the category of ‘charity work’ since he will be teaching attendees ‘How To Be An Effective Citizen Journalist’ on behalf of his non profit Project Veritas. To this he said of the mainstream media,
“They don’t do journalism, they just write down what the politicians say… they just do stenography.”…”We are redefining the genre. We’re changing the game.”
On his status as a relatively new 501(c)3 start up he said,
“We’ve done more with $3,000 than Media Matters does with $13 million and 90 employees.”
Previously I wrote that federal judge Daniel E. Knowles III had denied a request by O’Keefe to travel outside the state of New Jersey preventing him from joining several prominent conservatives such as Andrew Breitbart and myself at the upcoming conference. The judge had previously routinely approved O’Keefe’s travel requests and did not offer explanation for his decision.
After reading the story former Alaskan U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller- who is also a former U.S. magistrate- contacted me and had this to say about the judge’s initial order,
“The judge’s decision is shocking. According to public records O’Keefe’s probation officer has recommended he be allowed to travel. The probation officer’s word is like gold. In all my years I can only recall one time when a judge went against the advice of the probation officer. By not offering explanation this magistrate has opened himself up to speculation and criticism by other former magistrates”.
O’Keefe told me that even if the judge had not lifted the travel ban, with today’s technology he would have found a way to communicate with those in attendance at the conference.
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