The Democratic National Committee moved Monday to discredit Project Veritas Action after the conservative group released a third undercover video alleging that the party engaged in illegal campaign coordination.
In a statement, DNC spokesman Adam Hodge advised voters to “consider the source,” referring to Project Veritas president James O’Keefe.
“James O’Keefe, the discredited source of these videos who received $10,000 from Donald Trump’s shady foundation, is well known for doctoring videos to advance his ideology agenda,” said Mr. Hodge. “But his latest ’shocking’ revelation is that the DNC legally coordinated with Americans United for Change to highlight the fact that Donald Trump still refuses to release his tax returns.”
The video released Monday showed Democracy Partners’ Robert Creamer saying that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton personally approved a strategy in which campaign workers dressed as Donald Duck to stalk the Republican Trump at campaign events.
Mr. O’Keefe said on the video that the coordination between third-party groups such as Democracy Partners and Americans United for Change represented a violation of federal election law, which Mr. Hodge disputed.
“Political parties routinely coordinate with non-profit organizations, and we would urge everyone to consider the source before proceeding,” Mr. Hodge said.
Project Veritas, a conservative non-profit known for its undercover sting operations against liberal groups such as ACORN and National Public Radio, has denied manipulating the footage, the product of a yearlong investigation into dirty campaign tricks by Democratic operatives.
Project Veritas spokesman Stephen Gordon said the $10,000 donation from the Trump Foundation in May 2015 had no impact on the group’s latest investigation, entitled “Rigging the Election.”
“We have a multi-million dollar budget and the cost of this video series alone is way up there,” said Mr. Gordon. “The donation Trump provided didn’t impact our actions one way or the other.”
He added that Mr. O’Keefe “makes all of the major editorial decisions here. We rely on donations and have thousands of generous people all across the country who help us expose the truth that the mainstream media refuses to cover.”
The Clinton campaign has so far had no public comment on the latest video, although Mrs. Clinton told reporters Thursday that, “I know nothing about this,” referring to the Project Veritas series.
Mr. Creamer announced last week that he had stepped down from the presidential campaign as a result of the videos, while Americans United for Change national field director Scott Foval was fired after appearing in footage discussing how he tried to incite violence by baiting Trump supporters at rallies.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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