James O’Keefe Says He’s Suing CNN for Defamation After Project Veritas Twitter Ban

James O'Keefe, the founder of Project Veritas, is seen in Washington on Oct. 12, 2019. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe said on April 25 that he’s filing a defamation lawsuit against CNN after his Twitter account was suspended earlier this month.

O'Keefe has already filed a lawsuit against Twitter after it banned his account, saying the social media platform falsely accused him of operating fake accounts. Twitter alleged he violated its platform manipulation rules, which O'Keefe has denied.

“There are people on Twitter who are impersonating me who still remain on Twitter,” he told Fox News on April 25. “I will depose [CEO Jack Dorsey] under oath. ... And tomorrow, I will sue CNN.”

O'Keefe said the lawsuit will be expanded to cover CNN after anchor Ana Cabrera alleged that Project Veritas’ Twitter ban was due to it spreading disinformation.

“Not even Twitter alleges that I was banned, or Project Veritas was banned, for disinformation,” O'Keefe told Fox News. “Every day in this country, people are defamed and lied about constantly, and they don’t have the will, the money, the resources to fight back. So Veritas is going to be the tip of that spear.”

O'Keefe said he’s confident in the lawsuit’s success: "We don’t settle. We fight all the way to a jury verdict, and we’ve never lost.

“We want to put these people through depositions to understand exactly what was going through their minds when they maliciously lied about me, saying I operate fake accounts.”

CNN didn’t respond to a request for comment about the pending lawsuit by press time.

The lawsuit against Twitter, filed in the Supreme Court of New York in Westchester County, asserts that Twitter knowingly defamed O’Keefe in a statement when it explained why he was banned earlier this month.

“The false accusation that Mr. O’Keefe operated ‘fake accounts’ is particularly damaging for Mr. O’Keefe because Mr. O’Keefe is a journalist. As such, his reputation for transparency and accurate reporting is fundamental to his profession,” the lawsuit reads.

In the days before the suspension, O'Keefe had nearly 1 million followers and had just published several undercover videos that allegedly showed a CNN technical director saying the network had been actively pushing narratives to remove President Donald Trump from office. The same person also spoke about intentionally creating an atmosphere of fear around the COVID-19 pandemic to push Trump’s favorability down last year.

Twitter didn’t respond to a request for comment at the time.