November 27, 2017 04:34 PM UTC

James O'Keefe and the Real 'Fake' News

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• by: Colorado Pols

Back in 2014, right-wing provocateur James O’Keefe traveled to Colorado in a sad attempt to gin up controversy about mail ballot fraud that ended up backfiring in a karmic sort of fashion. Now O’Keefe and his “Project Veritas” organization are back in the news for trying (and failing) to create more “fake” news.

As the Washington Post explains:

A woman who falsely claimed to The Washington Post that Roy Moore, the Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Alabama, impregnated her as a teenager appears to work with an organization that uses deceptive tactics to secretly record conversations in an effort to embarrass its targets.

In a series of interviews over two weeks, the woman shared a dramatic story about an alleged sexual relationship with Moore in 1992 that led to an abortion when she was 15. During the interviews, she repeatedly pressed Post reporters to give their opinions on the effects that her claims could have on Moore’s candidacy if she went public.

The Post did not publish an article based on her unsubstantiated account. When Post reporters confronted her with inconsistencies in her story and an Internet posting that raised doubts about her motivations, she insisted that she was not working with any organization that targets journalists.

But on Monday morning, Post reporters saw her walking into the New York offices of Project Veritas, an organization that targets the mainstream news media and left-leaning groups. The organization sets up undercover “stings” that involve using false cover stories and covert video recordings meant to expose what the group says is media bias.

Whoops! In a delicious bit of irony, the Post ended up with footage of O’Keefe repeatedly ducking questions about whether the woman in question — Jaime Phillips — was indeed an employee of Project Veritas, which of course served the general purpose of confirming that very allegation:

Phillips didn’t help her cause by apparently creating a Go Fund Me page last Spring announcing her employment at Project Veritas. Genius.