James O'Keefe suing Twitter for defamation in New York
Project Veritas founder reacts to being permanently banned from Twitter.
Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe filed yet another defamation lawsuit, this time against CNN after an anchor made a false claim about his news outlet's permanent suspension from Twitter.
O'Keefe announced on Monday that he filed the suit in Georgia, where CNN's world headquarters is located, over on-air comments made by CNN anchor Ana Cabrera while reporting back in February on Twitter's crackdown to "try to stop the spread of misinformation" and "for example" mentioned the suspension of Project Veritas, which was actually punished by the tech giant over alleged policy violation involving the sharing of private information.
However, O'Keefe is arguing that he can prove malice on the part of Cabrera by pointing two a pair of tweets she made three days prior quoting a Twitter spokesperson who cited the private information policy that resulted in the permanent ban of Project Veritas' account. He also pointed to a report from CNN.com that also correctly cited the apparent policy violation.
"Project Veritas is an investigative journalism organization whose reputation depends on its ethical and transparent conduct, and its production of reliable and accurate news reporting. By claiming Project Veritas was 'spreading misinformation,' CNN directly damaged and impugned Project Veritas’s reputation," the suit reads. "CNN’s factual claim that Project Veritas was banned for "promoting misinformation," instead of truthful reporting of private facts, is patently and demonstrably false, and CNN maliciously made its claims with knowledge they were false or with reckless disregard for their falsity."
CNN did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment.
This lawsuit comes one week after another one O'Keefe filed against Twitter over his account's suspension after the tech giant alleged that he operated "fake accounts" on the platform, a claim he categorically denied.
The suspension of O'Keefe's account came amid the #ExposeCNN campaign that showed a CNN staffer speaking candidly about his network's bias and political activism.
In the footage published by Project Veritas, CNN technical director Charles Chester claimed that CNN's "focus" during the 2020 election campaign was to "get rid of" then-President Donald Trump, that the network hyped its coronavirus coverage for "gangbuster" ratings, and that it aims to "help" Black Lives Matter.
Critics accused Twitter of protecting CNN by banning O'Keefe's account.
A spokesperson for Twitter previously told Fox News: "As outlined in our policy on platform manipulation and spam, 'You can’t mislead others on Twitter by operating fake accounts,' and 'you can’t artificially amplify or disrupt conversations through the use of multiple accounts.'"
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However, Twitter declined to comment further on which "fake accounts" O'Keefe allegedly used in violation of its policies.
O'Keefe also filed a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, which had a victory last month as a New York judge sided with the right-wing guerilla news outlet and rejected the paper's effort to dismiss the case.