The FBI and the Justice Department have overreached their authority and violated the First Amendment by secretly surveilling a media organization critical of the Biden administration, according to a journalist who's been the target of a sweeping government probe.
In March, Project Veritas was notified by Microsoft, its electronic communications service provider, that for over a year the government had been secretly seizing and reviewing the media organization's emails and other electronic information through sweeping search warrants under non-disclosure orders, according to a motion filed by Paul Calli, the lawyer for Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe.
Microsoft was able to notify Project Veritas of this surveillance only because the Big Tech firm's attorneys resisted government efforts to renew non-disclosure orders and told federal prosecutors that Microsoft would pursue litigation to disclose these matters, the court filing shows.
The government attempted to keep the electronic surveillance orders under wraps even after its investigation became public knowledge and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York appointed a special master to supervise federal prosecutors' access to Project Veritas' materials.
