F.B.I. Searches James O’Keefe’s Home in Ashley Biden Diary Theft Inquiry

Federal authorities connected Saturday searched the location of James O’Keefe, the laminitis of the blimpish radical Project Veritas, according to witnesses and radical briefed connected the matter, a time aft Mr. O’Keefe acknowledged that the radical was nether probe by the Justice Department successful transportation with a diary reported to person been stolen from Ashley Biden, President Biden’s daughter.

The F.B.I. carried retired a court-ordered hunt of Mr. O’Keefe’s flat successful Mamaroneck, N.Y., aboriginal connected Saturday morning, aft having searched the homes of 2 associates of Mr. O’Keefe connected Thursday arsenic portion of the investigation.

An F.B.I. spokesperson connected Saturday said that agents had “performed instrumentality enforcement activity” astatine the building, but would not sermon the investigation.

Mr. O’Keefe did not instantly respond to a petition for remark connected Saturday. But successful a video connection connected Friday, helium said that his radical had precocious received a expansive assemblage subpoena and acknowledged that Project Veritas had been progressive successful discussions with sources past twelvemonth astir the diary.

Jimmy Maynes, who lives adjacent to Mr. O’Keefe astatine an flat analyzable successful Mamaroneck, said a fistful of F.B.I. agents arrived aboriginal Saturday morning.

“They asked for James,” Mr. Mayne, an amusement manager, said. “I thought they were banging connected my door. I opened the door.”

“They told maine to adjacent the doorway and I closed the door,” helium added. “That’s precisely what happened. It was inactive dark.”

Brent Mickol, a teacher who lives crossed the hallway from Mr. O’Keefe, said it was astir 6 a.m. erstwhile agents arrived. Mr. Mickol said the agents said “something on the lines of ‘F.B.I. Warrant. Open up.’”

“I ran to the doorway and looked retired the peep spread and intelligibly saw an F.B.I. raid,” helium said. “You saw the jackets. Literally, it was conscionable retired of a movie.”

Mr. Maynes and Mr. Mickol said the F.B.I. agents were astatine the flat for respective hours.

In his video connection connected Friday, Mr. O’Keefe offered a lengthy defence of his group’s handling of the diary, saying that helium and his colleagues had been operating arsenic ethical journalists, had turned the diary implicit to the instrumentality enforcement authorities past twelvemonth and had sought to instrumentality it to a lawyer for Ms. Biden.

“It appears the Southern District of New York present has journalists successful their sights for the expected transgression of doing their jobs lawfully and honestly,” Mr. O’Keefe said successful the video statement. “Our efforts were the worldly of responsible, ethical journalism and we are successful nary uncertainty that Project Veritas acted decently astatine each and each step.”

Project Veritas did not people Ms. Biden’s diary, but dozens of handwritten pages from it were posted connected a right-wing website past twelvemonth a week and a fractional earlier Election Day, astatine a clip erstwhile President Donald J. Trump was seeking to undermine Mr. Biden’s credibility by portraying his lad Hunter arsenic engaging successful corrupt concern dealings. The posting was mostly ignored by different blimpish outlets and the mainstream media.

The website said it had obtained the diary from a whistle-blower who worked for a media enactment that refused to people a communicative astir it earlier the election. It claimed to cognize wherever the existent diary was located and that the whistle-blower had an audio signaling of Ms. Biden admitting it was hers.

Ms. Biden, 40, is Mr. Biden’s youngest child. She has maintained a debased illustration and attracted acold little attraction than Hunter Biden, her fractional brother.

The Trump administration’s Justice Department, past led by Attorney General William P. Barr, opened an probe into the substance soon aft a typical of the Biden household reported to national authorities successful October 2020 that respective of Ms. Biden’s idiosyncratic items had been stolen successful a burglary, according to 2 radical briefed connected the matter.

Mr. O’Keefe said successful the video that “tipsters” had reached retired to Project Veritas successful 2020 to alert them to the beingness of the diary, saying that they had stayed successful a country that Ms. Biden had precocious been in. But Mr. O’Keefe said that his radical could not authenticate the diary and made an “ethical” determination to not people it.

He said that Project Veritas gave the diary to “law enforcement” and attempted to instrumentality it to a lawyer representing Ms. Biden, who helium said “refused to authenticate it.” Mr. O’Keefe portrayed the probe arsenic politically motivated, questioning wherefore the Justice Department nether Ms. Biden’s begetter was pursuing the case.

In caller weeks, national investigators person reached retired to astatine slightest 1 idiosyncratic who worked for Project Veritas to question that idiosyncratic astir the diary, 1 of the radical briefed connected the lawsuit said.

On Thursday, national authorities searched the residence successful Manhattan of Spencer Meads, a longtime Project Veritas operative and confidant of Mr. O’Keefe, and an flat successful Mamaroneck linked to different O’Keefe associate.

Project Veritas has a past of targeting Democratic legislature campaigns, labour groups, quality media organizations and others. The radical conducts sting operations utilizing hidden cameras and fake identities. At 1 point, Project Veritas relied connected a former British spy named Richard Seddon to assistance bid its operatives, teaching them espionage tactics specified arsenic utilizing deception to unafraid accusation from imaginable targets.

Flyover Media, the institution that owns the website that published the pages from the diary, is registered to the aforesaid Sheridan, Wyo., code arsenic Mr. Seddon’s company, Branch Six Consulting International. Mr. O’Keefe, the laminitis of Project Veritas, was erstwhile the president of a institution that aboriginal registered astatine the aforesaid address.