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Federal judge grants Project Veritas' request for third party to review James O'Keefe's phones seized by FBI
Fox News ^ | 12/08/2021 | Joseph A. Wulfsohn

Posted on 12/08/2021 9:41:20 PM PST by SeekAndFind

A federal judge is siding with Project Veritas over its request for an independent party to review the cellphones the FBI seized from the group's founder James O'Keefe.

On Wednesday, District Court Judge Analisa Torres from the Southern District of New York is ordering a "special master" to be appointed to oversee the review of O'Keefe's devices, citing "potential First Amendment concerns."

"The Court recognizes, as other courts in this district have concluded, that ‘the Southern District prosecutors have integrity and decency,' and the filter team alone could conduct the review ‘with utmost integrity,’" Torres wrote. "However, the Court determines that the appointment of a special master is warranted here because ‘it is important that the procedure adopted… not only be fair but also appear to be fair.’ … In light of the potential First Amendment concerns that may be implicated by the review of the materials seized from Petitioners, the Court finds that the appointment of a special master will ‘help to protect the public’s confidence in the administration of justice.'"

"The appointment of a Special Master over the objections of the Department of Justice is further evidence of Government overreach in their heavy-handed violation of the First Amendment and journalistic privilege during the investigation of the purported theft of a diary belonging to the daughter of the President," a representative for Project Veritas told Fox News in a statement.

"Project Veritas appreciates the ruling but continues to insist that the Government show the public why they conducted these raids and return legally privileged material immediately," the representative added.

The judge previously ordered the Department of Justice to halt its review of O'Keefe's phones pending Project Veritas' request for a special master.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: analisatorres; ashleybiden; civilliberties; civilrights; deepstate; facebook; fbi; hunterbiden; jamesokeefe; joerogan; markzuckerberg; obamajudge; policestate; privacy; projectveritas; sdnewyork; sdny; spying; surveillance; voicevote

1 posted on 12/08/2021 9:41:20 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

That’s good, I guess. But anyone else suspect that the contents of the phones have already been copied off, and given to whomever needed to see them?


2 posted on 12/08/2021 9:59:21 PM PST by FrankRizzo890
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To: SeekAndFind

SDNY, integrity and decency.

One of these things is not like the others.


3 posted on 12/08/2021 10:15:27 PM PST by lurk ( )
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To: FrankRizzo890
That’s good, I guess. But anyone else suspect that the contents of the phones have already been copied off, and given to whomever needed to see them?

Of course they have. And there will be no penalty for those responsible.

4 posted on 12/08/2021 10:15:51 PM PST by CurlyDave
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To: lurk

Yeah, that was my take on it, too.


5 posted on 12/08/2021 10:18:02 PM PST by HKMk23 (The right of freedom of religion shall not be derogated even if the life of the nation is at stake.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Great - now that the feds have made copies of all the files, so to examine secretly at their leisure. The law no longer exists in this country. It dies long ago. FBI = Biden’s Secret Police. They are all above the law. Might as well be a “star chamber.”


6 posted on 12/08/2021 10:56:15 PM PST by JME_FAN (MOLON LABE!)
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To: SeekAndFind

bookmark


7 posted on 12/08/2021 11:33:14 PM PST by GOP Poet (Super cool you can change your tag line EVERYTIME you post!! :D. (Small things make me happy))
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To: SeekAndFind

IIRC the judge issuing this ruling was appointed by Obama, and the special reviewer was appointed by Clinton. So, there’s a good chance both are corrupt.


8 posted on 12/08/2021 11:39:34 PM PST by coloradan (They're not the mainstream media, they're the gaslight media. It's what they do. )
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To: FrankRizzo890

Oh, I have no doubt they’ve done that. But what it DOES do is put a curb on what information they find out can be used in any prosecution. For instance, the Special Master determines that contact XYZ in the phones (and all information connected with it such as texts, emails, etc.) is protected 1st Amendment data, the FBI can’t dredge XYZ-derived data to use for prosecution.

OR, it means that the FBI cannot create new incriminating ‘evidence’ and install it on the phone and then use it to prosecute. THIS! to me is the more likely scenario because I fully believe the FBI manufactures fake evidence regularly for use against those they believe don’t comply with their deep state doctrine.


9 posted on 12/09/2021 2:06:02 AM PST by Gaffer
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To: SeekAndFind
Way too late. The contents of O'Keefe's phone was downloaded and backed up 5 minutes after it was brought back to FBI headquarters.

Any "review" now will be Kabuki theater. All of the contacts, emails, and texts are already in several databases and distributed to all of the "right" people at the FIB.

All this does is prevent any information on the phone from being used in a court of law. But it will be used for investigative purposes, even for investigations that are politically motivated.

10 posted on 12/09/2021 3:47:22 AM PST by Yo-Yo (is the /sarc tag really necessary?)
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To: SeekAndFind

“The Court recognizes, as other courts in this district have concluded, that ‘the Southern District prosecutors have integrity and decency,’


That they immediately leaked part of it to the NYT is evidence otherwise.


11 posted on 12/09/2021 7:09:13 AM PST by lepton ("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
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To: SeekAndFind

This is government persecution. Charge them with bs and suck all the money out of them through endless court proceedings.


12 posted on 12/09/2021 7:13:01 AM PST by DouglasKC
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To: Gaffer

I think it’s more an issue that they wanted to provide the Times(?) with info regarding their lawsuit.


13 posted on 12/09/2021 9:24:59 AM PST by FrankRizzo890
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To: FrankRizzo890

Oh, I’m sure that the FBI sorely wanted to get out as much hurtful information as the could gleaned from the phones but I in no way believe that the completely corrupt FBI wouldn’t stoop to actually planting evidence on the phones. There’s no question about it in my mind. January 6...


14 posted on 12/09/2021 9:28:37 AM PST by Gaffer
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To: SeekAndFind

People need to use ‘tails’ os.
I think Glenn Greenwald said he uses it for secure research.
‘tails’ just runs from a thumbdrive, and the user tucks files away on a different system.
Phones are the FBI’s easiest way to invade someone.


15 posted on 12/09/2021 2:11:23 PM PST by Montana_Sam (Truth lives.)
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