For months, lawsuits have piled up against James O’Keefe, the conservative filmmaker and provocateur, from various targets of his signature undercover videos.

But O’Keefe and his video site Project Veritas have taken some legal action of their own recently — against the insurance company that they claim violated a contractual obligation to pay for mushrooming legal bills.

Now Project Veritas is engaged in a battle with the company it hoped would protect it, a dispute that lays bare the stark challenges faced by O’Keefe for the kind of controversial, litigation-prone hidden camera stings that have made him both a scourge and a conservative media darling.

In September, O’Keefe and his associates at Project Veritas sued Gemini Insurance Company for “wrongful denial to defend and indemnify” Project Veritas over three lawsuits. The company alleged that Gemini was in breach of contract for not footing the bill for the lawsuits, which included a defamation allegation from the president of a Kansas teachers union.