Project Veritas said late Thursday it will appeal a court decision in which the undercover investigative group was ordered to pay $120,000 in damages to Democratic consulting firms it targeted.

The announcement follows a federal court jury on Thursday afternoon awarding the money in connection with recordings made in 2016 by an operative associated with Project Veritas who obtained an internship using a false name and story. …

“The verdict represents a setback in journalistic integrity – effectively allowing subjects to dictate the way in which a journalist gathers and reports the news,” the group said in a release Thursday evening. “Project Veritas will appeal.”

The release also states Project Veritas has refused to settle the roughly five-year-long case because “it has done nothing wrong.”

“The jury effectively ruled investigative journalists owe a fiduciary duty to the subjects they are investigating and that investigative journalists may not deceive the subjects they are investigating,” said Project Veritas founder and CEO James O’Keefe.