Politico reports that James O’Keefe has been sued for an undercover video sting he released last year:

O’Keefe and his organization posted some of the videos online last October, purporting to show efforts by Democrats to provoke violence at Donald Trump’s campaign rallies and events.

The recordings led two Democratic operatives, Robert Creamer and Scott Foval, to leave their posts even as they decried O’Keefe’s tactics.

In the new civil lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington Thursday, Creamer, his Strategic Consulting Group and a related firm called Democracy Partners accuse O’Keefe and several colleagues of conspiring to violate federal and District of Columbia laws against the secret recording of private conversations.

According to the lawsuit, an associate of O’Keefe signed up to be an unpaid intern at Democracy Partners using a false name and a false Social Security number. O’Keefe strongly denies the latter claim, telling Politico, “We didn’t make fake Social Security numbers. We would never do that.” Project Veritas put out a press release responding to the lawsuit:

Over 2016, undercover Veritas operatives launched a full blown investigation into Democracy Partners and the political activities of Robert Creamer, the once former head of Democracy Partners. During the investigation, Veritas operatives uncovered an elaborate voter fraud plan and unethical suggestions and behavior on behalf of Robert Creamer and his associates, including Scott Foval, the former National Field Director for Americans United for Change (AUFC), all of which was traced back to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Hillary Clinton campaign.

Consequently, Scott Foval was fired and Robert Creamer resigned from Democracy Partners. The investigation, which was released in a four-part video series throughout the months of October and November, exposed political corruption within the Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton campaign. The video investigation -which received media coverage from every single mainstream media outlet, trended on social media worldwide, and was a topic of debate during one of the Presidential debates between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton – had a monumental effect on the 2016 presidential election.

The lawsuit against Veritas is simply an intimidation tactic on behalf of the left to silence undercover journalism and ultimately the truth.

I don’t have any inside information on this story but this seems to have some elements in common with the treatment of David Daleiden. Daleiden’s group, the Center for Medical Progress, used a similar undercover video technique to capture damaging video of Planned Parenthood executives. He was charged in Texas and later in California with multiple felonies for using fake identities and undercover recording techniques. Even the left-leaning L.A. Times called the charges an overreach.

The suit against O’Keefe is a civil suit, not criminal charges, but the million dollar price tag looks like a similarly excessive attempt to punish politically embarrassing journalism. In the press release, O’Keefe says, “We will not be intimidated. We will not be silenced. We will find out who is funding this lawsuit. We will never stop exposing the truth.”