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Welcome back to False Flag! For today’s issue, we’ve got two of the right’s most notorious bomb-throwers attacking targets the MAGA movement normally protects. Enjoy!
–Will
James O’Keefe, Of All People, Won’t Let Trump Skate on Epstein
Plus: Candace Owens's speculations about the Kirk assassination grow farther fetched.
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James O’Keefe’s Epstein O’Beefe
RIGHT-WING ACTIVIST AND UNDERCOVER VIDEO AUTEUR James O’Keefe struck again last week when he released a video that purports to offer yet more proof that the Trump Justice Department is covering up the Jeffrey Epstein case.
In the video, a man O’Keefe describes as a “senior Justice Department investigator” named Glenn Prager—apparently caught on camera by an O’Keefe associate on a plane, and then at a restaurant after the flight—says that Trump is refusing to release Epstein files because he’s “protecting a lot of other people.”
The Justice Department shot back after the video’s release, sarcastically dismissing O’Keefe’s “BOMBSHELL” and saying Prager hadn’t worked for them in fifteen years, and that he’d no real knowledge of the Epstein case during his short tenure back then anyway.
“Exploiting survivors of sexual abuse by fabricating stories for personal gain is reprehensible,” a statement posted on X read. “Enough with the clickbait.”
The Prager video marks at least the fourth undercover video O’Keefe has released showing people with some DOJ connection claiming Epstein is being covered up since the Justice Department tried to close the Epstein case in a July memo. It’s a strange position for O’Keefe, who now finds his videos being embraced by congressional Democrats and cited as proof of Trump administration malfeasance.
Why is O’Keefe—a former Trump stalwart whose nonprofit even received $10,000 from Trump’s foundation a decade ago—going after Trump’s administration? For his part, O’Keefe insisted to me that this isn’t about attacking Trump or the Justice Department at all.
“I’m just playing video of other people’s mouths moving,” O’Keefe said.
The latest video wasn’t all bad for Trump. Whatever Prager’s real knowledge of the Epstein case is, he claimed that Trump wasn’t connected to any Epstein rapes, and claims former President Bill Clinton was far more implicated in Epstein’s crimes.
Still, it’s not the first time O’Keefe has trumpeted supposed proof that there’s a coverup at Justice. It’s been a predominant concern of his since the summer. On stage at a TPUSA event in July, he professed incredulity over a DOJ memo claiming no third parties had been implicated during the Epstein investigation before saying, “It is time to take matters into our own hands.” He announced a new project focused on FBI leaks and played an audio clip of an FBI agent describing the Epstein case as a “shitshow.” The same day, he released a video in which the agent also said law enforcement had “turned a blind eye” or “missed things” related to Epstein’s crimes.
Then came a series of further videos filmed in O’Keefe’s signature style. On September 4, O’Keefe put out footage of a Justice Department official claiming that Republican names would be redacted out of any future Epstein files release. (The official explained, in a screenshotted statement posted to the Justice Department’s official X account, that he had been targeted by an undercover operative posing as a Georgetown au pair named Skylar).
On September 8, O’Keefe released a recording of an FBI “paralegal specialist” saying the Epstein files were being withheld to “cover” for powerful people who might be implicated by them. And the Prager video came out on September 24.
What’s driving this? One former O’Keefe associate speculated to me that O’Keefe—a theater kid who was accused of lavishly spending money from his Project Veritas nonprofit on his musical performances—just really loves attention and knows that Epstein is a hot topic.
I have my own theory. O’Keefe, who’s trying to rebuild his operations after departing Project Veritas two years ago, has invested heavily in the Epstein investigation, running footage from Epstein’s island over the summer. If he followed the presidential line and ditched Epstein coverage on the grounds that it’s a “hoax,” O’Keefe would be abandoning a key storyline for his new operation.
Again, O’Keefe insists he isn’t trying to criticize Trump.
“It’s not an anti-Trump thing, I don’t know where you’re getting that from,” O’Keefe said.
O’Keefe seems uncomfortable on this new terrain. As Epstein victims held a press conference on Capitol Hill in September to demand the release of more files, O’Keefe tried to engage Democratic protesters in the kind of conversations that could produce a viral argument, only to find out that they were more or less on his side when it came to Epstein.
In another video, O’Keefe showed himself trying and failing to catch popcorn in his mouth as he chuckled about MSNBC clips celebrating his undercover footage.
“I’m not going after the Trump administration!” he lamented at one point.
As many people grasping for a piece of Charlie Kirk’s legacy have done, O’Keefe closes his latest video with something Kirk said to him: In their last exchange, O’Keefe says, Kirk advised him to keep following the story. (The undercover footage of Prager was filmed two days before Kirk’s assassination.)
“I told Charlie I was conflicted about what to do,” O’Keefe said in the video. “And Charlie Kirk’s last words to me were: ‘James, you should be a journalist first.’”