The Internal Revenue Service has granted James O’Keefe’s group Project Veritas non-profit status, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.
According to documents turned over to the newspaper after a Freedom of Information Act request, Project Veritas took in just $2,367 last year but wanted to bring in $1.65 million over the next three years.
“We’re pleased that Project Veritas’s nonprofit status has been approved,” O’Keefe told the Chronicle in an e-mail. “Our nonpartisan mission of exposing corruption while training new, investigative journalists can now be fully supported by donors who require a tax-exemption for their generous contributions.”
As the New York Times reports:
In its application, Project Veritas said it planned to pursue as many as a half-dozen journalism projects and conduct five two- to three-day training sessions for people interested in learning how to do such projects on their own. “I can’t tell you the secret sauce of it, but we do have a training method,” Mr. O’Keefe said. “There are many people learning this method and learning how to expose abusive power in creative ways.”
He said he would work as the organization’s “muckraker in chief,” for which he will be paid about $120,000 a year, according to the group’s application.
O’Keefe has faced two recent legal setbacks. First, a judge rejected his request to travel outside of New Jersey (he’s still on probation for entering federal property under false pretenses). Second, a judge rejected his motion for judgment in a civil suit he’s facing by a former ACORN employee.
