New York Times Exposes Erik Prince's Recruitment of Former Spies for Project Veritas Domestic Intelligence Operations

The New York Times published a detailed investigation revealing that Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater and brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, recruited former American and British intelligence officers to conduct domestic espionage operations targeting Democratic political campaigns and labor organizations in partnership with Project Veritas. The investigation documented systematic infiltration operations directed by Richard Seddon, a former British MI6 officer hired by Prince, who oversaw undercover operatives conducting secret recordings and document theft from political targets.

In 2017, Seddon directed an undercover operative to infiltrate the Michigan chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, where the operative secretly recorded conversations and copied documents from union leadership. In 2018, the same operative infiltrated the congressional campaign of Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA officer running as a Democrat in Virginia, using a different alias to conceal the earlier Michigan operation. Prince arranged training for Project Veritas operatives at his family’s Wyoming ranch, where former MI6 officers provided instruction in surveillance techniques, source recruitment, and covert recording methods typically used in foreign intelligence operations.

The operations represent a systematic privatization of political intelligence gathering, deploying espionage techniques developed for foreign counterterrorism operations against domestic political organizations and Democratic campaigns. Prince’s involvement began during the 2016 presidential election, with his stated goal being to provide Project Veritas with professional intelligence capabilities for “recruiting sources and carrying out secret recordings.” The investigation raised serious legal and ethical concerns about using foreign intelligence tradecraft for domestic political targeting, the involvement of a sitting Cabinet member’s brother in operations against political opponents, and the potential criminality of covert infiltration and recording operations conducted without legal authority or oversight.

The revelation exposed a direct connection between the Trump administration (through DeVos family ties), private military contractors, and domestic political espionage operations targeting the president’s political opponents. This represents a fundamental corruption of intelligence capabilities, redirecting techniques designed for national security purposes toward partisan political advantage through systematic infiltration and surveillance of lawful political activity.