While traveling from San Francisco to Reno, Nevada, James O’Keefe received a call from Financial Times reporter Guy Chazan, who told him the paper was preparing a profile of conservative activist Laura Loomer. Chazan explained the story’s goal was to inform FT’s international readers about “people in Trump’s orbit” who “have managed to achieve this level of influence.”
“They just want to know more about these people,” Chazan said, noting that the paper wanted to outline Loomer’s background and how she rose to prominence.
O’Keefe immediately questioned the Financial Times’ motives, pointing to what he described as a prior incident in which the outlet tried to discredit his work. “Are you aware that they attacked me and OMG a few months ago?” he asked. “The problem is I don’t really have a good standing with the Financial Times. I’ve been so attacked and smeared and lied about by legacy media — it’s hard for me to have any trust.”
Despite his skepticism, O’Keefe spoke at length about Loomer, calling her “like a sister” and “a close friend” who is “very discerning” and “honest.” He added, “If someone’s trying to hurt me or do bad things to me, she’s going to have my back in a way other people have not… She tells me the truth about people, and that makes her my friend.”
Chazan pressed for details about Loomer’s tenure at Project Veritas, asking about her “most effective action” while there. O’Keefe pointed to her undercover reporting and social media work during the 2016 election, saying she played a central role in the Democracy Partners investigation, which he described as “the biggest story we ever did… aside from the Pfizer story.”
