From Weisenbach v. Project Veritas, decided today by Erie County (Pa.) Court of Common Pleas Judge Marshall Piccinini:
Project Veritas is a non-profit media organization founded by James O'Keefe, III. On November 5, 2020, just two days after the November 3, 2020, presidential election, it published a story claiming to have uncovered a voter fraud scheme orchestrated out of the United States Postal Service General Mail Facility in Erie, Pennsylvania. Specifically, the article and accompanying video alleged that Erie Postmaster, Robert Weisenbach, directed the backdating of mail-in ballots in order to sway the outcome of the presidential election in favor of candidate Joseph Biden. The report relied upon an anonymous whistleblower, later revealed to be Richard Hopkins, a postal employee who claimed he overhead a conversation between Weisenbach and another supervisor. Hopkins stated that Weisenbach's motive for backdating mail-in ballots was that he was a "Trump hater," although, in reality, Weisenbach was a supporter of President Donald Trump and voted for him on election day.
In the days that followed, Project Veritas posted two more video interviews with Hopkins where he repeated his false claims, the latter after it was reported by news outlets that Hopkins had recanted his earlier allegations when confronted by postal inspectors, although Hopkins later claimed that recantation was coerced. The story soon gained traction among those amplifying claims of voter fraud,...
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