Former high-profile poker player and current political firebrand Anna Khait continues to launch heated volleys at the New York Times over that news outlet’s reporting of a clandestine sting operation targeting possible political opponents of former US President Donald J. Trump.
Khait was named as one of several women recruited as part of the controversial Project Veritas, founded by Richard O’Keefe in 2010 and financed by billionaire Erik Prince, the founder of the private mercenary army Blackwater. The far-right entity has increasingly come under criticism for its deceptively edited videos of government officials who purportedly worked as “deep state” operatives dedicated to sabotaging all thing related to Trump and his policies.
Khait’s continuing beef with the Times involves both the nature of her involvement with Project Veritas and the specifics of her politically motivated work. Not all of the allegations listed by the Times involved Khait, and her latest social-media outbursts carry an interpretation not found in the original NYT report.
State Department distinct from FBI
One of Khait’s most recent Tweets about the NYT report decries the paper for linking her to alleged hidden-camera stings involving supposed FBI agents who hated Trump.
You should be proud of Americans exposing communists in the DOS and getting them fired. But keep believing fake news that we would ever investigate the FBI LOL 😂
— Anna Khait (@Annakhait) May 14, 2021
FAKE NEWS. I had nothing to do with an FBI probe. I would expect better from my friends in the poker community.https://t.co/XYgqTp2Eea
— Anna Khait (@Annakhait) May 14, 2021
However, the New York Times never connected Khait to the portion of its report that indicated at least one FBI agent had been targeted in a clandestine way by Project Veritas. Instead, the original report linked Khait directly to a similar episode involving a State Department employee:
“One woman living at the house, Anna Khait, was part of several operations against various targets, including a State Department employee. Project Veritas released a video of the operation in 2018, saying it was the first installment in “an undercover video investigation series unmasking the deep state.” The video, which was aired by Sean Hannity and others, exposed the alleged Hatch Act-violating, at-work activities of State Department bureaucrat Stuart Karaffa. (Karaffa is no longer with the State Department.)
The Times report also did not specify that Khait was one of the people who secretly recorded Karaffa’s statements about his at-work activities. In Tweets today, though, Khait did offer oblique comments suggesting she might have been involved.
The only truth the NYT posted is that I investigated a communist in the Department of State and he got fired. TRUE. It was at a public event. We never went on a date. I’m proud to have served my country. We should all want the truth.
— Anna Khait (@Annakhait) May 14, 2021
Khait recruited as part of larger scheme
Khait’s involvement in what appears to be a larger honeypot scheme targeting several different American intelligence agencies warrants further detail. The operation involving her began as a plot by powerful friends of former President Trump to investigate those alleged “deep state” traitors. O’Keefe, with Prince’s funding, hired a former British spy, Richard Seddon, to infiltrate and investigate trade unions, which over time morphed into the honeypot project targeting intelligence-agency workers.
The NYT piece details how recruits were brought to Prince’s ranch near Cody, Wyoming for their initial piece. The story implies, but does not specify, that Khait was among those who traveled to Prince’s ranch. The Times did name her as one of several women, all part of Project Veritas, who were then housed at a large Washington DC property to further the honeypot scheme.
Khait is the only one of the Project Veritas female operatives to be publicly identified to date. That identification came not because of her prominence within the scheme, but because of her previous televised fame as part of the cast of Season 32 of Survivor.
