The Justice Department on Thursday searched a site in an apartment on East 35th Street in New York, near the Midtown Tunnel, and one in Mamaroneck, Westchester County, New York, associated with the conservative group Project Veritas.
The raid was part of an ongoing investigation into how Ashley Biden, daughter of President Joe Biden, had her diary stolen and made public roughly a week before the 2020 presidential election.
The website where the diary was hosted said that it had obtained the diary from an unnamed whistleblower and that Ashley Biden confirmed that it was hers in an audio recording.
James O'Keefe, the founder of Project Veritas, released a video Friday where he confirmed the report from The New York Times.
"It appears the Southern District of New York now has journalists in their sights for the supposed crime of doing their jobs lawfully and honestly." Referring to federal prosecutors in Manhattan, O'Keefe said, "Our efforts were the stuff of responsible, ethical journalism and we are in no doubt that Project Veritas acted properly at each and every step."
O'Keefe acknowledged that he was aware of the diary but said due to "ethical" concerns regarding its credibility, he decided not to publish it. According to O'Keefe, he tried to return the diary to a lawyer representing Ashley Biden, but she "refused to take it."
"At the end of the day, we made the ethical decision that because, in part, we could not determine if the diary was real, if the diary in fact belonged to Ashley Biden, or if the contents of the diary occurred, we could not publish the diary and any part thereof."
An FBI spokesman in New York said it "performed law enforcement activity related to an ongoing investigation" at the two locations. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan did not issue a statement to the Times.
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