BREAKING: Project Veritas board members George Skakel and John Garvey resign
Giles, who took the CEO position in June, has overseen the demise of Project Veritas.
Garvey resigned earlier this month, but the Connecticut Sentinel confirmed the resignation with management. Skakel accepted a position of Chief Financial Officer in a secret board meeting earlier this month.
Garvey and Skakel were long-serving members of that body. Board member Joe Barton is still with the company.
Prior to the mass firing, Skakel was at a meeting with a Project Veritas attorney on August 9 during which the board voted to "no longer indemnify" investigative journalists Spencer Meads and Eric Cochran who had acquired hefty legal fees as a result of their work with the organization.
Cochran and Meads are currently facing a federal investigation over their involvement in reporting on Ashley Biden's diary, which came to the organization via a source.
Giles, who took the CEO position in June, has overseen the demise of Project Veritas, the investigative journalism organization founded by James O'Keefe more than a decade ago. Giles was part of O'Keefe's first undertaking on an Obama era housing program that sought to help underprivileged Americans buy homes.
O'Keefe posed as a pimp, Giles as his prostitute, and the two enlisted mortgage group Acorn to help them gain a mortgage for a home in which they could ply their sex work trade.
The board of Project Veritas forced O'Keefe out of the company he founded, gaining support from employees over concerns about his use of Veritas funds allegedly for personal use, and in one case allegedly eating a pregnant woman's sandwich. Veritas was said to be doing an internal investigation into O'Keefe's spending, but when that investigation concluded, they refused to release the results.
A new group of journalists called SageOps, made up of Veritas alum, confronted Giles with camera and mic, only to have their ask for the reveal of audit results to be denied.
"Did James commit self inurement?" SageOps asked Giles and colleague Joe Barton, who remains on the board.
"The one thing that I will talk about is the audit report," Barton said. "The board decided not to release that. No one's going to see that except for the board for reasons that do not have to be disclosed."
The letter from employees to the board, which resulted in O'Keefe's ouster, read "The undersigned is troubled and frustrated with James’ management style and business acumen," the letter began. "These behaviors and actions are antithetical to our core values, and it came to a head this week."
Issues cited include wrongful termination, lack of transparency in decision-making, as well we O'Keefe being difficult to work with, belligerent, and mean, with "bullying" listed as a concern.
Veritas has been unable to regain its foothold or its relevancy since O'Keefe's departure. O'Keefe has founded a new media enterprise called OMG dedicated to citizen journalism.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Matthew Tyrmand was still on the board, but he has resigned.
