"No One's EVER Seen This" James O’Keefe BREAKS Epstein Files, FBI RAID Plot & Project Veritas Split | PBD Podcast / Ep. 591

Summary

PBD Podcast Episode 591: "No One's EVER Seen This" James O’Keefe BREAKS Epstein Files, FBI RAID Plot & Project Veritas Split

Release Date: May 26, 2025
Host: Patrick Bet-David (Pat)
Guests: Ryan Reynolds and James O’Keefe

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Introduction and Background

In this compelling episode of the PBD Podcast, host Patrick Bet-David engages in a deep and revealing conversation with Ryan Reynolds and investigative journalist James O’Keefe. The primary focus centers on the internal dynamics and eventual split within Project Veritas, O'Keefe's subsequent FBI raid, and the unveiling of sensitive Epstein files.

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Project Veritas Split and Internal Conflicts

Timestamp [03:02] – [09:57]

James O’Keefe provides an in-depth account of his departure from Project Veritas, detailing a tumultuous board meeting that led to his indefinite suspension and eventual termination. He explains the grievances raised by board members, which included bizarre and unfounded accusations such as allegedly "eating an eight-month pregnant woman's sandwich" and inappropriate use of black SUVs for transportation.

James states:

“They just wanted to make me feel abused. It was a lot of envy and just petty human things that this is not unique. It happens in a lot of organizations.”
[02:41]

He further elaborates on the board members' conflicts of interest, revealing that several were financially invested in companies poised to be acquired by Pfizer, which they failed to disclose due to Project Veritas’s conflict of interest policies. This lack of transparency contributed significantly to the board’s decision to oust him.

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Financial Mismanagement and Board Manipulation

Timestamp [09:36] – [21:37]

O’Keefe discusses how board members such as Matthew Tiermond orchestrated his removal by leveraging financial discrepancies and personal vendettas. He reveals that his board members covertly invested in pharmaceutical companies without his knowledge, undermining the organization’s integrity.

A notable moment occurs during a federal deposition:

O’Keefe: “I could tell by the looks on their faces that they didn't want to be there. It was crazy. It was wrong, but they did it.”
[52:25]

James highlights the problematic nature of the board's actions, including the tragic suicide of board member Steve Alemic, which occurred within a year of O’Keefe's termination. The board's decision-making process was marred by internal strife and unethical practices, leading to significant financial instability within Project Veritas.

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FBI Raid and Seizure of Information

Timestamp [51:16] – [54:15]

A significant portion of the discussion revolves around the FBI’s raid on O’Keefe’s newsroom. He describes the harrowing experience of being confronted by FBI agents who seized his personal devices, granting them access to his Signal messages containing sensitive information from government insiders.

O’Keefe asserts:

“The Department of Justice... gave me back my phones that they had for three and a half years. Every word is redacted.”
[52:35]

He criticizes the lack of transparency, noting that the probable cause for the raid was entirely redacted, raising serious concerns about governmental overreach and the suppression of journalistic freedom.

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Exposure of Epstein Files and Ongoing Investigations

Timestamp [05:22] – [10:45]

The conversation delves into the release of substantial Epstein files, uncovering hidden aspects of his operations and connections with high-profile individuals. O’Keefe discusses the release of videos and documents that shed light on Epstein’s activities, including mutated virus research at Pfizer and illicit interactions with influential figures.

James refers to a documentary titled "Truth Inside Veritas," which chronicles these revelations:

“It shows what happened at the board meeting... it was an insane story. It's a crazy story.”
[04:51]

The guests touch upon the controversial nature of these exposures and the resistance faced from powerful entities eager to conceal wrongdoing.

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Ethical Considerations and Journalistic Integrity

Timestamp [61:09] – [85:16]

A significant theme is the ethical landscape of investigative journalism. O’Keefe emphasizes the personal risks and moral dilemmas involved in exposing powerful figures. He shares his philosophy on unwavering commitment to truth, even in the face of intimidation and legal battles.

Ryan Reynolds reflects on the necessity of surrounding oneself with individuals of strong integrity to maintain journalistic independence:

“I have to be careful. But I hear what you're saying. This is incredibly suspicious.”
[112:26]

They discuss the importance of accountability, the challenges in maintaining trust, and the internal conflicts that arise when investigating corruption within governmental and influential organizations.

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Challenges in Exposing High-Profile Corruption

Timestamp [85:11] – [100:27]

The dialogue moves to the difficulties in uncovering and releasing information about top-tier individuals like Anthony Fauci and Leon Black. O’Keefe admits struggles in securing breakthroughs against esteemed figures, attributing these challenges to their perceived invincibility and the sophisticated measures they employ to protect themselves.

James proposes strategic approaches to target such individuals:

“Very difficult thing to do. If you're going after the most powerful people in the world... you have to find people who are completely unbreakable.”
[90:12]

O’Keefe shares ongoing efforts to release incriminating evidence and the personal toll it takes on him, highlighting cases where significant information remains suppressed despite its potential public interest.

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Personal Reflections and Future Endeavors

Timestamp [100:37] – End

As the episode concludes, O’Keefe reflects on the personal sacrifices and dangers inherent in his work. He draws parallels to historical figures like Gary Webb, underscoring the emotional and psychological burdens of relentless truth-seeking.

James encourages listeners to watch the accompanying documentary to gain a deeper understanding of the events discussed:

“We're going to put the link below to go watch the documentary.”
[114:15]

The episode wraps up with a mutual acknowledgment of the relentless pursuit of truth and the necessity of maintaining integrity in the face of formidable opposition.

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Notable Quotes

1. James O’Keefe on Termination:
   “They just wanted to make me feel abused. It was a lot of envy and just petty human things...”
   [02:41]

2. O’Keefe on FBI Raid:
   “When you get a search warrant to conduct a raid, you have to go to a judge with a reason...”
   [52:25]

3. Ryan Reynolds on Journalistic Integrity:
   “I commit to you that I will do this. It’s a really dangerous job...”
   [101:28]

4. O’Keefe on Building a Sustainable Organization:
   “I think the solution is to find really strong people with really strong convictions who are not for sale and unbreakable.”
   [35:09]

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Conclusion

This episode of the PBD Podcast offers a rare and unfiltered glimpse into the tumultuous events surrounding Project Veritas and James O’Keefe’s investigative pursuits. Through candid discussions, the podcast sheds light on internal organizational conflicts, the challenges of exposing high-profile corruption, and the personal sacrifices made in the quest for truth. Notably, the episode also touches upon the broader implications of governmental overreach and the fragile state of journalistic integrity in today's complex socio-political landscape.

For those interested in delving deeper, the podcast recommends viewing the documentary "Truth Inside Veritas Part One," which provides a cinematic exploration of the stories discussed.

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Recommended Viewing:
Watch the documentary "Truth Inside Veritas Part One" at www.okefemediagroup.com for an in-depth understanding of the events discussed in this episode.

Transcript

[James O'Keefe]

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[Ryan Reynolds]

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[James O'Keefe]

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[Ryan Reynolds]

Try Greenlight risk free [e-mail] Spotify no one's ever seen this before. I get sent this. I'm like, holy. This is not public.

[James O'Keefe]

Someone inside the United States government gave that to you?

[Ryan Reynolds]

That's correct. The FBI pointed guns at me and took my reporter's notebooks because I have to call my lawyer. And the moment that I unlock my phone, they snatched the phone out of my hand because I unlocked the phone. Now the FBI has access to all of my signal messages. Do you know what's in my sentinel messages? All the people in the government that come to me with information.

[Pat]

And then they raid your house.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Correct. That is the justification for the raid against James o' Keefe.

[Pat]

So means they can do whatever they want.

[Ryan Reynolds]

That's a question that Dan Bongino and Cash Patel needs to answer. They need to answer.

[James O'Keefe]

If you want something that is revolutionary, a breakthrough. It's Diddy because he's alive.

[Ryan Reynolds]

What is the thing that needs to be on video in your mind?

[James O'Keefe]

Oh, it's very easy for me.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Tell me.

[James O'Keefe]

I've never ever talked about it on any podcast.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Right.

[James O'Keefe]

Ever.

[Ryan Reynolds]

This is the first time I commit to you that I will do this. This is also very dangerous. Wouldn't you admit to do these stories?

[James O'Keefe]

Well, you subscribe to this lifestyle.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I almost feel like they're concerned that I'm going to like record them trying to bribe me, which I would of.

[James O'Keefe]

Did you ever think you would make it.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Adam?

[James O'Keefe]

What's your point? The future looks Bright, My handshake is better than anything I ever saw. It's right here. You are a one of one.

[Ryan Reynolds]

My son's right.

[James O'Keefe]

I think I said this. Oh, he is, yes. Oh, you got to be kidding me.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yes, he is. Yes.

[James O'Keefe]

Positive.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I'm certain of it. Yes.

[James O'Keefe]

We're live right now, though.

[Ryan Reynolds]

We're live.

[James O'Keefe]

Yeah. So he is part of the Skeka family, correct?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yes.

[James O'Keefe]

So, okay, folks, first of all, if you're tuning in, James, the last time we sat down was February of 2022, roughly three and a half years. Obviously, nothing's happened since then. For you, life's been the same. It's been normal. You know, everything's going good. But last night, you sent me this. This documentary, and I'm leaving town, so I'm going out of the country. And I said, listen, let's see if we can do a podcast before we leave. And then last night, I sit there, I'm going through. It's called the Truth of Project Veritas Part one, that just came out this week. And the more I'm watching it, I'm like, you got to be. So this is what happened here, because originally, when the whole scandal took place, I was like, oh, you know what? James o' Keefe, what was he up to? He was spending the money. He was doing this. He was taking helicopter rides. He was taking one too many Ubers and black cars and all this stuff. This is what you kind of see. And then your apology letter. But walk us through what happened with Project Veritas.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Thank you for having me. This film I've released, the Truth Inside Veritas, takes you inside of Project Veritas, which fired me two and a half years ago. And it shows you what happened at the board meeting where they were throwing all these grievances out at me. You hear the grievances, you see, you meet the employees, and you meet this board member in federal court because they sued me. So they fired me, and they indefinitely suspended me without pay, AKA terminated me. So I just started a new organization called omg, o' Keefe Media Group, which I've been doing, and then they sued me to try to shut OMG down. So in this deposition footage, in the video tapes from federal court. Depositions are public proceedings. I took the depositions, I put them in the movie, and you see what happened, and it's an insane story. It's crazy story.

[James O'Keefe]

Yeah. Well, so the events, the sequencing of the events, which is kind of weird, is when you. When you got the big Pfizer, one of the directors that talks about what they were doing. Rob, if you want to go through the timeline. So the sequencing was kind of weird. When you first are. I want to see if I got the dates here or not. Let me see. Yeah, right there. January 2023. You know, we hear about the. Under your leadership release an undercover video featuring a man identified as Jordan Tristan Walker. This is the one that he's running out.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah, this is the. This is the biggest story.

[James O'Keefe]

This is the biggest story, guys of the. At the peak.

[Ryan Reynolds]

The director. The MRNA director of scientific research advisor talking about mu. Mutating the virus at Pfizer. This video was viewed an insane amount of times. I confront this guy, if you remember this. I confronted him with a microphone and he physically assaulted me.

[James O'Keefe]

I remember that.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And he took the iPad out of my head and he smashed it on the ground. This is the gay date. The gay guy@pfizer. YouTube took it down. It's still on X. And he's talking about directed evolution at Pfizer. Something that Pfizer denies. But he says it. He's a director at the company and we released this video and I confronted him in a restaurant in New York City. And a week later I was removed from Project Veritas. So conspiracy theories were abound. Did Pfizer bribe somebody? Did they put pressure on people? This is the guy, Jordan Walker. There he is right there.

[James O'Keefe]

Change your music.

[Pat]

I remember this guy.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah, this is a Yale educated doctor director high up within Pfizer Pharmaceutical. And there he is freaking out. Grabbed the iPad out of my hand. My cameraman had to in self defense push him away. Cause he was physically assaulting me. You could probably find a better video there. Oh, there's the one of him undercover. Click on that. Pfizer ultimately is thinking about mutating. Covid, the undercover journalist asked and he said, well, that is not what we say to the public. No, no, no, don't tell us to any. Don't tell anybody what I'm telling you. Promise me you won't tell anybody.

[James O'Keefe]

Can we hear the audio of this guy saying this? Rob, go back a little bit. Yeah, this part. I hope there's no Titanic music in the background, but go ahead.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Not sure if you have audio on the clip.

[Pat]

And James, while he's looking for this. How. How in the world can you expose something like this? This guy who. Plain and simple. And then nothing happens. Like nothing happens.

[Ryan Reynolds]

The truth is to him or to.

[James O'Keefe]

Let's stay on this.

[Pat]

My bad.

[James O'Keefe]

Let's stay on this. So while this is Happening. While this is happening, this is being released. Okay. Do you have the audio, Rob, or No, I do. I.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Let's see our undercover journalist.

[James O'Keefe]

So you're on a date with them or somebody else is on Covid.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Vaccines are ineffective against virus variants. What he said is disturbing. Listen to this.

[Pat]

We're exploring, like, no, you know, how the virus keeps mutating.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah. Well, one of the things we're exploring is like, why don't we just mutate it ourselves so we could create unequally developed new vaccines. Right. So we have to do that. If we're going to do that, though, there's a risk of like, as you.

[Pat]

Could imagine, no one wants to be.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Having a pharma company mutating viruses. Yeah, like, do we want to do this? So that's like one of the things we're considering. Okay.

[Pat]

Like the future. Like maybe we'll be like great new.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Versions of the vaccines and things like that.

[James O'Keefe]

Okay.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Pfizer also, to the audience who may.

[James O'Keefe]

Not remember this, okay, we remember, we reacted to this multiple times. Okay, but how high ranking of a person is it?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Pretty high.

[James O'Keefe]

Okay.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Pretty high ranking. At the time when I released this, the mainstream media were like, well, we don't know if that's really a Pfizer director. They denied that this guy was who he was. I got internal Microsoft Teams, messages from sources within Pfizer that confirmed he was who he said he was. He's a director high up in the company, two below the chief executive officer and. Yeah, high ranking guy.

[James O'Keefe]

Okay, so when that happens, you release that. What happens? Give me the sequencing of what happens with Project Veritas trying to fire you, the 25 employees that turned against you. What happened then?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah, so this was released January 26, 2020. January 25th. Pardon me. The confrontation was released the very next day in Brooklyn. It was just filmed in a pizza restaurant in Brooklyn. And then I was board meeting was on February 6th, where they brought in a six and a half hour grievance session. Out of 75 employees, about 12 employees spoke with these grievances, which is what you watched in the documentary. And then on February 10, they indefinitely suspended me without pay, aka fired me from Project Veritas.

[James O'Keefe]

Now the claims they made is you fired a CFO and you fired. Is it Hinckley or what's his name?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yes, by Barry Hinckley.

[James O'Keefe]

Barry Hinckley. So he was the chief strategy officer, I'm not mistaken.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Correct.

[James O'Keefe]

So walk me through what their concern was, because you don't have the right to fire the CFO to chief strategy officer. Look, I'm the CEO, the founder. What do you mean? I can't find.

[Ryan Reynolds]

They said that I was wrong for me to fire the chief financial officer.

[James O'Keefe]

Who is they? The board.

[Ryan Reynolds]

The board. These individuals that you saw in the film, right? They. Their names. Matthew Tiermond, George Skakel, other. Other individuals who. No one knows their names. Joe Barton. But these board members said, James does not have the authority. And it turns out I did have the authority. And the chief financial officer sent me a message on February 2 saying, we're going to have an emergency board meeting to remove you, James o' Keefe, as CEO. I was like taking off on an airplane at the time. I was like, this is the Twilight Zone. I said, what are you going to say to the public? Do you have a press release written? They said, no, the public doesn't need to know. So for me it was like, are you kidding me? Like, this was like the Twilight Zone.

[James O'Keefe]

Were they using counsel to threaten you? To follow every order they were giving you or else. Is that kind of what they were doing to you? Intimidation or.

[Ryan Reynolds]

No, no, it was just a. This is the story of what. This is such a crazy story. They weren't threatening me. They were just informing me that they were going to remove me as the CEO of the company. So my number three guy saying, we're gonna remove you and restructure the company. I said, okay, you're fired. This is not gonna happen. I'm not gonna let you do this. Cause it's gonna destroy the organization if you do this. And this is the phone call we're having as the airplane is taking off from Nashville. Excuse me. To Nashville on February 2nd. All of this is in this film I just released. You can hear some of the audio of what transpired. And then they have this board meeting on the 6th. That's Monday, February 6th, 2023. Some a week or so after you just video, you just watched. And that's where you had this bizarre struggle session, Maoist struggle session where they brought. They marched in employees and it was almost like employees went on strike and said, we don't like James o' Keefe. He's a mean boss. He works us too hard. And they have these weird grievances. And you could hear all the grievances.

[James O'Keefe]

Yeah. One time, apparently you ate a eight month pregnant woman sandwich, which she later on came back and talked about.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yes, the pregnant lady said it didn't happen.

[James O'Keefe]

Yeah, she said didn't happen. But they literally said you ate an eight month pregnant women's sandwich.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I stole a pregnant woman's sandwich. I took. Barry Hinckley said I took black SUVs around. He said, you shouldn't be transporting the CEO around like this. A bunch of really strange accusations which never made sense to anybody. Anybody watching was, this is insane. And questions are, how could this happen? Why could this. So many things to dive into here about what went down.

[James O'Keefe]

So on George Skakel. Rob, if you can pull this up now, the George Skakel I keep pulling up is Ethel Kennedy's father. Ethel Kennedy married RFK Bobby Kennedy's father, the AG who got assassinated. So you're saying that George Skakel family is related to the George Skakel that was one of the board members?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yes. To be clear, Ethel Kennedy. The Kennedys and the Skakels are two famous families. Kennedys Democrats, Skakels Republicans. Ethel Kennedy is the mother of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. This same Ethel Kennedy is the aunt of that man right there, George Skakel. So they are in fact.

[James O'Keefe]

So they are in fact related. Okay, so George Skakel 1. When the conversation comes about at the end of the documentary when he says, hey, you can never have a house like this. Is it all about money? How much money do you make? Is it all about money for you? Yeah, I bet you can never have a house like that. And it's got a nice house. That's to the side. How did he make his money?

[Ryan Reynolds]

That's not. That's not exactly clear to me. But his. His father's grandfather founded a company. I forgot the name of the company. Big company. Probably find it online here. Was it Carbide or Union Lake Carbide. Some type of coal processing.

[James O'Keefe]

So it's a generational money. So he's like a third generation, fourth generation money.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Correct.

[James O'Keefe]

Okay, I got it.

[Ryan Reynolds]

So.

[James O'Keefe]

So when he said the four, the. The. When they asked the question and they said, so how much money did James o' Keefe steal? Or whatever the question was. And he said, 785,023. 785,023. And he asked the question. So how'd you come up with that number? I can't tell you. What was he talking about?

[Ryan Reynolds]

He literally just made it up under oath. He was flippant. He was being flipped. It's in a remarkable piece of footage. He's under oath. This is a federal deposition. Your audience might be asking, how can o' Keefe play courtroom videos? Depositions aren't under seal, meaning they're public proceedings. His videotaped. He's under oath in a federal courtroom. Proceeding. And the attorney asks, you alleged that James o' Keefe owes you money or stole money. How much did James steal?

[James O'Keefe]

And right here he has it. He found it. Watch this clip. I'm interested to know how much James. Okay.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yes, sorry.

[James O'Keefe]

Playback speed to normal. There you go. Watch it.

[Ryan Reynolds]

$785,000.23.

[Pat]

How did you arrive at that figure?

[Ryan Reynolds]

With a very, very complicated algorithm. I cannot reveal because it's confidential.

[Pat]

It's based on the employment agreement.

[James O'Keefe]

Obviously it looks very honest here. How many violations did you identify?

[Ryan Reynolds]

27.

[Pat]

27 violations of the employment agreement.

[James O'Keefe]

And that led you to what figure?

[Ryan Reynolds]

I just told you, I'm not repeating my answer.

[Pat]

Is that analysis in your documents?

[Ryan Reynolds]

No, it's not.

[Pat]

Is it done in your head?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Partially. Where else? Well, I'm not allowed to disclose that. I mean, these people were just impeaching all of their credibility.

[James O'Keefe]

Okay, so this guy, George Skakel, when he's saying that prior to them coming after you, you dropped the Pfizer thing, it talks about four companies he's invested in. One of them, I don't know how many of them was pharma. What was his link, if there is any theories to say. Well, the reason why he did this, because they got a phone call saying this. What are some speculations that you have that caused them to want to fire you right after the biggest story you guys ever dropped with Project Veritas?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Well, there was another clip in the, in the deposition. You could pull it up here in a minute. But he says that these companies could, this is his quote, could be sold to Pfizer. That's right, what he says. And these companies. Now, when you're in a nonprofit organization that investigates these things, we have to sign a conflict of interest policy.

[James O'Keefe]

Right.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And this is a very important. In my, in my business, infinitely more important than any other business. If you have financial investments in these, you have to disclose.

[James O'Keefe]

Sure.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I did not know this, but every one of my board members were co investing in these companies without my knowledge. They were soliciting money from each other to put into these companies. And I didn't know it until I got to this lawsuit. And this is an ongoing lawsuit.

[James O'Keefe]

He found it. This is the clip. If you want to play that clip, Rob, about three or four companies, you just had it. Go for it.

[Ryan Reynolds]

The only thing that has changed is that we broke the biggest story in our organization's history. It was a story that was so big that it was a combination of the board thinking they finally could do this without James o' Keefe. But also maybe some conflicts of interest, per their own words.

[James O'Keefe]

Is it fair to say that three of the four companies you've invested in you would consider to be in the.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Medical field where petrogen could be sold.

[Pat]

To a big pharma like Pfizer?

[James O'Keefe]

You agree with me?

[Pat]

Pfizer could be a candidate for maybe potential? Yeah, I mean, you know, I think.

[Ryan Reynolds]

If I was a banker, you'd be crazy not to let Pfizer know that it was available. Yeah, it turns out I. I was up against all these people who were financially aligned. Really.

[James O'Keefe]

Well, we can pause it right there, Ron. Yeah. So three or four companies, James, the. The board members that you had, if you can give a one, how did you find them to profile? Because if I'm. If I'm on your board and you, you're having to raise $2 million a month because this thing takes a lot of work. The whole $24 million you were talking about, they said, well, we want you to stop raising money. How the hell do you want the company to run? Yes. So if, if you bring these guys in, don't they have to be a hundred percent locked in to realize who you are? Like, everybody knows you know what you're going to do and what you're not going. You're an Acorn guy. When you drop that whole acorn story, going to an event with an underage hooker that you showed up to as a pimp.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Awesome.

[James O'Keefe]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on in, come on in, come on in. And I think you were with Breitbart at that time, if I'm not mistaken.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Right? Yes.

[James O'Keefe]

So don't they. Don't these guys who are part of your board members know who they have as the product that they're marketing?

[Ryan Reynolds]

The problem was nobody was willing to be on my board. The people that I trusted and respected the most said, I can't be on your board.

[James O'Keefe]

I got you.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I'll write you a hundred thousand dollar check.

[James O'Keefe]

I'm just not going to be on the board.

[Ryan Reynolds]

This is nonprofit, tax deductible money. Someone even wrote us a half a million dollar check. But he says, I can't be on your board because I, you know, it's too risky for me. The liabilities, Pat, the liabilities of what I do approach infinity. I've been sued dozens of times. There's no, at least not yet. I hope to make it sustainable and profitable. There's no profit in this. You can't become wealthy doing this. Why? Because you get sued so much and the legal fees on the balance sheet, the liabilities always outweigh the assets. So you have to be a little nuts, at least in the right way to do this. You have to be.

[James O'Keefe]

You're fully nuts. No, you are, you're qualified to be a little bit.

[Ryan Reynolds]

In certain ways I am. But the problem is self interest is a very powerful motivator for people and the instinct for self preservation is extremely powerful. So when you get raided by the FBI, which we were in 2021, a year before this happened, and you're getting sued by everybody, the problem is, is if you're not messianic, if you're not mission driven.

[James O'Keefe]

Corruption, why would you let them be on your board?

[Ryan Reynolds]

So that was my mistake. That was my mistake. I did not discern this. And I had a founder's board. I knew these guys from 10 years prior, right. When I was scrapping, when I had nothing and they were willing. So the mistake that I made is they were willing to be on the board. And I said okay. And I couldn't find anybody. The hardest thing about board.

[James O'Keefe]

How many do you need?

[Ryan Reynolds]

What's that?

[James O'Keefe]

How many board members do you need?

[Ryan Reynolds]

501C3S require a minimum of three, but you really should have five optically.

[James O'Keefe]

How many did you have at the peak?

[Ryan Reynolds]

I had three at Project Veritas. Five 1C3 and then I had three at 5.1C4. And they combined the boards when they did this, they just put everyone on the same board.

[James O'Keefe]

So six, that's an even number though. Is it? Is it a six equal voting or the one that votes on a 501C4 does influence over the 501C3.

[Ryan Reynolds]

There were only three board members when they, when they did this and it was a two to one vote. Just a two to one vote.

[James O'Keefe]

Who was the one?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Well, I was the, the third board member, so I was opposed of course to this. So it was Tiermond and Garvey, John Garvey. And then they combined the other board, which was George Skakel and Joe Barton and a man named Steve Alemic is now deceased.

[James O'Keefe]

So it became four to one.

[Ryan Reynolds]

It became five to one. Five to one.

[James O'Keefe]

Okay, so profile of those guys.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Excuse me? Four to two. When Steve Alemc voted against it.

[James O'Keefe]

He's the one that passed away.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Correct.

[James O'Keefe]

So he was with.

[Ryan Reynolds]

He actually committed suicide. You can't make this stuff up. It was a 4 to 2 vote when they combined the boards and they voted to indefinitely suspend.

[James O'Keefe]

Yeah, he committed suicide.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Correct.

[James O'Keefe]

What was the timeline of when he committed suicide?

[Ryan Reynolds]

It was within the year after this.

[James O'Keefe]

Happened and is there any stories of why come. Is it non related to this event, caused so much trauma that he just didn't want to deal with it?

[Ryan Reynolds]

I don't know, it may be, it may be unrelated, I don't know.

[James O'Keefe]

Okay, maybe unrelated. Of the four board members that were against you, we just learned a little bit about Skakel. Can you tell us a little bit about the other three?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Absolutely. And there should be some clips in this film to back up what I'm saying. As you know, I like to make factual statements. Matthew Terramond was the number one orchestrator, the top guy. And you want to take you through a little bit of each of these guys. Matt Tiermont. I was on a boat in the Bahamas, Pat, about eight, nine years ago with a big, big supporter, big philanthropist. And he said to me, you have to beware of this man. I said, why? He said, because this man is incredibly jealous of you, James, and he wants to be you. You need to get him off your board now. At the time I didn't know what that meant. I was like, oh, what does that mean? He admires me. I didn't have any life experience to inform me what could happen to someone who wants to be you. But apparently people saying this guy was very envious. He wanted to be, to be me or to have what I have, whatever that we could talk about that. That's Matthew Tiermond, the guy who orchestrated everything. And there are some insane, pornographic, obscene messages he sent me. Now Matthew Tiermon was soliciting the board members to put money into his companies that he was his for profit Wall Street. He worked on Wall Street. He has an economics degree from the University of Chicago. His father was a famous, a famous Polish anti communist dissident. A lot of these guys had fathers who were wealthy and famous. So one theory is that they lived in the shadow of their fathers. We could talk more about him in a minute. There's George Skakel, who we've been talking about. There was a man named Joseph Barton. There's federal deposition clips of him in the film. Joe Barton said some pretty crazy things in his deposition. He said I'm not entitled to a private life. So these guys were publishing messages about my personal life with my girlfriend. There's a man named John Garvey who is about to be deposed. He hasn't yet been deposed. And then there's Steve Alembic who committed suicide. Those are the board members. Are you still quoting 30 year old movies?

[James O'Keefe]

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[Ryan Reynolds]

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[James O'Keefe]

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[Ryan Reynolds]

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[James O'Keefe]

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[James O'Keefe]

Applies to orders over $35. Of the four, how many of them have you had communication with since they fired you?

[Ryan Reynolds]

These guys have been obsessively, I mean obsessively, posting and tweeting on X about me nonstop for the last two years. Crazy stuff, demonic stuff. You wouldn't even believe me unless I pull it up on the screen.

[James O'Keefe]

One of the ones, which one was the one that kept texting you, I love you. Listen, I feel so bad about what's going on. And then afterwards, you're my mother, fuck. You know all this stuff. So how often did that happen? Was that board members or was those.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Employees you're referring to in the film? These are some of the employees now again at Project Artists. People don't realize. When I came on your show, we had like 65, 70 employees. That's a lot of people. And you saw about 12 or so were acting in this demonic way. You're referring to a couple of the younger employees who were behaving like this. So they came in the boardroom, they said, o' Keefe's a mean boss. He yelled at me one time. He's a power drunk tyrant. And then a week later they would send me an Instagram, I'm so sorry. I feel horrible for what I did. I never should have done this. And then like a few months later, they're calling me. I can't even say it on the air, but horrible, you know, expletive words on. On. On DMs.

[James O'Keefe]

So now are you at a point that are we? Because to us, when it happened, the first thing I said is, I don't know what Project Veritas is without o' Keefe. And I know they don't like to Hear that? You know, a lot of times people think, you know, certain organizations can get the same kind of, same kind of results without the face. Most companies can survive without a face. Most companies could. And you know, oh my God, Apple will never make it without Steve Jobs. Apple goes from $100 billion company when Steve Jobs dies. Tim Cook did a great job. It's a 3 trillion dollar company. He 30x what Steve Jobs had, right? But this is a small nonprofit that like when I said your crazy enough to do stuff like this, the average person doesn't wake up saying, let me go expose Pfizer in the middle of all the shit that's going on. Let me go expose Acorn and have the guy I work with suddenly have a heart attack that nobody knows what's going on. And then Michael Cormier, who is the leading investor, I don't know what, what role he had. And then he all of a sudden dies. And they don't know what he died from.

[Pat]

They're saying arsenic poisoning in the L. A coroner's office.

[James O'Keefe]

The average person doesn't want to do your job. The average person just want consume the content you create. So Project Veritas, we saw one of the recent clips and the most common question everybody asks is, wait a minute, why does it say Veritas? And omg right? O' Keefe Media Group.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Right?

[James O'Keefe]

What was that all about? Are you at a point right now? What Veritas is coming back under you or not yet?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah. So they're, they're on the verge of bankruptcy. They, when I, when I was raising $2 million a month, $24 million a year. That's a lot of money to raise as a nonprofit. Remember, there's no annuities. You have to ask people for money constantly. And when they got rid of me, the donations just stopped. Everybody wanted their money back. And in that board meeting, I had one trump card because these guys were, it was like a struggle session. They just wanted to make me feel abused. It was a lot of envy and just petty human things that this is not unique. It happens in a lot of organizations. But to your point, what are they gonna do if they get rid of the guy who's raising all the funds? They didn't have an answer and they didn't care. Now in the movie, I noticed your producer had that 54 minute movie. If you can find this moment where it's about three quarters of the way through towards the end of that board meeting. That's the guy, Matthew Tierramon, you just saw him on the screen right there, there was a quote that's incredibly important. And I said, point of order. What are you guys gonna do? Cause that's the trump card I had. What's your plan? Okay, you wanna lash me? You wanna crucify me, you wanna make me feel abused? And Tiermon says something, and I hope he can pull it up, that same guy, he goes, we have 65 employees. We're gonna be fine without James O' Keefe. They actually believed, or they wanted to believe.

[James O'Keefe]

Not for a product like this.

[Ryan Reynolds]

But you see, that's so interesting about human nature, isn't it? Because when you're that envious, when you're that resentful, when you're that deluded. There it is right there. You got it. 65 employees. You just passed it a moment ago. My question is, what is the plan of if you implement this solution?

[Pat]

Project Dark Cop is an organization that has 65 credibly talented individuals who are capable of doing journalism.

[James O'Keefe]

We don't believe that there will be.

[Pat]

Any lost output on the margin.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Cut. There it is. So they actually believed that there wouldn't be any lost output on the margins? Literally the exact opposite happened. Every donor wanted their money back. Nobody trusted anything they had to say. Now, they believed, but content is king. Our journalism matters. But the problem, what they failed to understand, is investigative journalism is all about trust. And if you behave like this, nobody's gonna trust anything that you report. And I think that's what they failed to understand. But Matthew Tiermont actually believed that Project Veritas didn't need James O' Keefe anymore.

[James O'Keefe]

So they also apparently lost 200,000 followers, like within days of us, you know, the audience finding out that you're no longer tied to them. So even the Veritas account, I don't know what it was, but I saw somewhere that they lost a couple hundred thousand followers as well. So what number did that $24 million go down to?

[Ryan Reynolds]

The revenue, you mean?

[James O'Keefe]

Yes.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Zero negative equity. There was one individual. I can't name the donors under the freedom of association under the First Amendment, but one donor said, I want my $1 million check back. The chief financial officer said, it's unlawful for us to return your check. That's not true. The donors wanted their money back, so they went deeply into debt. So when I left, there was somewhere around $10 million in cash and no debt. No debt. And now they're like $2 million in debt with no cash.

[James O'Keefe]

Are you gonna. Is it gonna come back to you? Is that where you are?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Where prosecution eventually. And people your audience might be wondering, well, why can't o' Keefe talk about the specifics of the negotiations? Because I promised the court I won't. And I'm a man of my word on settlement negotiations. You can't talk about the details. I can talk about the proceedings that's public. I just can't talk about the details of the so called settlement, you know, the talks of acquiring or getting the information. But all I can tell you is that I'm in talks to reacquire Project Veritas.

[James O'Keefe]

When you put that Project Veritas on the back of that most recent video that you did, why did you do that?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Because we had filmed a video in front of that brick, brick wall, big brick wall backdrop. We literally, brick by brick, rebuilt the Project Veritas studio here in West Palm Beach, Florida, where I now, I now live. Because I was about to imminently about to announce that I'm reacquiring Project Veritas.

[James O'Keefe]

Oh, so it wasn't finalized yet. So did you have permission from them to use that? Can you use that? Was that a conversation?

[Ryan Reynolds]

There is no, there is no trademark of the, of the, of the, of the logo. In fact, I have a. I have, I've applied for the trademark myself, so I'm allowed to use it.

[James O'Keefe]

Okay.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I'm allowed to report the same reason I'm allowed to report on the court proceedings for sure.

[James O'Keefe]

Well, I mean, look, the work you do and did is not everyone's work. It's not something everyone wants to do, nor can do in the manner that you do it, because you stay poised and calm in the moments that you're in and you get in the faces of people yet still stay respectful. That's, that's not easy for people to do because some people in that moment, they get so emotional and then they don't know how to come down. You stay. So you can't even train somebody to be like that. You either have it or you don't have it. One can get better, but you can't just train someone to say, why can't you do what o' Keefe does? It's not a skill set. It can teach anybody. So hopefully to go to that direction because I think your job is a very important job to move on. Is there anything else you want to tell the audience before we move on from this story? Cuz obviously we're gonna put the link below to go watch the documentary.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah.

[James O'Keefe]

But is there any final thoughts on this story?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Couple things. Number one, you can watch the movie O' keefemediagroup.com It's $9. People say, why are you charging for journalism? Well, most of the. Most of the journalism I don't charge for. But I think this movie is incredibly cinematic. I know you watched it yesterday. It's an incredible experience. And it's a really story about human nature. This is about human nature. How do I build an organization? It's not really a business. I mean, it is a business, but it's a mission. How do you create a sustainable entity, a team of people going after the most powerful people in the world, which I will continue to do. We're about to talk about Epstein and all these other things I'm doing right now. How do you build that without it getting corrupted, without people lying about you to the FBI to protect their families? Right. These are really hard questions that I haven't yet fully figured out yet. I'm learning, I'm experimenting. Nobody does this. So I'm trying to create a sustainable organization that can do it at scale. And to be fired from the company that I created and to build something from nothing. You mentioned in the film, George Gael says, you can't afford my house. That statement said so much about him, didn't it? Anybody who says that you can't afford my house, it. I don't know if you can play.

[James O'Keefe]

That all the way at the end. Robert.

[Ryan Reynolds]

This is the thing that actually struck people. Of all the things in the film, it's the very last like thing that happens in the movie. This really struck people. And it says so much about the character of these people. It's about like.

[James O'Keefe]

Yeah, they're literally standing. That's right there. Right there.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Playing it. Loyal to each other. George, were you an investor in the same company. Company as Matt Tierman? Some of them. You didn't disclose that, but I didn't. I wasn't an investor in the companies while I was on your board.

[James O'Keefe]

While you're on the board?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yes.

[Pat]

I think I was on the board then.

[Ryan Reynolds]

You weren't? No. When did you become an investor? After I left. Left your board, is that right?

[Pat]

How much did you invest in each.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Of Matt Tierman's companies? Watch this.

[Pat]

I don't think that's any of your business.

[James O'Keefe]

I think it is.

[Pat]

How much did you. We have a disagreement. Are you refusing to answer the question?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yes, I want to talk about your investments. I want to talk about you. How much money did you spend on private helicopters? I wasn't particularly concerned about the financial stuff. There is no reason for Me to disclose anything? My personal investments? Yes. That's ridiculous. Well, you said you're a businessman and Pfizer could be a buyer. What did you mean by that? What did you. I invest in businesses. That's not news. That's how I make. Yeah. It's all about making money, isn't it? How do you think I paid for this? Is it all about money? Too bad you can't afford that. There it is right there. So you're a liar. It's all about money, isn't it? It's all about money. Because I'm not a business guy. It's all about money, isn't it? This was my. One of my closest, my closest associates. It was almost like an uncle to me. And unfortunately, Pat, you know, I think I would say the last comment is, I don't know whether the commercial imperative, the profit making mechanism is compatible with absolute truth telling. When I watch the people closest to. I mean, this guy was an uncular figure. His wife was like my second mother. And money just unfortunately tends to corrupt. So that's. It's a deeper, more philosophical concept. I just wanted to get that out and tell you that I'm working on it. And I think the solution is to find really strong people with really strong convictions who are not for sale and unbreakable. And if I can surround myself with those types of people, I think I will be okay.

[James O'Keefe]

That's a perfect transition into the one video clip, Rob, if you can, about your life, right? We've all seen this clip. Vinny, you love this clip. I love it. Can you. Rob, is there music in this one? I think there is, right?

[Ryan Reynolds]

I believe there is.

[James O'Keefe]

Is it gonna be okay to play it with the music?

[Ryan Reynolds]

As long as we comment it's on YouTube shorts without music too. Whichever your preference.

[James O'Keefe]

What is the message of it, Rob?

[Pat]

If the price isn't your life, then you're for sale.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yep.

[James O'Keefe]

Let me see if I can find it on YouTube without the music.

[Ryan Reynolds]

YouTube Shorts is without music, people.

[Pat]

The music adds up.

[Ryan Reynolds]

It adds. It adds something to it.

[Pat]

If you feel like you want to cry.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah, there it is.

[James O'Keefe]

Is that the one?

[Ryan Reynolds]

That's it. Without me.

[James O'Keefe]

Okay, go for it, Rob.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Price, is it 10 million to the beginning? Because you clip 20 million, what is your price?

[James O'Keefe]

There you go.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Is it 10 million? Is it 20 million? Is it 100 million? What is your price? Because if your price is not your life, then you are for sale. If your price is not your life, then you are for sale. So if you're going to Be a truth teller. Your price has to be your life. I can't surround myself with people whose price is not their life, because the enemy, whatever the enemy is, whether it be physical, legal, spiritual, will. Will. Will attack the vulnerability of the person who can be compromised. So you get real spiritual real fast if you're going to do this type of work. What is your price, James?

[Pat]

And I've.

[James O'Keefe]

I've.

[Pat]

I've seen this multiple times. I've shared it with people. We've played it on the podcast. I think what you're doing, you're. You're hands down the. The best journalist. You don't give a. You even said right now that you're not in the. Like, what. What money are you making from exposing the truth? I know it's. It's going to be damn near impossible to trust every single person because what you said about the money situation. But in regard to this video, James, with the price being life, has anybody. I'm pretty sure they have approached you of any people of power that have tried to offer, maybe a Soros, maybe somebody. Somebody to tell you, like, james, shut up. Here's money. We'll give you this. Disappear. Leave us alone.

[Ryan Reynolds]

It's. It's a very interesting. Yeah. This one. And I remember then you. You DM to me. I appreciate that very much. You were very touched by this. Yeah, Big time at the time. People were. You could hear the murmurs in the crowd. These are men twice my age.

[Pat]

Yes.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Just a simple statement. They're like, whoa, yeah. What a concept. Yeah, it's. I mean, this is not, you know, these are. These are. There have been a couple times in meetings where people have the closest thing I could say, whereas a person of wealth would ask me to do something and I would say, I can't. This is not an exchange of goods and services. I can't do something in exchange for you paying me to do it. That's not how I work as a journalist. I have to operate impartially without fear. And when the person realized where I was coming from, they kind of backed off. They're like, oh, no, that's okay. I almost feel like they're concerned that I'm going to, like, record them trying to bribe me, which I would, of course. So when they realize. When they. When they. When they danced on that precipice and they realized where I was coming from, I think they realized, oh, Keef could expose me. And to their credit, they back off. And there's that interesting dance where they're. Maybe they're in their minds trying to corrupt me, but they then realize I could expose them. Yeah, so there's been that.

[James O'Keefe]

Yeah, so. So, you know, you hear a message like that with life and, you know your life's on the line and some of the stories you pursue. Now, here's the thing. Politically, James, what would you say you are politically?

[Ryan Reynolds]

I don't even know anymore. I. I say the truth. I did a story on Pam Bondi.

[James O'Keefe]

That's exactly what I'm talking about.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And I took a hit. I was. I think I tell stories by way of example because I think it's better than abstractions. I did a story on the attorney general, United States, and it was hard for me because I don't dislike her or like her. It's not about whether I like someone or dislike them. It's about whether the public has a right to know the information I'm exposing. I tend to have been branded as a conservative only because I felt the legacy media in the last decade and two decades has been not telling the truth. And if you do tell the truth, then you're branded as a right winger. But I don't even know what these terms mean anymore. I really don't know what it means to be a liberal or conservative anymore. Do you? I don't understand.

[James O'Keefe]

I think conservative values are pretty clear. I think liberal values are not today. They're confused. But conservative values, family, you know, country, you know, America first. Making sure we're not going for nonsense wars where people's kids are, you know, fighting a war that's unnecessary because somebody's making money on the back end and deals are getting done. Faith, freedom of speech. Those are conservative values. Right. That I would say they're there.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And watching you, I would say you have constitutionalists. I'm a very strong First Amendment, perhaps one could say absolutist on the First Amendment, with some exceptions. So I would say I believe in, for example, one of my values and virtues is I believe in equal justice before the law. I think the law should. I know that it's impossible, but we should try to emulate this. The law should treat people equally. Some would say that's a conservative value. Right. That's an American and quite conservative value. And I also believe in the freedom of speech. And I'm an absolutist when it comes to that.

[James O'Keefe]

Yeah. And where I'm going with this is the following. So video comes out because a lot of conservatives were told on day one, week one, you know, we're going to find out about Epstein 9, 11, MLK, John F. Kennedy. We're going to find all that stuff out, and we've been wanting it for a while to see what's going on with this, who's behind it, especially the last few years, at a whole different level. And we're going to find out who the assassination attempt was. Was, was he tied to anybody? With Thomas? Tied to anybody. And then we all see the same clip that you've seen, right? It's the clip with Bongino and Cash Patel.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yes, yes.

[James O'Keefe]

If, if you can pull that clip up, Rob. And you know, these are two men that almost anybody who know. I think that's the one right there. Almost anybody that knows them would call them patriots. Right?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah.

[James O'Keefe]

They've served their country, they've given their lives to the country. Dan has at the highest level. So has Cash Patel. And then we see this clip here that throws a lot of people off. Go for it.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Rob, you said Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide. People don't believe it. Well, I mean, listen, they have a right to their opinion. But as someone who has worked as a public defender, as a prosecutor, who's been in that prison system, who's been in the Metropolitan Detention center, who's been in segregated housing, you know a suicide when you see one. And that's what that was.

[James O'Keefe]

He killed himself. Again, you want me to, I've, I've seen the whole file. He killed himself.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I know it's hard work, you said.

[James O'Keefe]

And you saw people that have done, body language. You know, Dan looks uncomfortable saying what he's saying. The way he answered it, you can tell they've role played that. And you know, this is purely what people are speculating. Right. And then you have this one clip with Pam Bondi. If you have the Pam Bondi one.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I'd like to play that.

[James O'Keefe]

So maybe walk us through what's going.

[Ryan Reynolds]

On here before we, I don't know if you want me to narrate live as opposed to watching me on the screen. Narrator. To do perhaps we go, we go to the beginning of where you see Pam Bondi on the hidden camera. So I'll just talk live what I said on the camera. Okay. So there she is at the White House. Go back to the beginning of that clip of her. The White House. So that was a tough one for me to publish because I, I, you asked if I'm political and I think I'm, you know, you have to decide who you want to be. Are you a political operative or are you a journalist? And to be a journalist, it's hard because you have to do things like this. Pam Bondi was caught in a restaurant telling a stranger, a nanny on April 28th or so that there are tens of thousands of videos involving little children. Now, I didn't target her. I didn't seek to get this. People send me stuff sometimes. I have undercover people all over the country and they happen to get a conversation in an airport. I get sent this. I'm like, holy, holy shit. This is not public. The Attorney General of the United States and by the way, Cash, I believe the FBI reports to her. So this is the top dog is saying to a nanny in a restaurant something that no one knows. And to me I'm like, well that's an interesting story, is it not? So I do what I have to do. I reach out to the attorney General's office for comment. I say, Pam Bondi, the attorney of the United States, was caught in a restaurant saying, and I actually wonder whether I should have done that. I probably did them a favor by giving them the exact quotes. And then a few days later, she says the exact same thing publicly that I emailed the attorney General's office for comments saying I played the clip of her at the White House. This is what she said. This Memorial Day, turn up the heat with the Home Depot. Find the perfect grill and patio set to keep the cookouts coming all season long. Grill up a feast with the next grill 4 burner gas grill only $229. And complete your spirit space with the stylish Glen Ridge Falls 7 piece dining set now on special buy for just $499 with free delivery. Take your Memorial Day cookout to the next level all summer long with the Home Depot. See homedepot.com delivery for more details.

[James O'Keefe]

This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Knowing you could be saving money for the things you really want is a great feeling. Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can choose to bundle and save with the personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state. Thousands of videos of Epstein with children or child porn.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Now this is the first time an official has publicly acknowledged that videos of Epstein Epstein and his victims exist. What you may not know is just nine days prior, the Attorney General had a very similar conversation with a total stranger in a restaurant.

[James O'Keefe]

Do you know when the Epstein files.

[Pat]

Are gonna get released?

[Ryan Reynolds]

We hope soon. Epstein has been okay Any dates?

[James O'Keefe]

No. You know what it is? There are tens of thousands hitting us.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah. And it's all.

[James O'Keefe]

But, yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

So it's interesting because she said it privately in a restaurant to.

[Pat]

Well, publicly.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Publicly in a restaurant, not privately. And to me, it's like, that's something's something. So I felt like I had to publish this now. If she hadn't gone publicly and said this and I had released this clip in the restaurant, it would have been a much, much, much bigger deal. But it does raise questions, doesn't it? Why are they not being transparent with the American people? Why are they telling a nanny in a restaurant? So it raises questions to your point about cash. I know cash a little bit. I think he is a good man, and I mean that based upon what I know about him. I don't know Dan as much, but I also think he's a good man. I don't trust the bureaucracy that reports to them. And if you put any good man, the most ethical person at the top of that bureaucracy, I think you're setting them up for failure. Let me give you a specific example of where I'm coming from. I was raided by the FBI shortly before I met you. The FBI pointed guns at me and took my reporter's notebooks. They just recently closed the case against me a few months ago, the FBI in February of this year. And they gave me back my phones that they had for three and a half years. When you get a search warrant to conduct a raid, you have to go to a judge. Right. With a reason. Oh, we have this probable cause, the reasons why to raid. When you close a case, which is very rare for the FBI to execute a search warrant and not bring charges, it hardly ever happens. You are required by law to give a copy of the probable cause. That is the reason why you conducted the raid. Guess what they did. They redacted every single word of the probable cause used to raid my newsroom. Every word. Maybe your producer can pull it up on Google or something. Every word. There's a black bar pat through. It's ridiculous. It's literally black bars. And we're not talking about terrorists. We're not talking about Jeff Epstein. We're not talking about child molesters and drug traffickers. We're talking about James o' Keefe, the journalist. So if our FBI, our Attorney General's office, can't be transparent about why they raided a journalist's newsroom, why do we have any faith in the FBI to be transparent about these other issues? That's where I'm coming from on this.

[Pat]

And is this in regard to the Ashley Biden diary? Correct. This is it. Right, because you exposed cuz somebody contacted you and told them that they found the diary of the daughter of the President United States saying a bunch of stuff and also claiming that her father showered with her, probably at inappropriate ages. And then they raid your house.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Correct? Yeah. It's an affidavit. It's my. Go, go, go down. Go down. It's Project Veridas. Journalist detained. Devices seized. This is not it, but it's on my X page. There's a. There's a. There's on page 47 of the affidavit. Every word is redacted. I mean I, I was enraged. The ac, the American Civil Liberties Union, which is a liberal group, came to my division. This is like. This is crazy. Crazy. You take. If. If another country like Ukraine or Russia or North Korea did this, our State Department would. So my, my point is I don't have a lot of faith in these institutions. I just don't.

[James O'Keefe]

What do you think happens when they get in? That's what I want to know. Because to me, there it is right there.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I apologize. I apologize. Could you just. I apologize. Interrupt.

[Pat]

Is that real?

[Ryan Reynolds]

That's a real. That's a real document. Can you zoom in please? What it says? Probable cause justifying search of okeefes. Person and premises. Every single word is red. They even redacted the footnote.

[Pat]

So.

[Ryan Reynolds]

So isn't this insane? There's more of this.

[Pat]

So they can do whatever they want and they don't have to show you why they came in your house.

[Ryan Reynolds]

It's literally.

[James O'Keefe]

Look at that.

[Ryan Reynolds]

It's a violent. Look at this. Look at this.

[James O'Keefe]

The whole thing. Keep going, Rob.

[Pat]

Like. Okay, I see what they did there.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Okay, there's something unredacted. Read the bottom.

[Pat]

What's the bottom?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Based upon my traces an FBI agent, I have learned, among other things, that cell phones are capable of sending emails.

[James O'Keefe]

Great.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Are you kidding me?

[Pat]

I'm shocked I didn't redact that.

[Ryan Reynolds]

This is not Saturday Night Live. And then it goes on to the rest of the affidavit. But the previous three pages are the probable cause. That is the justification for the raid against James o' Keefe.

[Pat]

And James, if you don't mind. What were they looking for? The diary.

[Ryan Reynolds]

They weren't looking for the diary. Was they already. They had already had that. What were they? Well, that's a loaded question. Were they really trying to do?

[Pat]

Were they really trying to.

[Ryan Reynolds]

They were really Trying to get inside my cell phone because people in the government come to me with information which, as a reporter, I have a right to receive. And they don't like that, of course.

[James O'Keefe]

Did you give them the password to your cell phone?

[Ryan Reynolds]

This is another very interesting, because you.

[James O'Keefe]

Know what happened with Ron Johnson, where when they walked up to his house and they took his phone. And the rule of thumb, if you ever hand your phone over, never. You're not supposed to give the passport. How did he get into your phone?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Crazy story. They bang on the door, and it's the loudest pounding. You know, it's the feds. You just know. And I go to the door. I'm like. I'm opening the door because you know they're gonna shoot me. And I'm. And then they open. They put me in handcuffs. I think I'm under arrest. They say, no, this is a search warrant. I say, I want to speak to my lawyer. I say over and over again, I want to speak to my lawyer, because I learned I was arrested 10 years prior. Don't talk to the FBI. Just don't. Even if you're innocent. They say, would you like to use the iPhone on your nightstand? I said, yes. And then I. I unlock the phone because I have to call my lawyer. And the moment that I unlock my phone, they snatch the phone. Not. Get out of here.

[Pat]

Holy shit.

[Ryan Reynolds]

They snatch the phone out of my hand because I unlocked the phone. And then the FBI agent, like, almost. Almost to. To. To. To torture me in front of me, he goes to the settings, and he changes the settings to make it not go to sleep. Wow. And then they put the phone in an evidence bag. Now the FBI has access to all of my signal messages. Do you know what's in my signal messages? All the people in the government that come to me with information. Wow. So the Department of Justice. This is the Biden department. Or the month before Trump was elected in 2020. Excuse me. Biden was elected in 2020. Now they have access to all of my sources. So this is what's considered to be a constitutional raping, because the American Bill of Rights have special protections for reporters. And you're talking to the only newsroom that has ever been raided by the FBI. We're the only ones that have ever been raided, and they did it just to get the information. So what's behind all those black bars? I believe confidential FBI informants, of course. People who lied to the FBI to set me up so I could tell you. So many war stories, guys. But you asked Me, questions about Cash and Dan Bongino. They're great guys. I think they mean well. But if you put me in charge of the FBI, I wouldn't know what to do. I mean, how do you trust a bureaucracy like that where people behave? By the way, that is totally illegal. You can't take a gun, point it against your forehead and say, give me your reporter's notebooks. If that happened in Eastern Europe, our State Department would be issuing sanctions against that country. But it happened in New York.

[Pat]

Yeah. So, guys, one question. James, so they promise all this day one we're going to do this day. When we do that, what do you think happened? Meaning they're in now. Donald Trump is the president. He's told them, go ahead, you guys do whatever you want. What.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Who.

[Pat]

Who makes a Pam Bondi, a Dan Bongino, a Cash Patel, all of a sudden change their tunes and not release what we know? Because James, at the end of the day, she even said tens of thousands. I'm assuming James is, let's say, 30,000 hours of grown men having sex with children. And James, I don't know if you're familiar, in the movie jfk, Jim Garrison says, and I quote, let justice be done though the heavens fall, which basically means going after truth, no matter how powerful the people and no matter what happens to the system. So what happens? What. What do you think? They go in and who. Who tells them, you are not releasing any of this because our friends and blah, blah, blah are attached to it?

[Ryan Reynolds]

I. I don't know if anyone tells them. I mean, some have said they put you in a skiff. This. This is more of a. This is not a fact. This is speculation. But a funny notion that might illustrate what could happen is, you know that image of JFK getting shot?

[Pat]

Yes.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Do they put the leaders in a skiff? That's a secure, compartmentalized information facility. Do they show the Zapruder film of JFK getting shot and said, you better do what we tell you to do, or that could be you. Now, I'm not saying they did that to these gentlemen. And I actually genuinely mean this. I've met Cash. I think he's a genuinely good man. I just don't. I think the system is institutionally corrupt. And everyone says. You know what they say to me, Pat? Oh, call Cash. He'll help you out. Call Bam. Call Pam. Yeah, Like, I got him on speed dial. They're getting asked for 10,000 favors a day. I don't have any money to give them. The system is so Broken. When you need the guy at the top to be so influential. It's the system. It's the Article three judges, it's the courts, it's the line prosecutors. The agents in my apartment. Do you know that when the agents were in my apartment, I could tell by the looks on their faces that they didn't want to be there. Like, this is crazy. This is wrong, but they did it.

[James O'Keefe]

Well, you speculate a little bit. What do you think happens when they get in? Because they tend to change when they.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Get in about the FBI agents, anybody.

[James O'Keefe]

And everybody, that the moment they get in. And the whole quote by Mario Cuomo. People campaign in poetry, but they govern in prose. You know, once they go in, you know, they used to communicate and talk to you. Now the only way they talk to you is with emojis. You know, hey, when they were campaigning, they wanted to talk to you regularly. I want to come on the podcast. I want to do this, I want to do that. And then all of a sudden, they're in. They're more quiet about. What do you think happens when Politics.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Politics. I'm working on a story, right? One of the directors of the agency, they mean well, they go into FEMA or they go on the irs. They have all these notions of freedom and prosperity and eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse. But then they get in there, and there's such snakes in these entities. Just, you know, I mean, D.C. it's a land of phonies and narcissists. They're not attracted to do the right thing. They want power and money and sexual. Are we under some delusion that the people in Washington want something other than power and money and sex? What percentage of the people in Washington inside these agencies are actually there to do the right thing? What percentage, for real. Are we naive and foolish enough to think that people are in these places?

[James O'Keefe]

I think they start off wanting to do the right thing, and then through peer pressure, they get forced.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Or there's a few people, or there's a few people that are there who do the right thing. But there's so many snakes and manipulative. Look at what happened to me. Look why I'm on your show. I started my own institution because I didn't want to be part of the snakes. And. And the snakes infiltrate. And I think in some regards, it's human nature. And this is a really good question you're asking. I'm learning in real time. I started an institution because I didn't trust institutions, and then I'm removed from my own institution. By snakes. Hello, everyone. I'm James O' Keefe. Been doing this journalism thing for about 20 years. Truth, justice, exposing corruption, everything that comes along with it. If you want to connect with me, talk to me about any of this, you can connect with me through minect. You can see the QR code below. Look forward to hearing from you.

[James O'Keefe]

Yeah, but what I want to know is you. You have a creative mind. Okay, let's say. Let's say out of a hundred people that get in there, okay, let's say 50 of them are in there because they're driven by power, fame, prestige, you know, narcissists, all that stuff. Okay, let's say 20 get in because they're statesmen. They love America. They're, you know, they just really want to go out there and make a difference. Let's say 30% get in because they think it's a good job. Right? It's like, it's a pretty good job. I'm gonna go try it on, see what I can do. I'm gonna go be a lawyer. Okay, the 50% are the ones that found a place where they can use their evil tendencies.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And I understand what you're saying. I understand what you're saying, but once.

[James O'Keefe]

The 20% gets in.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yep.

[James O'Keefe]

The 20% are the ones that are getting in. That I'm a statesman, I love America.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Got it.

[James O'Keefe]

You know, it's bigger than this. What do you think happens for the 20 percenters to flip?

[Ryan Reynolds]

What I think is, what, did you say 20%, statesmen get in there or something like that?

[James O'Keefe]

I say it's 20%. I'm just making up a number.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I think that's accurate. I think that's accurate. I think there are probably 20%. I was probably embellishing. The problem is if you're in an institution, you have leakers, one or two people at the top. All it takes is a couple that are sabotaging your campaign, that are leaking your confidential informants to the press. Press. It completely sabotages your operation. So the problem in these institutions, if you don't have your team, which is like 100% loyal and high integrity, even a few of these snakes can destroy the entity. So that is the problem, in my view, is that you have a couple people at the top who are engaged in gaslighting, destructive campaigns. Maybe Bongino, here's another thing. Like, they're getting fed information that is not true, and they're put in a position, an untenable situation where it's difficult for them to be successful. That's what I think.

[Pat]

Well, James, here's my question, though. If they're from her words, we all. Everybody heard it twice. One to a stranger, one in front of a camera on the White House lawn. They have tens of thousands of hours. That's mind boggling. Of grown men having sex with children. Okay. What. Who has the power, James, to not let them expose those people right now? Because those people are still walking around. Pedophiles, sexual assault. Pedophiles that belong in prison. And to me, I. I believe they deserve to die. Okay? That's my thing. Who's stopping them, James, from releasing one of the names. We know the whole backstory, what I've seen. But you mean to tell me you guys are watching these videos every single day and nobody's been taken off the street?

[Ryan Reynolds]

That's a question that Dan Bongino and Cash Patel need to answer.

[James O'Keefe]

Will they.

[Ryan Reynolds]

They need to answer. Will they? Do they have the courage to answer it? Why. Why aren't they answering it, by the way? People expect me to answer that question. I don't have any power. I mean, I'm. Other than the authority that sources give to me when they give me. I'll tell you something. I released some videos in the last week inside of Epstein's bedroom in the British Virgin Island. Excuse me, the American Virgin Islands. I'm releasing images inside of his temple. Some interesting stuff on the chalkboard, by the way. There's a weird picture of a baby in his dining room. Some weird. There's his chalkboard. The FBI had those videos. But you know who released it? O' Keefe Media.

[Pat]

Yep.

[Ryan Reynolds]

So why can't they release the binders? Remember the binders they released?

[Pat]

Yep.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Okay. If they release. Why can't they release this stuff? Why am I releasing it? Yeah, I mean, there's no sex of children in there. That's something you could show the public. That's Epstein's writing, by the way, on the chalkboard. Some mysterious and cryptic messages there. I think our government.

[James O'Keefe]

Power, Deception. Music.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Mirror in face. Either dank brain or dark brain. 1. These are. The public is deciphering these messages that Jack Epstein. This is video, by the way. If you're wondering what this is, this is days after he was raided shortly after his arrest there in 2019. 2020. And that's the penmanship to show that it is was in fact Jeff Epstein's writing on the chalkboard. So we released this video. And my point is someone inside the United States government provided that to me.

[James O'Keefe]

Someone inside the United States government gave that to you?

[Ryan Reynolds]

That's correct.

[James O'Keefe]

That you're in communication with?

[Ryan Reynolds]

That's correct.

[James O'Keefe]

High ranking or mid level?

[Ryan Reynolds]

I can't say.

[James O'Keefe]

Okay, but they gave it to you because they knew that the government wasn't going to release it. So let me have it released by an omg.

[Ryan Reynolds]

They gave it to me because they don't trust the FBI and they work for the FBI. I can't say.

[James O'Keefe]

Okay. And some of the stuff that I saw, the statues, the angel statue, right? The girl in the bathroom sitting there. The. The.

[Ryan Reynolds]

That's a strange statue.

[Pat]

It looks.

[Ryan Reynolds]

It's like Eyes Wide Shut, like sort of stuff there with the, with the weird angels. A woman doing something to her private parts there.

[Pat]

It's freaking demonic house, bro.

[Ryan Reynolds]

There is some book, a book regarding Satan in the bookshelf. We got some books there. So yeah, this was provided to me. You're looking at the library, the bedroom of Jeffrey Epstein and the little St. James, the Epstein Island. This is inside of his library. No one's ever seen this before. Some people attacking me for publishing this. Oh, we want the names, James. We don't care about his library. But my other. It is Satanic Verses and some other books there.

[James O'Keefe]

Satanic Verses by Salman Rush.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Salman Rushdie, right. That's. That's different. But people were attacking me because they want the names. And my philosophy is that if I continue to publish all these things, sources will continue to come out.

[James O'Keefe]

Okay, so let me, Let me ask this question to, to go to the next level. Your. Your method on how you get it right, your method on how you guys gather intel. It seems to be a pattern that a lot of these like, it's almost like if I was to audit you to see what your game plan is. You. You tend to target people that work in the office that are gay. That. Let me just say it and then just flush mine out and call me out and say, I disagree. So through Grindr dating sites, you'll go in step number one, let's identify anybody on this administration that is gay. All right, great. Step number two, go on Grindr and see if you see their profile that matches this. Great. Let's make 20 different profiles and let's see if one of the ones he'll fall for. Great. Four, schedule day to go out and put the camera and the recording on you. And nonchalant ask what do you do? And act like you don't know what they do and you don't have a clue who they are and act dumb. And then step number six, let's Have a couple drinks, loosen them up, make him feel like you're ready to go home and have some fun with them. Step number seven, say, let's follow up. I have to go home. I'm so sorry. And then number eight, release the information. Is that pretty spot on on the system and the approach you guys take, or am I missing a few steps?

[Ryan Reynolds]

You might. You might be missing a few. But I think that's not 100% what we do. That might be like 30% of. That's one technique to get information. Yes.

[James O'Keefe]

Okay, so if that's the case, if that's the case, how come? Have you had any or have you tried? Maybe the better question is to, to say, I am sure you've tried to get Foushee. I'm sure you've tried to get his people. I am sure you've tried to, you know, see how you can find him, to get him in a place to open up and talk. The question would be, one, have you. Two, why have you not been that.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Successful with specifically Anthony Fauci?

[James O'Keefe]

I am specifically talking about Anthony Fauci.

[Ryan Reynolds]

The man, not his staff.

[James O'Keefe]

For example. Well, anybody that's his lieutenants, that would be a staff as well. That's still a very valuable asset because what you did with Pfizer was very powerful. Why haven't you gone been successful with Foushee?

[Ryan Reynolds]

You know, that's a. I don't have a legitimate excuse there. I suppose I like to say this to my staff, that, and I hate to refer to myself in the third person, but o' Keefe, o' Keefe Media, my organization, we always get the story. Sometimes it just might take longer for us to get it. So I would say we haven't gotten him yet. Have I made the attempts? I mean, we did so many stories about Pfizer specifically. But to your point, why haven't we gone after this man in particular? Oh, I remember about two, three years ago I did some. Everything I'm talking about is legal, but I did a lot of surveillance on him for a number of days and moved on to the next story. So I suppose I don't really have a good excuse there. And that's something that I should get him to open up, though, I don't.

[James O'Keefe]

Know if I told you. Last time we were together, there was a story of an insurance guy who had a couple prostitutes on his payroll. And this guy sells big insurance policies, something called premium financing. And one day one of his competitors steals a Give it away, give it, give or take a $5 million insurance policy away from him. And he finds out that he stole that $5 million insurance policy and coerced the client to go with him instead of the other guy. Anyways, this guy. Step number one, someone's computer keeps going. Can you lower the audio? Yeah. So he sends first a private investigator to see patterns. For about a month, they measure his patterns. What restaurants he goes to, at what time, where he sits, what he orders, who's his waiter, who's his waitress. A month later, after doing a private investigation and seeing his patterns, he sends the girl. The girl goes, sits at the bar. He. She knows where he's going to be at what time, and right next to him. She gets emotional, and she smiles at him. He starts talking and say, what's going on? Is everything okay with you? I'm so sorry. I'm just really going through a really hard time. She starts crying. She opens up to him. She said, I'm so embarrassed. Crying here. He follows her, goes upstairs to a room. Boom. They have the recording. The footage. He sends the footage to the other agent, says, hey, this is what you did. You need to send that client back over to me. Do you go as far as that to measure patterns of an individual, to see what restaurants and places to go to to be able to track it? Or, you know, is that one of.

[Ryan Reynolds]

The other 70% example? But we have done things like that. There is something that we're working on right now where we were tracking down corruption in D.C. which you'll see in a month or so, which is serious, serious story. And we had to find a specific individual or a specific organization. So you can't do a dating app thing. You gotta do it a different way. You might pretend we don't do exactly what you just said, but you might create an alias. Let's say you're a headhunter or you're hiring whatever a person needs. Someone needs something. Undercover work is about identifying what that need is and providing that thing to them so that you can get access to that them. Undercover work is all about access. How do you get access to someone? The easiest way is a dating app, because everyone needs love and affection and so forth and so on, or they believe the person they're meeting with could be a possible future partner. That's the easiest and most expedient way. But you make a really good point about Anthony Fauci. And frankly, I don't have a good excuse. And I usually don't do this on live television, but maybe I should send a team to get him to Open up. It's a good idea. I don't think me saying this will stop him. That's the other thing. These people are so arrogant that people often say, how do these people keep talking to you like this? And the truth is, because I'm not a psychologist, but for lack of a better word, they're all narcissists.

[James O'Keefe]

They think they're untouchable.

[Ryan Reynolds]

That's right. And they don't even look at us. It's almost like they're confessing. They just don't even think it's impossible for them to think they could be held accountable for what they're saying. And we have a whole bunch of what we call swipers that we call them the American swipers. And these are girls. Some guys, I do this sometimes, you know, and I go on these, these lunch meetings, dinner meetings, and they just spill the beans. A lot of guys in the deep state in Washington that work for these organizations, the Pentagon, Department of Defense, and they're talking about the resisting Donald Trump from the inside. Don't tell anybody I'm doing this. And they'll always say it within the first 15 minutes. And some of them have security clearances. Does it ever feel like you're a marketing professional just speaking into the void?

[James O'Keefe]

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[Ryan Reynolds]

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[James O'Keefe]

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[Ryan Reynolds]

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[James O'Keefe]

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[Ryan Reynolds]

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[James O'Keefe]

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[Ryan Reynolds]

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[James O'Keefe]

Yeah, that's the part where when you're putting a team together, you. You have to measured their level of ambition to be cool, right? To kind of say, let me tell you what I know, wink, wink, let's keep it between us. I'm cool, you know, Goes back to Jonah Mendez, the chief disguise officer I had on the podcast. I interviewed her right in front of The White House. And I said, what's a good quality of being a CIA agent? Is it charming? Is it. Is it great in sales? Is it being great persuader? Is it being this, is it being that? He says, it's all of that and then some. However, there's one quality we look for. What's that? If you just got the information that, you know, you're watching tv, you just saved the free world, you don't need to brag about it to anybody else. That's the quality of a good CIA agent. What a freaking perspective. So for me, if you're bringing guys in, like, you almost have to size them up to see how much are you trying to be cool. Like, for example, Scott Besant gives me a lot of good vibes of a guy that could give a shit about being cool. Makes sense, because this guy worked on the roof for 15 years, almost 14 years. First term was, I think, nine years under Soros, then five years as his chief investment officer. If I'm not mistaken, prior to him going up there, the average person didn't know who he was. I kind of knew, but they didn't know who he was. It was like, whoa, who is this guy? Right? And then he goes in. But some of the guys that get in there, they're really, really ambitious with fame. And fame tends to get a hold of you and corrupt you in ways, because behind closed doors, you want to be sitting in a room saying, let me tell you what I know. That's very hard to find people like that on the inside. Very hard to, you know, have people around you that know information on what things you guys are working on, and they want to brag to nobody. When I was running my insurance company, we'd always have big announcements. Like, first time I had Kobe Bryant as a keynote speaker, the late Kobe Bryant. I didn't tell anybody. At that event, I announced him and George Bush as keynote speakers until the very end. Only two people know that those two were the keynote speakers. I didn't tell anybody. And when we announced, my own wife didn't know. Nobody knew when we announced, everyone's like, what? Yes, but I could only tell two people.

[Ryan Reynolds]

You didn't tell your wife?

[James O'Keefe]

Nobody knew because it's exciting news. It's not even like for some people that they want to say it. They can't control the excitement. Oh, my God, I can't wait to meet him. Oh, my God, I can't wait that he's coming down. Right? So for some, it's from. Purely from an innocent Excitement standpoint. For some it's about, let me tell you what I know. Don't tell anybody. Right? Dude, that filtering process of getting people like that on your team, that's almost impossible. That's almost impossible.

[Ryan Reynolds]

But that is the, that is the, that is the mission of how to surround yourself with good people.

[James O'Keefe]

Oh, that's a tough thing to do. The only way you can do that is if you've never, never had a run rate with them. To accelerate the testing because your character has to be tested, takes about a couple of years.

[Ryan Reynolds]

How do you do that? I'm just curious your thoughts on how do you do that.

[James O'Keefe]

You test them, it takes a couple years. You test them with Level 3 information and see if that gets leaked. It's easy, go ahead and leak that. So I don't want you to leak it. But if you die now, know who you are, right? And then once I do that, I know I can never have you on level two type of meetings. I can only have you on level four type of meetings. I can't invite you to level two type of meetings that you leak information. That's the part where a little bit here, oh, you can't know little bit there. Or you cannot, like you have kids. You know how you're like, let me test to see if this guy can handle some bad news at this age. You give it to him, he panics and has anxiety. Like, I can't give you bad news. But you give this other guy some bad news about what's going on with family, he can handle you like, this guy's a gamer, he's not there yet because this guy gets distracted. This guy with bad news, he knows how to keep it to himself. Stay strong. Okay, good. I can handle talking high level conversation with this level of my kid, but.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Not this like a controlled leak almost.

[James O'Keefe]

It's a controlled leak. To test what the individuals know. This is a very difficult thing to do. And I bet at a job with Donald Trump when you're at that level, all you can do is, James, what do you think about John? James, what do you think about Cash? Let's say you don't have a relationship with him. Let's say you don't have a relationship with some of these guys. What do you think about him? I think he's good. And you're hoping the person I'm asking is a tier one person that can filter out a person that's a tier four. Do I make this person a tier two? I don't know if this is making Sense, like, you have to almost, like, lean on somebody else you trust to filter them out. So the reason why I'm going here is to see, you know, how. How for somebody to get to the level of the president where you saw the first term, how many people he hired that turned on him, flipped on him, what did his methodology for phase two in 2024 change? How do you think about the team then and the people that he's put together?

[Ryan Reynolds]

I think they're a good team. I think they're loyal. That's what I. In full disclosure, I hiked with Bobby Kennedy in the Santa Monica Mountains, and I found him to be a brave man. I say brave. I mean, there was no incentive for him to do what he has done. He's a Kennedy. So I agree with Tucker that Bobby Kennedy is probably one of the bravest people to have done what he has done. But I think, going back to your point about incentives, in my case, I speak from personal experience. Let me give you a thought experiment. I've been arrested by the FBI, I've been raided by the FBI. I've been sued 50 times. I've been through all these things, haven't been shot yet. And what Trump has gone through is at the highest level. And I find that there is an incentive to betray people like Trump. Think of all the goodies you get if you go to the New York Times. And there's an incentive there. And I find that when you are pinched by the FBI, which I have been, and by the way, totally falsely accused, that doesn't matter if you did it or not. You're an innocent man. Forget that. But they did this to Michael Flynn's son or something to the effect of, you better sign this form saying that your boss committed a crime or you won't see your family for 10 years. How many people would take that deal? In other words, how many people would do the right thing even if they suffered? Now, that's a really terrifying. And you hesitate to answer that question because this is where things get really deep. Because when you're going after the most powerful people in the world, which we are doing, which Trump is doing, you have to find people, not Pat. Who just won't leak information. But if the FBI were to point a gun at you and said, you better sign a form saying that James embezzled money, they say, I will not do that because I fear God, not man, or whatever. If you're a Christian, you say that. If you're something else, you say something similar. I fear God, not man. I will not bear false witness because it's the wrong thing to do. Well, then you're not going to see your family for 10 years. Okay? You have to find people like that. That's hard. It's hard to find those people. I go back to my original point. The instinct for self preservation is an extremely important human behavior. And if you're going to do what Donald Trump is doing, or to a certain extent, what Project Veritas was doing, going after Anthony Fauci and these types of people and Pfizer and BlackRock and the FBI, you have to find people who are completely unbreakable. And that's just what we're talking about. How do you find that? Very, very difficult thing? Very difficult thing to do. And Donald Trump. I'll say one quick story about Donald Trump. I was with him a year ago in his apartment in New York City. And this was like right around the week he was getting indicted for some stupid stuff with the porn star. And he was signing a hat to my father. And I had done a story on the CIA, exposed a CIA guy on tape who was on one of these dating apps giving away information. I'm resisting Donald Trump. I'm not giving information to the president. And Trump wanted to make a video with me about reacting to this. And I said, how do you deal with it? I said, I'm serious. How do you. And he goes, he's signing this hat to my dad. And he goes, I just don't care. I just don't care. I was like, you don't care? He's like, I don't care. Maybe he doesn't care. But he has been able to develop a way perhaps where he just got thick skin, you know? But it's tough. It's really tough to face these attacks. And I can be strong. Right. I cannot bear false witness. Right. I can say, I will not talk to you. Screw you. But my people around me have to be really, really strong.

[James O'Keefe]

Yeah. It's not everybody's job, you know, it's not. It's not everybody's job. And when you go up to that position, you have to also know that your own family is not going to understand the job. You're even your voters are not going to stand to understand the job. There's some decisions you have to make that's going to make 80% of people unhappy. And then you're going to be also in positions where your character is going to be tested. You're hoping that part you don't fall for. Okay. But sometimes you Wonder when these guys get in. Another reason why they, you know, flip or change or any of that. Who's more valuable to a US Government? Somebody that I have information on that I can control when I give him the job, or somebody I don't have information on? I don't know if you understand the question, what I'm saying.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Said that again.

[James O'Keefe]

So I understand who is more controllable. Somebody I hire that I have information on them, some intel on them that's maybe sensitive, that they wouldn't want to be public, Right. Am I better off hiring somebody that I have something like that, or am I better off offering job to somebody that I have no intel on them?

[Ryan Reynolds]

That's interesting.

[James O'Keefe]

And it depends on your style of leadership.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Interesting. Whether you have something. I mean, people. Everyone has skeletons in their closet, correct? Maybe something we've done that we're not proud of. Would you agree with that statement? Maybe not illegal, although maybe you stole something when you were a teenager. But isn't it true that we all, every single one of us has something that we're not?

[James O'Keefe]

No one walks on water. Everyone sins in a sin.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And I mean, I said, myself included, these board members of my company were trying to leak, like, intimate messages between me and my girlfriend, which made them look bad because everyone has an intimate life, consensual life in your bedroom. But I think your point is interesting. What I would say in response to that is that, yeah, the motivation, the incentive for people not to have those skeletons leaked is extremely high. People will do anything to avoid being publicly shamed. And this is where this blackmail and this extortion thing comes in my philosophy. You want to know what I said? I said, go ahead, make my day. Leak it. I don't care. I don't give a shit. Publish everything. And they did. Evidently, they don't have much on me because the FBI went through every message in my phone for five years and all they could get was some kinky messages between me and my girlfriend. But I do think that the. What are your. What is your answer? Which of those do you think is an employer you'd focus on between those two?

[James O'Keefe]

No. To me, it depends what type of a leader you are.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Depends on what type of leader you are.

[James O'Keefe]

It depends on what type of a leader you are. Because I've watched how some of our guys led their guys and some of my competitors let them. I was in a previous company and I watched how one guy led one of his guys who. He held him hostage because every month that guy under the table was Giving him cash for loans and stuff like that, mortgages. And then all of a sudden, the day it stopped, that guy lost all his licenses. So he liked having information on his guys to hold him hostage. But deep down aside, that relationship is a dark relationship. You don't have the loyalty. It's kind of like imagine, you know, Anna Nicole Smith marries that billionaire, whoever the guy was, 90 some years old, and he was 90, 88 years old, whatever his age was, right? She marries this guy, old as hell, and you think all the money in the world is going to win her love over. No, you just win her sex over. You don't win her love over. Right. Whoever this J. Howard Marshall was, that she ends up with this guy, and next thing you know, he dies. He's. Well, she's wealthy and then she dies from overdose, right? You can, you know, win someone's sex over their body, over love. You can't win love with money. That takes a lot of work to get someone's love, right? So I think the part with Trump which made him one of a kind is, do you realize we now know about Stormy Daniels, Karen McDougal, grab him by this. We know all of that stuff. And you know what people say? No one gives a shit.

[Ryan Reynolds]

No one cares.

[James O'Keefe]

No one gives a shit. Which, by the way, if you remember the Moment Herman Cain, 13 years ago, whatever the timeline was, he's in the bus, he's not coming out, because apparently him and his wife were fighting in the bus and they found out while he was the CEO of this pizza company, he had a lover or he had a. What do you call it, a mistress or something like that. Because of that, he stepped out. While Trump would come out and say, listen, it's my personal life. It's between me and my wife. We're moving on. What do you want to ask me? So Trump was the guy that, because he was so trained in New York to go up against these gangsters and tough guys and manipulators and media, he has been trained to get to this position. That's not everybody's job. So I think for him, he got so much moral authority today that if you cross him, the world is going to defend him. Not you, not the world. I'm not talking mainstream media, but the people that are his supporters. So I don't know if he needs it today. I don't know if he needs, I think, an average regular president that got up there, the traditional go be a lawyer and go be Congress and Senate and, yeah, that person needs a lot of that, I think from Trump's standpoint, Trump is like, look, if you're in, you're in. If you're not, let's go. If you're going to roll, you roll. But I don't give a shit about what mistakes you made. I mean, I know what I've done. I'm like, let's go.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I think my concern as an employer would be, I don't know if this falls into your dichotomy, but, okay, you have information on people, Will the enemy. Will the person allow the enemy to use that information as leverage? And I'm the type of person where they may have something on, I don't care, publish it. But do my employees, Are they able to be strong enough? Or will the enemy come and say, we have this information upon you now, betray your mission?

[James O'Keefe]

Well, by the way, you know what that is?

[Ryan Reynolds]

What?

[James O'Keefe]

That's a pure test to find out who was loyal and who wasn't. So it's an awesome situation. It's a tier one test. Tier one, because that's a real test. That's a real test. Then you're like, oh, so it wasn't. Was. Because it's, you know, you're just benefiting from what you were getting. I got a cool. It's good to know. Now I got it. No problem. You know, we're good to go. You know that these moments where you're tempted to steal money, where you're tempted to do certain things, where you're tempted to go through. You know what things? We're investigating somebody right now. It's been going on for a few months. The stuff I found out yesterday of one of these guys that we've been investigating, has done.

[Ryan Reynolds]

You're investigating in your.

[James O'Keefe]

A former person that used to work with us. Yeah. Do you know what things we found? And. But by the way, you have to hear what he used to say. All the lines. James, you're like a father figure to me. Crying while behind closed doors, taking money and taking all this stuff. You, you. But these are beautiful situations because you know what happens when the investigation's over with? We're going to publicly report it to everybody here, to our employees. You know why? It's the same thing we did in the insurance company. If anybody at all sold insurance, doing forgery. We told everybody. We told everybody and said, that guy's insurance license is lost for 10 years. He can never do insurance again. Go ahead and test it and see what happens to you. If somebody went out there, did any kind of stuff that was bad. We publicized it so people wouldn't do it again.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Accountability.

[James O'Keefe]

It's a form of accountability and it's a form of awareness. It's like, you know, you ever seen the, the, the mom or the dad is trying to feed the kid and the kid is not eating and he puts it in the dog, the doll's mouth and then goes to the kid, goes this way, goes this way. And this guy's down there. Bam. Hits the face of the little doll and it goes with the phone out.

[Pat]

Yeah.

[James O'Keefe]

It's a form of don't make this effing mistake. Right.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Which is what our FBI is not doing.

[James O'Keefe]

Which is what our FBI is not doing. Yeah. So that's the part where some people are not happy with us not seeing the accountability that we were promised.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Correct. I would say people are enraged about this.

[James O'Keefe]

I would say they are.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah.

[James O'Keefe]

I would say the part that they're, they're. What's the word?

[Pat]

Battling with.

[James O'Keefe]

Battling with is, look, there's so many great things that happened, but I really wanted to know what's going on over here. So do I compromise these two things that I really wanted to know because what are you doing to these kids and innocent kids? These are someone's daughter, there's someone's granddaughter, there's someone's sister. Are we not going to find this out? Are we just going to go hush, hush to this side? I, I, to this group that voted specifically to find out what's going on with Epstein and the kids? They're not the type that gonna forget about it.

[Pat]

Nope.

[James O'Keefe]

They're the type that's going to keep bringing it up until you either reveal or you have to deal with it.

[Ryan Reynolds]

We're going to keep, we're five years in. People are still enraged.

[James O'Keefe]

Yeah, I don't think that's going to change any, any other items right now that is going on. Where for you, politically with what's going on with White House right now or politically for you? You're a little bit confused with.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Well, with the, Tell me what you mean by that. The White House.

[James O'Keefe]

Just some of the decisions. You know, there's a lot of good, there's a lot of victories right now. You're seeing a lot of victories. You're seeing a big, big beautiful bill. You're seeing, you know, Russia, Putin, Trump talking. You're seeing China, you're seeing tariffs.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Before we move on from, from the Epstein thing real quick, we could go to this. This is present day. This is the John Daly clip with Prince Andrew, the guy on Undercover camera. Didn't you cover this on your show?

[James O'Keefe]

Yeah, we did.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Oh, you did? Oh, you guys covered this?

[James O'Keefe]

Yes.

[Ryan Reynolds]

This is the. Him.

[Pat]

Him basically saying he was. He didn't like the fact that Prince Andrew, the brother of the late. I mean, of. Not the late of the king, was having sex with underage girls, and he didn't like it.

[Ryan Reynolds]

This is someone who's quite, you know, loyal and a confidant to Prince Andrew. I got a lot of heat for this, too, because people say this doesn't prove anything. And I think one of the challenges here is that you're confirming suspicions. You're getting them on video admitting it. He's having sex with underage girls, and then this guy goes on Piers Morgan. I don't know if you're. I just think it's hilarious. I don't know if your producer could find that clip, but. And then he says, I think o' Keefe's great. This girl that. He said, man, she was beautiful.

[Pat]

No shame.

[Ryan Reynolds]

What did you think about what you said? I. I regret saying it. I regret being.

[Pat]

He admits. He admits that he was giving you.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Credit for the girl and credit to Piers Morgan for grilling him.

[Pat]

Big time.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Grilling him. I was actually shocked that. That it's gonna be hard to find this clip, but Morgan was just grilling them, so that's. That's. I've been. I've been. I. Honestly, Pat, I've been so heads down in my reporting. I mean, heads down on. On this Epstein reporting. I have not, you know, I have not followed everything right now in the world.

[James O'Keefe]

Let me ask. Make the second request. So my first request was Foushee. My second request is Diddy. Have you at all thought about doing anything with Diddy or. You guys haven't focused on that one yet?

[Ryan Reynolds]

I think these are great ideas. No, no, I think. I think there's. There's. I am, and I should, and I will, and I did get some sources with Diddy a year or two ago, but I think your idea. Let me ask you a better question. What is the thing that needs to be exposed? What if exposed would change things? That's helpful to me.

[James O'Keefe]

Yeah. I mean, if you think about. Okay, so if you want to be part of something legendary. I'm talking legendary is in the 70s, 60s, 50s, 40s, 30s, J. Edgar Hoover, all these guys. When the FBI first started with him, there is no such thing as a, you know, Italian. The. The crime family that doesn't exist. Right. Organized crime family doesn't exist. All right? Now they Know, he had. They had intel on him with the cross dressing stuff. But in the 80s, Giuliani was able to bring down the mob with the help of the RICO law by this professor from Rutgers. That all of a sudden we saw a couple hundred mob bosses under bosses, conciliari, handcuffed, walking out, getting arrested. That was un freaking believable, right? It was something that everybody around the world heard about the news, okay.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Them being perp walked.

[James O'Keefe]

Of course, if you, James, if you want something that is revolutionary, a breakthrough. Revolutionary breakthrough. It's Diddy, because he's alive. The people are alive with Epstein. You know, Epstein is. Is. Yeah. But if you get something from Leon Black. Rob, is Deon Black still alive?

[Ryan Reynolds]

I believe so.

[James O'Keefe]

You go get something from Leon Black, which I don't know if you pursued or not. Yes.

[Ryan Reynolds]

73 years old.

[James O'Keefe]

Okay. Leon Black is the one that apparently paid Epstein $150 million in consulting fees. Still alive for tax purposes. Ron, can you. Can you type in tax purposes or tax? Epstein? Just type tax Epstein. So right there, leon Black gave $170 million to Epstein for. Click on it wrap so we can read the story. So Leon Black, according to U.S. senate Finance, he transfers $170 million to Epstein's accounts. And when they ask him why you did that, he said he paid the accused sex trafficker for tax advice. This is the most expensive tax advice anyone's ever given in the history of mankind. Leon Black, the billionaire financier and former CEO of Global Management, transferred $170 million to the Epson covers for the course of five years. U.S. senator Ron Wyden said in a letter that U.S. justice and Treasury Department this week, not $158 million previously reported. An investigation commissioned by Apollo's board appeared to have missed $12 million in transfer, which were discovered by investigators working with the U.S. so Leon Black, some of these guys are around, okay? Some of them are around on what Epstein did. But with Diddy, you're talking about Epstein, you talk about Diddy, Hollywood sports, you're talking about, you know, producers, talent agencies, producers, countries. I mean, Diddy's is. And it's going on right now. So if you did something while the hearing is going on, it's like you finding out something while O.J. simpson's thing's going on, right? And you leaks. Leak something during the entire investigation. It's like you doing something and you drop it during Johnny Depp and Amber heard right? You know, but Diddy to me is the comparable of an O.J.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Simpson what do you think the thing if caught on video that would change thing? I can't. I mean I'd love to see people perp walk. I don't have the power to arrest. But what is the thing that needs to be on video in your mind, in your.

[James O'Keefe]

Oh, it's very easy for me. Tell me it's very easy. It's a gay sex with you know, men that you know, play straight. I see that is released.

[Ryan Reynolds]

In other words, these men have internal conflicts and they're blackmailed over this.

[James O'Keefe]

And oh and I think those video footages, believe it or not, I believe exist in different people's phones because I think these guys are so Diddy thought he was so untouchable that no one was ever going to lose. And they would airdrop a video to.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Each other like iPhone iOS just in the photos.

[James O'Keefe]

I, I, I am willing to bet that in some kind of a folder it's sitting there with these footages, you know that people save that's got a specific code that the videos all the way in and say watch what I have with what we did here and here and there.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I think that too. And also the, the, the so called blackmail. How do you, how do you think actually works? Like what is the conversation like in your mind, in your imagination? I'm just curious your guys because that helps me as an investigative understand what I'm trying to, to catch.

[James O'Keefe]

How do I think Diddy's model work?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Correct.

[James O'Keefe]

But your hypotheses, I mean it's, it's very simple. You come to the house, you party, you have one of the girls that locks on to one of the guys who's one of your workers. They go upstairs, there's 17 cameras in there. He says hey man, can I get a room? Yeah bro, just go use my room. Goes to the room, leaves, she's 17, she's 15 or there's a guy in there and I record it, I have it and the next day I say hey, I just want to let you know, here's what I got. It's very simple moving forward. Anything I ask from you, I need you to do.

[Ryan Reynolds]

That's the thing that needs to be on video. Yeah, you what you just said. Yeah, that would change everything in my opinion.

[James O'Keefe]

I think that would be in text, not on video.

[Ryan Reynolds]

You know, in a text message.

[James O'Keefe]

I think it would be in text messages, but I think that video. Well, he's dumb enough to say it. He's dumb enough to say stuff like that. He's capable of saying stuff like that.

[Ryan Reynolds]

But you might have hearsay, in other words. And this is what happened with Prince Andrew. Another guy close to him said that this is what happened, which is still powerful.

[James O'Keefe]

Well, those guys are out there, the gene deals, the security. Those guys have come out, they've done their part. There's a lot of people that have said stuff like that, like Suge Knight talking about his link to Clive Davis and all this other stuff. That stuff is coming out. But if you can get him tied to a few other people, I think this will be the biggest story you'll break.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I am working on this and I will work on this.

[James O'Keefe]

Okay. Especially with some of the stuff that was dropped this week, some of the ecstasy pills and with Obama's face on some of this. Some very, very weird stuff going on here. James.

[Pat]

Oh, and there's, I mean, just, just with Obama and yeah, Obama, because he was hanging out with him a lot. He was at the Rock the Vote thing, at his house, hanging out, partying. And then you have videos of like Christy Teigen with John Legend. And they asked Chrissy Teigen, where's the craziest place you've had sex in public? And she goes, there was that Obama thing. And John Legend's face looks like he saw ghost. He looks like he saw a freaking ghost. Did you see that, Pat?

[James O'Keefe]

Yeah, of course.

[Pat]

Okay.

[James O'Keefe]

Of course, Robbie.

[Pat]

I sent it to you in the slack.

[James O'Keefe]

But I, I just think, you know, the, the, the part with what world we're living in today. We're living in a world today where we, we're not sure the US Government is going to, is going to drop these stories because these are stories you can use to get intel.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I mean, this is. I commit to you that I will do this. And I usually do get the story. Sometimes it takes me a little longer than I'd like. But this is also very dangerous. Wouldn't you admit to do these stories?

[James O'Keefe]

Well, you subscribe to this lifestyle.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I certainly did. I remember you said about a year ago, you said, james o' Keeffe has chosen a tough life. And it was a very, I think it was a more profound statement than even you intended. Not tough in the way that most people usually, they use the courts against me, legal lawyers. That's a whole other conversation. But this is very dangerous. And the people that have come before me, like the. What's the movie To Kill a Messenger with about a reporter in California who reported on the CIA and the drugs and the CIA and they were given. And he committed suicide. I think he shot himself in the head twice, by the way. Oh, yeah, this guy. It was based upon Gary Webb, To Kill a Messenger. And these are the reporters that came before me. Gary Webb managed to shoot himself in the head twice. That's a really impressive thing to do.

[Pat]

Holy moly.

[Ryan Reynolds]

You'd think the gun would fall out of your hand the first time.

[Pat]

You would think.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah. He did some stories on the CIA. It was a great movie. And Gary Webb has a remarkable quote, an incredible quote that I would like to read on the air in front of all of you. And it's from this book that was written, called To Kill a Messenger. And I'm going to paraphrase because I can't pull it up, but it's. Gary Webb says, you know, I was winning. I'm going to paraphrase. I was winning awards. I was getting accolades. I was giving speeches. I won the Pulitzer Prize. And then I broke some stories. He's talking about the one about the CIA that made me realize how misplaced my bliss had been. I, I, I started messing with, with the wrong people. And, and I, and I, and I began to realize I had missed my. I misplaced my value and what I actually valued. I'm, I'm butchering the quote, but it's a profound quote. And then he committed suicide. So my point to you is that this is very dangerous, man.

[James O'Keefe]

No, the job you've chosen, it's tough because if you. Okay, here's the next part. If you have a lot of friends in high places, James, you're not doing your job right.

[Ryan Reynolds]

That's correct. But you need, you know, what everyone says in the conservative movement. Do you know Cash? Do you know Pam? Do you know this guy? It's all about rubbing elbows and people doing favors. I don't do that for a living.

[James O'Keefe]

No, that's, that's not, that's not the profile of this job. The profile of this job is exactly what you're doing. And it's not for everybody. It's just not for everybody because you're not a popular, cool person. For you to keep the T word for as long as possible, you can't have a lot of friends. And you know what the T word is?

[Ryan Reynolds]

The trust. Trust.

[James O'Keefe]

Yeah. To keep trust, you can't have a lot of friends at high places. At high places.

[Ryan Reynolds]

That's right. It's a tough thing as a journalist to navigate the relationship between what I call autonomy and access. There's a tension in journalism because on one hand, you have to protect your sources, and on the other hand, you have to investigate, and it's very difficult. That's a very art form. It's an ethical line. At what point do I. I'm gonna burn this. In business, you call it burning bridges. In journalism, you burn bridges every day. You report on powerful people. So it's very tough.

[James O'Keefe]

Well, Jake Tapper. Look at what happened with Jake Tapper, right? Like, with all the stuff that he's going through right now. Okay. Why is he losing respect from other journalists?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Because we all knew what he's now reporting. He's acting like it's news.

[James O'Keefe]

He's acting like it's news. James, question before we finish it up here, because we got a few minutes here left.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yes.

[James O'Keefe]

So in your opinion, you spent a lot of time with Breitbart. What happened to him?

[Ryan Reynolds]

You mean, like, how did he die? Yeah.

[James O'Keefe]

What happened to him? The timing of it is very strange.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I don't. I don't have any inside information. I know. I know. His wife would always say to me, don't tell people that he was killed. Andrew had a heart condition. He had an enlarged heart, I believe. And the doctor said, you got to, you know, you got to stop, you know. You know, eating all this steak and drinking all this wine. You have to stop traveling. And I think he just truly pushed himself. That's my belief. I don't have. I would share with the audience if I had any evidence of foul play. All I have is circumstantial evidence. I have no direct evidence. He dropped out of a heart attack at 43. This was March 1, 2012. I was 27. He was my mentor. Did you ever meet him?

[James O'Keefe]

Never.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Andrew was a remarkable man. He. He edited the Drudge Report at the time. He would tweet, like, a thousand times a day. He was filled with righteous indignation. This is a different world 12 years ago. The media was different. You could, like, engage with legacy media. You could tweet back and forth. You could have conversations. And he was a mentor of mine. We were very different people. He was more of an extrovert. I was, at the time, much more introverted. But he had a way about him. He was a warrior, and that's what we shared in common. I think what I would characterize myself, I'm a journalist. I'm also a warrior. I'm at war all the time, constantly. And he was, too. But it aged him. Like, I'm now 40 years old. He died at 43. And the last few years of his life, he just seemed to age, and he took things personally. And he was angry and furious and righteous and indignant and tweeting every tweet at the reporter and holding them accountable. It was. It was. I've never met anyone like him. I still haven't met anyone like him. But I don't. Unfortunately, I don't have any, you know, information about his death other than I know he had a heart condition. That's all I can say.

[Pat]

And it was kind of, I mean, the. And God rest us all, because, I mean, I was a huge fan. And that, James, that's how I found out about you. It was just weird that he was on stage claiming that he had tapes on Obama. He would call him a radical. I remember another time, camera in his face, some reporters holding. He's yelling at the guy's recorder and he's saying, we're coming after you, John Podesta. We're coming after you, Big Soros.

[Ryan Reynolds]

There's this moment. There's this moment where Andrew Breitbart is talking to Dave Weigel. I know this well. And this is really. This is. This is a perfect, perfect story.

[Pat]

Yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And the reporters report has got his little pencil and paper.

[James O'Keefe]

Yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I don't know if they do that anymore. Pencil writing down. And Andrew goes. And Andrew is talking to the reporter. And he screams into the reporter notebook, fuck you, John Podesta. Like, he's only Andrew Breitbart. He's talking to the reporter notebook. Not to the guy, but to the masses. The reporter's writing to. That is a quintessential Andrew Breitbart moment. And I understand him because I am similar in that particular way. He was righteously indignant taking on this mainstream media.

[Pat]

Yeah, that's it.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Watch this. Yeah, watch this. Concerted effort.

[James O'Keefe]

Politics of personal destruction.

[Pat]

You, John Podesta. Watch. Watch. Big Soros.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Look, watch this. Watch this.

[James O'Keefe]

Yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

When I talk.

[James O'Keefe]

That's because I'm interested.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Whatever the hell they're doing.

[Pat]

What's in your closet, John?

[Ryan Reynolds]

He's talking to the reporter notebook. Big Podesta. Big Soros.

[Pat]

Do you want us to play these games?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Because we're playing to big win. This is Andrew Breitbart, dude.

[Pat]

And then. And then think about it, James. He has this attitude. I love the righteous indignation. I read the book. The guys like you said he was going 100 miles an hour because he's just. He has the same. You guys weren't the same James. But the message and, and getting the truth out there.

[Ryan Reynolds]

No, we spoke. I mean, Andrew, we. Him and I. This man you just saw him and I spoke ten times a day. I mean, he was constantly talking to me. And. And then he died. And I was alone. I. I found the quote, I need to read this on the air, please. Quote, this is the CIA. The investigative reporter who exposed drug trafficking with the CIA and getting drugs in America, Gary Webb. I was winning awards, getting raises, lecturing college classes, appearing on TV shows and judging journalism contests. I won the Pulitzer Prize. And then I wrote some stories that made me realize how sadly misplaced my bliss had been. The reason I'd enjoyed such smooth sailing in my career for so long hadn't been as I'd assumed, because I was careful and diligent and good at my job. The truth was that in all those years, I hadn't written anything important enough to suppress. Wow. Gary Webb. To kill a messenger. Shot himself in the head twice. Everything. Everyone that has come before me and who extreme truth tellers have been like you think of, even historically, like on a much larger scale, they've been assassinated.

[James O'Keefe]

That's why. That's why the Breitbart story is different. If you and I understand your respect for the wife, and I'm sure she's sick and tired of hearing all this stuff because she just wants to move on. So you can take that position. But Rob, if you can pull that thing up, it's a little weird when you read about it and you see stuff about, you know, let me see this. Yeah.

[Pat]

So this is the corner, right, Pat?

[James O'Keefe]

Yeah. So you got. Michael Cormier, a forensic technician with LA County Office, died on April 20, 2012, the same day Breitbart autopsy results were released. Cormier was complaint had complained of severe stomach pain and vomiting before being hospitalized, where he later died. Initial reports indicate that arsenic poisoning was a possible cause of death and LA Department did not immediately rule out foul play.

[Pat]

What are the odds?

[James O'Keefe]

Little weird.

[Pat]

Like what are the odds that the data.

[Ryan Reynolds]

That's a little suspicious.

[James O'Keefe]

That little Subs and the proximity of Cormier's death to the release of Breitbart's autopsy report led to online speculation about a possible connection between the two deaths. However, officials clarified that Cormier was not involved in Breitbart's autopsy. Deputy Sheriff Corey Edwin or Santa Cormier had nothing to do with the autopsy or the investigation. As of now, no defense definitive public finding has been released regarding the cause of Cormier's death and no official connection has been established between his death and that of Andrew Breitbart.

[Pat]

If you have to say the Odds, Pat, what are the odds that because some people were saying that he ran out, Andrew ran out and turned a completely different color, as if he was choking on something, that when the autopsy of him comes out, a guy in that same LA coroner's office dies of arsenic poisoning. He didn't get hit by a car, he didn't fall off of a bridge. He's died. Somebody poisoned him.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah. The problem this is, Pat, this is extremely suspicious. And God willing, if anyone has proof, if there's someone in the hospital, there's someone with knowledge I'd love to report. The problem is I walk a fine line, too, because if I come out and make a statement, statement that I can't prove, then I lose credibility. So I have to be careful. But I hear what you're saying. This is incredibly suspicious.

[Pat]

Yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And I. I don't. I don't even know what to say about it, except I hope that it's 13 years later here, so.

[Pat]

Yeah, exactly.

[Ryan Reynolds]

We're still talking about JFK and who shot jfk.

[James O'Keefe]

Yeah, but the, but the point. But the, the point here is the reason why I've never talked about Bright Bartz and how he. I've never ever talked about it on any podcast.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Right.

[James O'Keefe]

Ever. This is the first time. I don't know how many hundreds of interviews we've done, we've never brought it up. The only reason we bring it up is because to me, he was a true believer. I think you're a true believer, and I think there's a handful of guys that are true believers, not mainstream. Because you can't be mainstream, you have to compromise to be mainstream.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Correct.

[James O'Keefe]

And, you know, for you to go work for any of the big platforms, pick any one of them, you would have to compromise, and I don't think you're going to be doing that. So for guys like that, you need additional protection to be aware. You know, it's like the other day, Trump was in Saudi and they offer him a drink and he just keeps holding it like this. I don't know if you saw that. He's just keeping holding a drink like this. He's going to drink. Yeah, I'll drink like this. So I think for a guy like you, as you're going through everything that you're doing with your circle, with your community, with people that maybe you know. Yeah. Is this the one? Look at this one here. It's classic. What are you gonna do with this? So MBS drank it, but he's not drinking it. He's just hanging on to it's like, oh, it's great. It's awesome.

[Ryan Reynolds]

He looked down at it.

[James O'Keefe]

Yeah. Just given the respect, but he's not gonna drink it.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And one more. Reporter Michael Hastings, died in a fiery car crash. He reported on Stanley McChrystal. So I'm well aware of the dangers, but, you know, I mean, what do you really want to know? Am I afraid to die? Not really. I've lived a good life. I believe in what I'm doing. And I'm also a spiritual person. I believe in God. I. There's that saying, no weapon formed against me shall prosper. It's in Isaiah. I genuinely believe. I wear it around my neck. Border patrol agent gave to me. I rode the train of death in Mexico. I should have died. I didn't. So I believe in what I'm doing, and maybe I'll be the one that got away. That's all I can say.

[James O'Keefe]

And, gang, as you're watching this, do yourself a favor and go watch the podcast. We're gonna put the link below. Let's make sure we do that. Not the podcast, the documentary, the movie that just came out. The Truth Inside Veritas Part one. It's 54 minutes. It's gonna feel like five minutes to you because that's exactly how I felt when I watch. It went like this. Boom. And I'm like, wow. Intense. The energy is going to be high from the beginning to the very end. I really enjoyed watching it. James, great having you back on. Appreciate you for coming down.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Thank you.

[James O'Keefe]

Anytime. Take care, everybody. Bye. Bye. Bye, bye.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Hello, everyone. I'm James O' Keefe. Been doing this journalism thing for about 20 years. Truth, truth, justice, exposing corruption, everything that comes along with it. If you want to connect with me, talk to me about any of this, you can connect with me through minect. You can see the QR code below. Look forward to hearing from you.