MATTHEW COLE: Weinstein's lawyer hired them to try to figure out what journalists who were digging into the story knew and to try to see if they could stop the stories. And so Erik Prince has merged, essentially, with Project Veritas and James O'Keefe, and provided them with training from former spies, to teach them surveillance, elicitation, weapons training. After the election, he brought them out to his family ranch in Wyoming and gave them weapons training. And what he has now is a team of dedicated people who have some training in being undercover. And the question is, to what end?
AMY GOODMAN: Project Veritas goes after groups like Planned Parenthood.
MATTHEW COLE: Right. But I actually think that what we're going to see, and in fact we have some indication already, that Erik Prince is using Project Veritas to target his political enemies or political enemies of the Trump administration or his political associates. So that becomes the question, is what is he doing with them? How are they going to be used? What are they capable of? And as he has been sort of denied the ability to sell let's say tanks or planes, he is now trying to sell undercover intelligence operatives, but not for a covert war; for American politics. And that is what makes him particularly dangerous.
AMY GOODMAN: We're going to do Part 2 of this discussion and post it online at "Democracynow.org":https://www.democracynow.org. Matthew Cole, investigative journalist for The Intercept. We'll link to his piece, The Complete Mercenary: How Erik Prince Used the Rise of Trump to Make an Improbable Comeback.
That does it for our broadcast. Happy Birthday, Denis Moynihan. Democracy Now! has a job opening for a full-time, paid digital social media fellowship. Go to "Democracynow.org":https://www.democracynow.org for details. I'm Amy Goodman. Thanks for joining us.
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