This email was sent to MDC DSA members Wednesday Sept. 19
At the behest of his union-busting mega donors, James O'Keefe has released two secretly-taped videos targeting members of Metro DC DSA who work for the federal government.
We will not share the videos here, but if you must watch, please take care to use a service like doNOTlink.it to avoid driving clicks to Project Veritas pages.
If you are approached by the media or asked for comment, please refer all inquiries to our media liaison team at media@dsadc.org.
On Friday, in order to be of immediate assistance to anyone who thought they may have been recorded without their consent, we shared some basic security best practices to help reduce the likelihood of experiencing the lowest-lift forms of doxxing and harassment.
The reality, however, is that these practices are reactive. It will take all of us working together to build a strong and sustainable information security culture — one that develops good instincts rather than embraces paranoia, and allows us to continue being a welcoming community and effective organizing space. Privacy is a team sport.
Within days of making contact with the chapter in late July, Project Veritas infiltrators going by "Leo Rod" and "Jennifer Williams" were identified and banned from all MDC DSA tech platforms; their activities were closely monitored by Steering, and they were frozen out of attending all events within the next few weeks.
By mid-August O'Keefe had sent in their replacement: Jaime Tennille Phillips, aka "Kimmie Gibson". Last year, Phillips spent months insinuating herself into the lives of dozens of staffers at the Washington Post, working to plant a false story about having been raped and impregnated by Roy Moore as a 15-year-old in order to discredit reporters and sway the outcome of a US Senate election. Phillips was ID'd by Steering and banned from all MDC DSA tech platforms this past Saturday.
We have subsequently learned that two additional infiltrators, going by "Maria Rodriguez" and "Morgan Goldman," were the first wave of attack — starting with Maria connecting with a chapter member on Tinder in May. Maria and Morgan have been banned from all MDC DSA tech platforms, but in any event they became inactive and stopped attending chapter events in July right as Leo and Jennifer showed up.
While it's upsetting to have had any contact with individuals who intentionally entered our space to do us harm, and who violated serious ethical and personal boundaries in the process, it's valuable to keep in perspective that infiltration by reactionaries has historically been the rule, not the exception.
Several chapter members have been previously targeted by James O'Keefe over the course of the last 8 years. Project Veritas — and the police they collude with to violate organizers' civil rights — should remain a key consideration in our threat model going forward.
Steering is working with allies who have had similar experiences, as well as security and legal experts, to ensure everyone in the chapter gets the support and skill-building they need. If you'd like to be a part of this work, or have any questions we can try to help answer, please reply to this email to let us know.
Solidarity forever,
MDC DSA Steering
