A federal judge on Wednesday gave Project Veritas two wins against the American Federation of Teachers, declining to rule in favor of the union’s lawsuit against the conservative muckraking group as well as dropping a temporary restraining order against the group.
The Michigan judge rejected the union’s claim that Project Veritas had illegally obtained trade secrets from it or that publishing them would harm the union.
“None of the documents plaintiff produced fall within the meaning of a ‘trade secret,'” wrote U.S. District Judge Linda Parker in refusing to issue a summary judgment against the group. She also said the restraining order the union had obtained against Project Veritas in September violated the First Amendment.
The Michigan chapter of AFT filed the case in September after it discovered that an intern it hired was actually an undercover reporter for Project Veritas, a conservative group that is known for trying to uncover liberal bias in the media. The union said the reporter was seeking information including “instances of educators who had supposedly engaged in ‘sexting’’ with students.”
Stephen Klein, co-counsel for Project Veritas, told the Detroit Free Press: “It’s one thing to come after an organization after something has been published. But to go in, in advance with barely any evidence whatsoever and claiming they can’t publishing anything is a violation of free speech and free press rights.”
It is not clear what, if any, information the group’s reporter obtained. The union’s complaint said there were “no such instances” of sexting but did say that the reporter, identified as Marisa Jorge, did gain access to “a substantial amount of confidential and proprietary information including databases, confidential conferences and the status of grievance.”
The judge found that the teachers union was likely to prevail in its claim that Jorge’s actions while undercover as an intern constituted a “breach of duty” against the union. AFT seized on that to claim it had won: “Today, a judge made clear to Project Veritas that its unlawful tactics have a price. We understand that Judge Parker chose to show deference to free speech in lifting the injunction that has been in place for three months, but she made crystal clear that the AFT’s claim about Project Veritas violating Michigan law when it infiltrated our confidential operations is likely to succeed.”
The union also indicated that it may file additional charges, saying that “the judge’s decision supports our position that we have a right of action the moment Project Veritas publishes anything illegally obtained by its operative Marisa Jorge.”
A representative for Project Veritas could not be reached for comment.
