Ex-FBI agent and Pentagon contractor sues over secret recording showing him criticizing Trump

Ex-FBI agent and Pentagon contractor sues over secret recording showing him criticizing Trump
James O’Keefe, founder of a conservative nonprofit, waits to be introduced during a news conference, Sept. 1, 2015, in Washington. (AP Photo/File)
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Updated 15 May 2025
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Ex-FBI agent and Pentagon contractor sues over secret recording showing him criticizing Trump

Ex-FBI agent and Pentagon contractor sues over secret recording showing him criticizing Trump
  • Jamie Mannina said he was induced into criticizing the Trump government in a sting operation organized by conservative activist James O’Keefe
  • O’Keefe would later publish online a secretly taken video, painting Mannina as a “top Pentagon adviser” who was plotting a coup against Trump

WASHINGTON: A former FBI agent and Pentagon contractor has sued the founder of a conservative nonprofit known for its hidden camera stings over secretly recorded videos showing the contractor criticizing President Donald Trump to a woman he thought he had taken on a date.

Jamie Mannina says in his lawsuit that he was misled by a woman he met on a dating website who held herself out as a politically liberal nurse but who was actually working with the conservative activist James O’Keefe in a sting operation designed to induce Mannina into making “inflammatory and damaging” remarks that could be recorded, “manipulated” and posted online.

Clips from their January conversations were spliced together to make it appear that Mannina was “essentially attempting to launch an unlawful coup against President Trump,” and articles released online with the videos defamed Mannina by painting him as part of a “deep state” effort with senior military officials to undermine Trump’s presidency, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Washington.

Mannina does not deny in the lawsuit making the comments but says his words were taken out of context, edited and pieced together in a manner designed to paint him in a false light, including in a written description on YouTube that accompanied the publication of one of the recordings.

O’Keefe founded Project Veritas in 2010 but was removed from the organization in 2023 amid allegations that he mistreated workers and misspent funds. He has continued to employ similar hidden camera stings as part of a new organization he established, O’Keefe Media Group, which also is named in the lawsuit along with the woman who pretended to be on dates with Mannina. Her identity is not known, the lawsuit says.

O’Keefe told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Mannina “voluntarily” offered up the comments in the recording and that it was important for the public to hear Mannina’s remarks. O’Keefe pointed out that the District of Columbia requires the consent of only one party, not both, for a conversation to be recorded. He called the lawsuit an “attack on the First Amendment” and said he was prepared to fight it all the way to an appeals court if necessary.

“He said what he said. We did not take him out of context. The words that we reported came out of his mouth,” O’Keefe said, adding, “We stand by our reporting.”

The lawsuit includes claims of defamation, false light, fraudulent misrepresentation and violations of the federal Wiretap Act. Though the lawsuit acknowledges that D.C.’s consent law for recording conversations, it asserts that the law nonetheless prohibits “the interception and recording of a communication if it was for the purposes of committing a tortious act.”

The complaint arises from a pair of dates that Mannina had in January with the woman and a series of videos that O’Keefe released in the following days. During their first date, the lawsuit alleges, the woman expressed her distaste for Trump and repeatedly pressed Mannina on his political views and about his work with the government. Mannina told her that included working as a “spy catcher” several years earlier when he was an FBI counterintelligence agent.

A recording that O’Keefe released shows Mannina being asked at one point by the woman, whose name was not disclosed in the lawsuit, about his “overall assessment of Trump.”

“He’s a sociopathic narcissist who’s only interested in advancing his name, his wealth and his fame,” Mannina can be heard saying. Asked in the recording whether there was anything he could do to “protect the American people,” Mannina replied that he was in conversation with some retired generals to explore what could be done.

The lawsuit says Mannina and the woman met for a second date over lunch, and as they left the restaurant, a man with a microphone approached Mannina and said: “Jamie, you’re a spy hunter, you say. Well, I’m a spy hunter, too, but I’m evidentially a better spy hunter than you.” The man was O’Keefe, the lawsuit says.

Mannina was swiftly fired from Booz Allen, where he worked as a contractor, after O’Keefe contacted the press office and presented at least parts of the video of the two dates.

The lawsuit was filed by Mark Zaid, a prominent Washington lawyer who routinely represents government officials and whistleblowers. Zaid himself sued Trump last week after the president revoked his security clearance.

“Lying or misleading someone on a dating app, which no doubt happens all the time, is not what this lawsuit seeks to address,” Zaid said in a statement to the AP. “The creation of a fake profile for the specific purposes of targeting individuals for deliberately nefarious and harmful purposes is what crosses the line.”

The lawsuit says the O’Keefe Media Group painted Mannina in a false light by misconstruing his words and his title, including in an article published on its website that said, “BREAKING VIDEO: Top Pentagon Adviser Reveals On Hidden Camera Conversation ‘with a Couple of Retired Generals to Explore What We Can Do’ to ‘Protect People from Trump.’“

According to the lawsuit, the characterization of Mannina as a “top Pentagon adviser,” when he was actually “one of a countless number of defense contractors,” was intended to support “fabricated claims that Mr. Mannina was essentially attempting to launch an unlawful coup against President Trump.”

The lawsuit does not directly say why Mannina was targeted, but it does note that in 2017, when he was working at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, he published three articles in the Huffington Post and The Hill newspaper that were critical of Trump.


More than 20 civilians killed in Myanmar air strike on monastery: witnesses

More than 20 civilians killed in Myanmar air strike on monastery: witnesses
Updated 12 July 2025
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More than 20 civilians killed in Myanmar air strike on monastery: witnesses

More than 20 civilians killed in Myanmar air strike on monastery: witnesses
  • Myanmar has been consumed by civil war since the military ousted a democratic government in 2021
  • A local resident confirmed that the Buddhist monastery hall was ‘completely destroyed’

BANGKOK: More than 20 civilians, including children, were killed after a recent air strike on a monastery in central Myanmar, an anti-junta fighter and a resident said Saturday.

Myanmar has been consumed by civil war since the military ousted a democratic government in 2021, and central Sagaing region has been particularly hard-hit, with the junta pummeling villages with air strikes targeting armed groups.

The most recent occurred around 1:00 am Friday in Lin Ta Lu village when “the monastery hall where internally displaced people were staying” was hit with an air strike, said an anti-junta fighter, who requested anonymity for safety reasons.

He said that 22 people were killed, including three children, while two were wounded and remained in critical condition at the hospital.

“They had thought it was safe to stay at a Buddhist monastery,” the anti-junta fighter said. “But they were bombed anyway.”

Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.

A local resident confirmed that the monastery hall was “completely destroyed,” adding that he saw some bodies loaded into a car and transported to a cemetery at dawn on Friday after the air strike.

He said when he went to the cemetery to take photos to help with identifying the dead, he counted 22 bodies.

“Many of the bodies had head wounds or were torn apart. It was sad to see,” said the resident, who also asked to remain anonymous.

Sagaing region was the epicenter of a devastating magnitude-7.7 quake in March, which left nearly 3,800 people dead and tens of thousands homeless.

After the quake, there was a purported truce between the junta and armed groups, but air strikes and fighting have continued, according to conflict monitors.

In May, an air strike on a school in the village of Oe Htein Kwin in Sagaing killed 20 students and two teachers.


Russia’s drones and missile barrage targets Ukraine’s west, kills two

Russia’s drones and missile barrage targets Ukraine’s west, kills two
Updated 2 min 53 sec ago
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Russia’s drones and missile barrage targets Ukraine’s west, kills two

Russia’s drones and missile barrage targets Ukraine’s west, kills two
  • Western Ukrainian cities of Lviv, Lutsk, and Chernivtsi suffered the most due to the Russian attacks

KYIV: Russia launched a new barrage of drones and missiles in an overnight attack on Ukraine on Saturday, targeting the west of the country and killing at least two people in the city of Chernivtsi on the border with Romania.

Western Ukrainian cities of Lviv, Lutsk, and Chernivtsi suffered the most due to the Russian attacks, and other Ukrainian regions were also hit, Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said.

“Russia continues to escalate its terror, launching another barrage of hundreds of drones and missiles, damaging residential areas, killing and injuring civilians,” Sybiha said in a post on X, reiterating the call for stronger sanctions against Moscow.

“Russia’s war machine produces hundreds of means of terror per day.

Its scale poses a threat not only to Ukraine, but to the entire transatlantic community.” Ruslan Zaparaniuk, the governor of the Chernivetskyi region, said that two people were killed and 14 others wounded as Russian drones and a missile struck the city, located about 40 kilometers from Ukraine’s border with Romania.

Several fires broke out across the city, and residential houses and administrative buildings were damaged, regional officials said.

In the city of Lviv, on Ukraine’s border with Poland, 46 residential houses, a university building, the city’s courts, and about 20 buildings housing small and medium-sized businesses were damaged in the attack, mayor Andriy Sadovyi said.


Taiwan deploys advanced US HIMARS rockets in annual drills

Taiwan deploys advanced US HIMARS rockets in annual drills
Updated 12 July 2025
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Taiwan deploys advanced US HIMARS rockets in annual drills

Taiwan deploys advanced US HIMARS rockets in annual drills
  • Two armored trucks with HIMARS were seen maneuvering around the city of Taichung
  • Deployment of weapons on fourth of 10 days of Taiwan’s most comprehensive annual exercises yet

TAICHUNG, Taiwan: Taiwan’s military began deploying one of its newest and most precise strike weapons on Saturday, ahead of live-fire drills meant to showcase the island’s determination to resist any Chinese invasion.

Two armored trucks with HIMARS – High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems – were seen maneuvering around the city of Taichung near Taiwan’s central coast on the fourth of 10 days of its most comprehensive annual exercises yet.

The live-fire portion of the Han Kuang drills is expected next week.

In wartime, said Col. Chen Lian-jia, a military spokesperson, it would be vital to conceal HIMARS from enemy aerial reconnaissance, satellites “or even enemy operatives behind our lines” until the order to fire was given.

China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own and has intensified military pressure around the island over the last five years, staging a string of intense war games and daily naval and air force patrols around the territory.

Taiwan rejects China’s sovereignty claims, with President Lai Ching-te saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.

China’s defense ministry said this week the Han Kuang drills were “nothing but a bluff” while its foreign ministry said its opposition to US-Taiwan military ties was “consistent and very firm.”

Regional military attaches say the HIMARS deployment in a warlike exercise will be closely watched, given that they have been used extensively by Ukraine against Russian forces. Australia has also purchased the Lockheed Martin systems. Taiwan took delivery last year of the first 11 of 29 HIMARS units, testing them for the first time in May. With a range of about 300 kilometers, the weapons could strike coastal targets in China’s southern province of Fujian on the other side of the Taiwan Strait.

Taiwanese military analysts say the weapon would be used with its locally developed Thunderbolt 2000 launchers so Chinese forces could be targeted as they left port or attempted to land on Taiwan’s coast. A Thunderbolt unit was also seen in a park near the HIMARS units.

Senior Taiwanese military officials say the Han Kuang drills are unscripted and designed to replicate full combat conditions, starting with simulated enemy attacks on communications and command systems, leading to a full-blown invasion scenario.

The drills aim to show China and the international community, including Taiwan’s key weapons supplier the US, that Taiwan is determined to defend itself against any Chinese attack or invasion, the officials say.


Cambodian sites of Khmer Rouge brutality added to UNESCO heritage list

Cambodian sites of Khmer Rouge brutality added to UNESCO heritage list
Updated 12 July 2025
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Cambodian sites of Khmer Rouge brutality added to UNESCO heritage list

Cambodian sites of Khmer Rouge brutality added to UNESCO heritage list
  • The three locations were inscribed to the list by the United Nations cultural agency on Friday
  • The UNESCO inscription was Cambodia’s first nomination for a modern and non-classical archaeological site

PHNOM PENH: Three locations used by Cambodia’s brutal Khmer Rouge regime as torture and execution sites 50 years ago have been added by UNESCO to its World Heritage List.

The three locations were inscribed to the list by the United Nations cultural agency Friday during the 47th Session of the World Heritage Committee in Paris.

The inscription coincided with the 50th anniversary of the rise to power by the communist Khmer Rouge government, which caused the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians through starvation, torture and mass executions during a four-year reign from 1975 to 1979.

UNESCO’s World Heritage List lists sites considered important to humanity and includes the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, the Taj Mahal in India and Cambodia’s Angkor archaeological complex.

The three sites listed Friday include two notorious prisons and an execution site immortalized in a Hollywood film.

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, located in the capital Phnom Penh, is the site of a former high school used by the Khmer Rouge as a notorious prison. Better known as S-21, about 15,000 people were imprisoned and tortured there.

The M-13 prison, located in rural Kampong Chhnang province in central Cambodia, also was regarded as one of the main prisons of the early Khmer Rouge.

Choeung Ek, located about 15 kilometers south of the capital, was used as an execution site and mass grave. The story of the atrocities committed there are the focus of the 1984 film “The Killing Fields,” based on the experiences of New York Times photojournalist Dith Pran and correspondent Sydney Schanberg.

The Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975, and immediately herded almost all the city’s residents into the countryside, where they were forced to toil in harsh conditions until 1979, when the regime was driven from power by an invasion from neighboring Vietnam.

In September 2022, the UN-backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, better known as the Khmer Rouge tribunal, concluded its work compiling cases against Khmer Rouge leaders. The tribunal cost $337 million over 16 years but convicted just three men.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet issued a message Friday directing people to beat drums simultaneously across the country Sunday morning to mark the UNESCO listing.

“May this inscription serve as a lasting reminder that peace must always be defended,” Hun Manet said in a video message posted online. “From the darkest chapters of history, we can draw strength to build a better future for humanity.”

Youk Chhang, executive director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia in Phnom Penh, said the country is “still grappling with the painful legacies of genocide, torture, and mass atrocity.” But naming the three sites to the UNESCO list will play a role in educating younger generations of Cambodians and others worldwide.

“Though they were the landscape of violence, they too will and can contribute to heal the wounds inflicted during that era that have yet to heal,” he said.

The UNESCO inscription was Cambodia’s first nomination for a modern and non-classical archaeological site and is among the first in the world to be submitted as a site associated with recent conflict, Cambodia’s Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts said in a statement Friday.

Four Cambodian archaeological sites were previously inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites including Angkor, Preah Vihear, Sambo Prei Kuk and Koh Ker, the ministry said.


Colombian authorities arrest alleged leader of Italian mafia in Latin America

Colombian authorities arrest alleged leader of Italian mafia in Latin America
Updated 12 July 2025
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Colombian authorities arrest alleged leader of Italian mafia in Latin America

Colombian authorities arrest alleged leader of Italian mafia in Latin America
  • Italian Giuseppe Palermo, also known as ‘Peppe,’ was wanted under an Interpol red notice, which called for his arrest in 196 countries
  • He was apprehended on the street in Colombia’s capital Bogota during a coordinated operation

BOGOTA: Colombian authorities said Friday they captured an alleged leader of the Italian ‘ndrangheta mafia in Latin America who is accused of overseeing cocaine shipments and managing illegal trafficking routes to Europe.

Police identified the suspect as Giuseppe Palermo, also known as “Peppe,” an Italian who was wanted under an Interpol red notice, which called for his arrest in 196 countries.

He was apprehended on the street in Colombia’s capital Bogota during a coordinated operation between Colombian, Italian and British authorities, as well as Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, according to an official report.

Palermo is believed to be part of “one of the most tightly knit cells” of the ‘ndrangheta mafia, said Carlos Fernando Triana, head of the Colombian police, in a message posted on X.

The ‘ndrangheta, one of Italy’s most powerful and secretive criminal organizations, has extended its influence abroad and is widely accused of importing cocaine into Europe.

The suspect “not only led the purchase of large shipments of cocaine in Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador, but also controlled the maritime and land routes used to transport the drugs to European markets,” Triana added.

Illegal cocaine production reached 3,708 tons in 2023, an increase of nearly 34 percent from the previous year, driven mainly by the expansion of coca leaf cultivation in Colombia, according to the United Nations.