James O'Keefe charged with unlawful voting, identity theft in Minnesota
newsOct 28, 202647391
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty charged conservative provocateur James O’Keefe and influencer Cam Higby with felony unlawful voting and identity theft for allegedly misrepresenting themselves at Minneapolis polling places during Minnesota’s Aug. 11 primary. Prosecutors say the pair identified themselves using names of registered voters in those precincts, including names of deceased voters, without the voters’ knowledge or permission, and stopped short of signing the oath required before receiving a ballot. O’Keefe and Higby used Minnesota’s vouching process, recorded the encounters with hidden cameras and posted the videos on social media; O’Keefe said they dressed in "Muslim garb," including a niqab, to expose what they called flaws in the vouching system. Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon alerted Moriarty’s office and said the videos showed ignorance of how the laws work and amounted to misconduct. Police interviewed the registered voters whose names were used, Moriarty said, and the pair will be issued summonses to appear in Minnesota court rather than being jailed. O’Keefe previously settled a 2024 lawsuit involving Project Veritas and was removed as its head in 2023; Higby formerly worked as a journalist for conservative outlets and now runs a YouTube account with about 285,000 subscribers.
