Breakthrough: Our Guerilla War to Expose Fraud and Save Democracy

by James O'Keefe

New York Times Bestseller!

Hailed by David Weigel in Slate as having “had more of an impact on the 2012 election than any journalist,” James O’Keefe is young, brash, and provocative: a new breed of guerrilla reporter for the twenty-first century. He and his associates have famously infiltrated some of America’s most protected organizations and institutions. They have challenged politicians, bureaucrats, media moguls, union bosses, and election officials, all with the goal of exposing the lies and malfeasance heretofore hidden from the public. Now, O’Keefe chronicles the harrowing undercover investigation that opened America’s eyes to the chicanery of its state houses and the duplicity of the White House during one of the most compromised election campaigns in our nation’s history: the 2012 presidential race.

Of all his controversial sting operations, this was the one that his late mentor, Andrew Breitbart, called “his most consequential.” While still on federal probation, O’Keefe organized an army of citizen journalists, planned a series of video stings to reveal the American system’s vulnerability to voter fraud, and went nose to nose with the most powerful political machine in the world. Along the way, O’Keefe found disheartening evidence that Americans are not nearly as free a people as we may believe, but he also showed just how much real change ordinary citizens can bring about when they are willing to risk the wrath of the powerful. In just a few years, O’Keefe and his citizen journalism corps, Project Veritas, uncovered systemic corruption at ACORN, leading to its defunding by Congress; exposed the contemptuous biases of NPR executives leading to the resignation of two of their top people and a vote to freeze NPR funding by the House of Representatives; showed the callous indifference of New Jersey Educational Association officials to taxpayers and students; and revealed the easy tolerance of fraud at Planned Parenthood, Medicaid, HUD, and other government agencies. Perhaps most important, their work inspired several states to reform their election laws. Free of ideology, Breakthrough is at its core a clarion call for a more ethical society. Despite being vilified and libeled by an establishment media dedicated to suppressing the truth, James O’Keefe has dared to break through the firewall and reshape public opinion by showing things as they really are.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

James O’Keefe founded Project Veritas, Project Veritas Action and the O’Keefe Media Group, after he had pulled off some of the most consequential undercover journalism coups in a generation, so he could have an organization dedicated to reviving the craft of undercover journalism. These two organizations are non-profits dedicated to investigating corruption, dishonesty, waste and fraud in public institutions and the private sector.

The undercover journalism O’Keefe has pioneered at Project Veritas relies on the most modern digital and video technology infused with the legacy of the great investigative journalists of the past, such as Nellie Bly, Mike Wallace, Gunter Wallraff and Woodward and Bernstein.

Aside from leading Project Veritas and Project Veritas Action, O’Keefe is the author of two best-selling books, Breakthrough: Our guerilla war to expose fraud and save democracy, published in 2013, and American Pravda: My fight for truth in the era of Fake News, published in 2018. Both books are personal and revealing works about both his experiences on the line of scrimmage of American democracy and his take on what mainstream media has become and what it should be.

Reviews

[Kristi-Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is informative, exciting, and raw. To escape the good ol' boys club system of journalism is to fight the system at large, whether it be corrupt government, fraudulent organizations, or plain old image-saving lies. James O'Keefe did just that starting in college and through his organization Project Veritas. O'Keefe tells you why he did it, what he gave up in order to, and why he would do it all over again.

[Steven H · Rating 1 out of 5]

O’KEEFE’S FIRST BOOK, RECOUNTING PROJECT VERITAS’S EARLY ‘STINGS’

James O’Keefe III was the founder of Project Veritas (and, interestingly, he was removed as President in February 2023 for financial improprieties), and he wrote in the Prologue of this 2013 book, “On the morning of January 25, 2010… With me were my pals Stan Dai, Jose Basel, and Bob Flanagan. We had spent the night in the St. Bernard Parish jail… I was on my way to have my mug shot taken---the one that would appear on the front page of the Sunday New York Times. Welcome, friends, to the world of citizen journalism… I will reveal the details of our offense in due time, but it was so soft we had no idea that we had committed a crime or what that crime could be. We saw ourselves as journalists holding the federal government accountable, but our public servants did not see it that way… They fully controlled both the process and the message…

“A weary, middle-aged public defender introduced himself through the Plexiglas… he said robotically… ‘You are being charged with a felony that carries ten years of a prison sentence… This is a very serious crime.’ … We had all but lost confidence that logic and reason prevailed on the other side of the Plexiglas… This was the very first time we had heard we were even being charged, and they were apparently throwing the book at us---but what book and why?... They were screwing us over not in spite of the fact we were journalists but BECAUSE we were. Three years later… our prosecutors in the New Orleans U.S. Attorney’s [James B. Letten] office---would be forced out of office in disgrace, but that item barely dented the news. Our arrest the media would never forget.” (Pg. ix-xi)

He explains, “I was twenty-seven years old, five years into my self-created career as a citizen journalist, and I had already been arrested, imprisoned, nearly killed during my ‘community service,’ commended … by the U.S. House of Representatives for exposing ACORN, publicly accused of everything from racism to rape, lauded by the governor of New Jersey for exposing a corrupt union… denounced by Keith Olbermann as the ‘worst person in the world,’ applauded for causing major resignations at National Public Radio, sued multiple times, slandered by half the working journalists in America, and finally inspired to expose voter fraud in the heat of a presidential election, which my late mentor Andrew Breitbart described over the phone to me as ‘the most consequential thing you ever did.' In the course of these short few years, I have received an education that few will receive in a lifetime… To learn, I have had to sort my way through legal and media swamps into which no one has ventured before…. I have edited what I have learned into a set of guidelines, the ‘Veritas rules.’ The rules are shaped by my larger vision…By showing what is true and what is not, journalists can help forge a more ethical and transparent society, one in which people do what is right because they want to, not because they feel compelled by the government.” (Pg. 5-6)

He reports their ‘sting’ of Planned Parenthood: “Lila would pose as a fifteen-year-old… and I as her twenty-three-year-old boyfriend. We would see… if the Planned Parenthood staffers in Los Angeles were willing to aid and abet both statutory rape and illegal abortion… the fifteen-year-old would agree to let the child in her womb be killed---an illegal act in itself---the clinic would destroy the evidence, and boyfriend would skate, and Planned Parenthood would improve its cash flow… if their supporters cannot see the wrong in what they’re doing, they aren’t looking… Planned Parenthood had no experience with this kind of culture jamming. Its execs could have let the video float around the Internet and cause minimal damage, but they overreacted. Their attorneys … [threatened] criminal action for taping the Planned Parenthood employees in California… This billion-dollar corporation was trying to take down an 18-year-old girl for exposing its own lawbreaking.” (Pg. 22-28) Later, he also posed as a potential donor to Planned Parenthood if it could be used for the abortion of a Black baby, asserting ‘the less black kids out there the better.’” (Pg. 33)

Next was ACORN. He posed as a gaudily-dressed pimp, accompanied by one of his prostitutes, who wanted to buy a home for ‘thirteen underage prostitutes-in-training for El Salvador.' “After leaving the ACORN office, Hannah and I hustled back to my old jalopy, footage in hand… We had scored a major hit, but we still didn’t even realize how major it would be.” (Pg. 48)

He asserts, “conservatives may have their own media, but they don’t create the news. They simply aggregate and/or comment on the news that the major media produce. Meanwhile, the majors guard the power to set the agenda. Protecting the right flank are the anti-journalists. These are the salaried staff of the numerous, well-funded attack dog blogs and online journals… whose mission is to kill stories in the womb that do not fit their ideological agenda and ridicule those they cannot kill.” (Pg. 58-59)

He argues, “the nation’s progressives have been controlling the media narrative for a century. If they wanted to make a ‘social justice’ champion out of Margaret Sanger, they could do so. If they wanted to paint ACORN as a civil rights group … they could do that, too. What our videos were doing was ripping a hole through that narrative and allowing the people inside to expose that narrative for the fraud it was.” (Pg. 89-90) He adds, "so vulnerable was ACORN to the light of day that it took a pair of twentysomethings with a Sony Handycam a few days to pull the whole damn thing down.” (Pg. 96)

During an interview with an NPR media critic, he was asked, “If your journalistic technique is the lie, why should we believe anything you have to say?” He responds, “Investigative reporters have used… ‘false pretenses’ like ‘To Catch a Predator,’ ABC’s ‘Primetime Live.’ Even Mike Wallace at 60 Minutes went undercover. You go undercover in order to get to the truth. Now, is it lying? It’s a form of guerrilla theater. You’re posing as something you’re not in order to capture candid conversations from your subject. But I wouldn’t characterize it as lying.” (Pg. 188)

In New Hampshire, they obtained Primary ballots by using the names of recently deceased voters. “We had made the decision to ignore the national media and focus on the local… Local television responded to the story because we gave them something to show. That is the beauty of video. The people who watched …understood that all TV news was ‘selectively edited.’ All journalists use excerpts to highlight the most newsworthy things said or done by their subjects. The taxpayers of New Hampshire … were not happy about it at all. They quickly shared that unhappiness with their elected officials.” (Pg. 241-242)

After the death of his mentor Andrew Breitbart, he commented, “Andrew had long been a source of comfort and advice for me because he knew better than anyone the challenges we citizen journalists face… he understood the effort and energy required to fight, not just the big fights, but the small fights as well. With every article, every email, every tweet, every day, he battled to get the truth out. He struggled against the forces of conformity and compliance, and he prevailed more often than not… I am honored that he took me along for the ride.” (Pg. 266-267)

They then take on Organizing for America (OFA): “We knew that the primary mission of OFA was to harvest votes, however they could, but we had seen enough in our voter fraud investigation to suspect that some activists would not care whether the votes harvested were legal. We wanted to out those activists…. Our reporters would express an interest in, say, voting in multiple states. If an organizer hesitated, we would make an emotional appeal to the various race, sex, and class causes.. ‘You’re not anti-woman, are you?’ … We also encouraged our reporters to use props like, say, a birth control pill container. A female reporter could show that it was empty and talk about the fact that she was too broke to raise another child… If the OFA employee refused to help our reporters vote twice, they would argue he was sexist and trying to control their birth control… We urged them to … use emotion, to appeal to shared values.” (Pg. 294-296) He continues, “a Project Veritas reporter embedded within…. Organizing for America … developed a relationship with Houston OFA director Stephanie Caballero [and told her] that she intended to vote twice: once in Texas, and once in Florida by absentee ballot. Caballero did nothing to discourage the illegal act. Quite the opposite; in fact, she laughed throughout the explanation… Within hours of the video’s release, Stephanie Caballero was fired…” (Pg. 297)

When one of their stories made it to Fox News, “My staffers’ eyes began to tear up… we got emotional because we had infiltrated the mainstream media. We did it, step by step. We did it as a team, all year long. And in this moment, we began to realize that our thesis about the media was absolutely correct. At the end of the day, it was all about content. It was about original stories and their butterfly effect. With the right content, we could surmount any media or government obstacle. Win or lose on November 6, we felt like anything was possible.” (Pg. 317)

He concludes, “While we were busy trying to save the republic, the mainstream media were busy reelecting Barack Obama president. Victorious or not, they saw what was happening as clearly as we did… By rooting out media deceit, we were preparing the ground for truth to flourish. No one said it would be easy, and it wasn’t. Veritas!” (Pg. 319)

Is what PV does ‘citizen journalism,’ or the solicitation of a crime (e.g., ‘entrapment,’ when the cops do it)? Those who view Breitbart, Drudge, and O’Keefe as ‘heroic,’ will enjoy this book.

[Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great anti-establishment book. In this case the establishment is the entrenched media and politicians and justice officials that waged war on Mr O'Keefe instead of the corruption he was exposing.

They threw everything at him. Arrests, intimidation, lies, character slander. But James is still able to keep his sense of humor and his dogged determination.

Not a perfect man, he freely admits and explains mistakes that were made. But the main charges against him of selective editing is totally bogus. From Michael Moore to the New York Times, to any writer or film maker, editing is crucial. Mr O'Keefe gives examples of others editing him with evil intent, while his edits remain true to the actual events.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Breakthrough by James O’Keef, is a book about his journey of be coming an investigative citizen journalist (Remember when news broke about ACORN before Barak Obama was elected? That was O’Keef). After I started this book I couldn’t put it down. Woven into it are his “rules” for investigative citizen journalists so they can be most effective. His experience makes it easy to understand when he explains how the left will do anything to squelch opposing voices. This book is worth your time simply for the entertainment value but the information is a real bonus and it is quite motivational.
https://amusingstone.wordpress.com/20...

[Nathan Foy · Rating 3 out of 5]

James O'Keefe is a modern-day Paul Revere showing that the Statists are coming. Interesting read on guy who's making a change to political landscape. He's got a bloodhound's nose for liars and he lives in a target-rich environment.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bought another copy to give to a friend. This is a very interesting and exciting story. I'll bet almost all of it is true.

[Julia Nixon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating expose of fraud in the US in many areas that affect our society. This is a scary book to read.

[Hope · Rating 3 out of 5]

O’Keefe is an unlikeable clown with bad judgment who has discredited himself a lot. But his criticism of media favoritism and deck-stacking is unassailable. That’s unfortunate.

[Jon]

I had been aware of O'Keefe's "sting" videos that exposed the amorality of the ACORN staffers, which subsequently caused Congress to cut off its funding, but I hadn't heard much about some of his organization's, Project Veritas, other capers, which he describes here. O'Keefe seems to have taken a lot of heat for his attempt to expose fraud and and misbehavior at both government agencies and supposed independent organizations that receive government support. It seems that when you offend the powerful and their pet media mouthpieces, being right is no protection from persecution or prosecution.

O'Keefe is seen as a tool of the Right, but he has this to say about it:

"If my targets seem to skew 'left,' it is for a reason. The left makes huge claims about government and its capabilities. Those who manage the government and other publicly funded social services all too often persuade themselves of their virtuousness, even if their virtue is subsidized with other people's money. Given their idealism, they refuse to cast judgment on their mission and tolerate almost no judgment from others.
Our target has never been the people who consume the benefits, whether they be unwed mothers or crony capitalists. Our target is the system that provides the benefits."

In a section on exposing the flaws in a voter registration system that requires no positive form of identification, there's a quote from Minnesota Representative Mary Kiffmeyer:

"If you have no system that deters and detects fraud and you don't determine the identity of voters, the electoral system cannot inspire public confidence."

It seems to me that this principle applies equally well to many other government "freebie" programs. If the voters as a whole are not confident that welfare fraud is being promptly detected, medicare cheaters are swiftly prosecuted, and disability fakers are kept off the rolls, then how can we support those "safety nets" wholeheartedly?

After O'Keefe's minions exposed "holes" in the voter registration system in North Carolina, the Board of Elections instituted some training for its poll personnel:

"They're talking about O'Keefe right now - exhibit about the video is on the screen at today's statewide, several hundred person training. They're using it as an example of 'red flags' for officials to look out for - lederhosen and arm casts. The recording inside polling stations issue has come up repeatedly..."

Typical government response, attack the superficial symptoms of a problem rather than the problem itself. It reminded me of an anecdote told by Richard Feynman about how he demonstrated the lax security on the Manhattan Project by showing the brass how he could "crack" any safe in their offices. Rather than put in place policies to increase security, the dictate was "Keep Feynman out of your offices."

[Jerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

…nothing scares the government-media complex more than the threat of an honest election.

This was an interesting book about the founding of Project Veritas. It basically covers O’Keefe’s work from his very influential ACORN sting through the 2012 election, with a bit of how he came to know Andrew Breitbart.

The book also includes his account of their attempt to get Senator Landrieu’s staff in Louisiana to talk about their phones. I’m embarrassed to admit that I appear to have mostly trusted the media accounts of the incident. After checking O’Keefe’s version with the various court documents or quotes from them that are available, what I remember from media accounts is pretty much completely wrong.

They went in under their own names, with their own IDs, and never touched the phones or phone lines. According to the court papers (quoted here from the Star-Ledger’s correction of an earlier story alleging phone tapping), his misdemeanor conviction was for trying to “orchestrate a conversation about phone calls to the Senator’s staff and capture the conversation on video, not to actually tamper with the phone system or commit any other felony”.

But because of that misdemeanor, the action throughout the book is under the auspices of O’Keefe’s probation officer—to whom he gives the final dedication in the final chapter.

Some of the most interesting parts of the book are his interactions with the “conservative movement”. About the ACORN sting that brought down a very corrupt organization, he writes:

Before we launched the project, the “conservative” honchoes we told about the idea thought it was stupid. “It will keep you from ever working in Washington,” they told us, and from their perspective, little could be worse.

These kinds of interactions may have lead to what he calls “Veritas Rule #7”:

Resist the temptation to work or live in the Beltway. Restrict visits to twenty-four hours.

Another fascinating aspect is that it’s all from the beginning of his very strange career. Throughout most of it he’s broke and driving his sister’s car, working out of a barn or shed on his parents’ property. I’m guessing that Project Veritas is on better financial footing today than it was when he had to drive downhill and pop the clutch to get his car started.

[Zak Schmoll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, so I get it. A bunch of you are going to immediately comment on this post saying how much you can't stand James O'Keefe. I get it. Your outrage is duly noted and is not going to get a response from me just because I don't really feel like fighting with people all night.

I read this book for the same reason I read Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals; grassroots movements intrigue me, and O'Keefe actually cites Alinsky as one of his most important tactical inspirations. How does a virtual nobody rise to national prominence through citizen journalism?

This book is a fun read. The reader gets a behind-the-scenes look at how they pulled off the video projects they did. For me, that was the most intriguing part of the book. It was educational to watch someone with no resources figure out ways to stick it to the man. It is a classic underdog story.

O'Keefe is a provocateur, and he writes like one. He is clearly celebrating throughout this book and loves to tell stories of how he got compromising stories on tape from all kinds of officials. Obviously that is what Project Veritas does. Could you easily criticize this book for lack of balance? 100%. It is obviously a memoir with elements of a manifesto. I would not expect balance in any book of this genre.

This book is not for everyone. Your response to it is literally going to be determined by how you feel about O'Keefe rather than anything about the book itself. I realize many people hate O'Keefe for a variety of his positions, so if you can't stand him, you will certainly not appreciate reading about the roller coaster of his career. However, if you do like any of his video work, I think you will find this book enjoyable.

[Stan Sorensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bravo. Exposing the left in corruption and hypocrisy.

[Stephen Chase · Rating 5 out of 5]

The greatest Nonfiction Audiobook on CD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's about war!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Dave Hale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it! I'm curious to see what he comes up with about the 2016 and 2020 elections. Because of O'Keefe and patriots like him, I've totally cut off MSM in my house. This book was an eye-opener!

[Jeff Siegmund · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard to argue with facts.

[Rex Rehmeyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story
Writing is OK.

[Rea K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ahhhhhhhhh! I finished it!
The other day, I settled down to watch The Newsroom with one of my friends. To my surprise, the name James O'Keefe was flippantly thrown across the screen. Inside, I was screaming "I understood that reference!" Ironically, earlier that day (probably only two hours before) I'd checked out James O'Keefe's book from the library. When I got to the chapter where he briefly mentions his mention in The Newsroom, I was again internally screaming "I understood that reference!"
The year was 2013. I was eighteen, going on nineteen, home from school (I'm not even sure what month this was anymore) and listening to the radio. Rush Limbaugh was on and he was doing an interview with some guy I'd never heard of before, James O'Keefe. Seems James O'Keefe had a book coming out. I listened, took down the title of the book, and decided I had to read it. It was the Lucky Charms. The book sounded fascinating. When I finally got it from the library later that year, I let my dad read it first. I then started it and could not finish it. More than once. It just... wasn't my thing. It was interesting, but I ran out of time at the library and had loads of other books that took my attention away.
Truthfully, I probably heard of James O'Keefe in passing before that point in my life. He was behind videos that shook Planned Parenthood, caused the downfall of ACORN, brought about voter ID laws, and hit NPR, among other things (by now, Project Veritas has done more). Probably the reason I hadn't heard of him was because A) I was a sophomore in high school when his Planned Parenthood vids came out. B) Politics weren't something that caught my attention. Sure, I'd listen to Rush Limbaugh, but only because that's what my parents chose to listen to during the day. I was a teenager, not exactly first one to the fight.
I completely admire the strength that Project Veritas has. Me? I'm not nearly brave enough to do anything that requires the potential for backlash. I will never be a citizen journalist or a member of Project Veritas.
The crap that James O'Keefe and the members of Project Veritas go through, went through, will go through is incredible. They're trying to bring the truth to the forefront and they get hated and lied about. So many ups and downs and still Project Veritas goes on. They haven't crumbled.
James O'Keefe is barely in his thirties. Absolutely amazing what he's accomplished.
Definitely keeping my ears open for mentions of James O'Keefe. (If only to internally scream "I UNDERSTOOD THAT REFERENCE!")

[Marina Fontaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't have high expectations for this book since I have been following James O'Keefe's work pretty closely and thought I already knew most of the story. No so; not even close. This is the difference of seeing an A-list movie as compared to reading the synopsis on IMDB. The book takes you inside every sting, every controversy, and yes, every attack and humiliation O'Keefe and his friends have gone through over the last few years. The story is both depressing and inspiring. Depressing because we all know how this ends- Obama re-elected, Breitbart dead, O'Keefe still living in his parents basement and the media establishment still (mostly) laughing al the way to the bank. Inspiring because it tells a story of someone who hasn't given up. Every time some Republican Party consultant shows up on TV complaining how they can't do anything, can't get the message out, can't fight the media (all in the effort to justify supporting the status quo and their own high fees), think about this group of young people who shook up the establishment to its core with a couple of cameras and a lot of determination. The problem isn't that "nothing can be done." The problem is that very few people are willing to pay the price. James O'Keefe is one of them. Read this book, buy extra copies, give them to your friends. James is sure to put the royalties to good use. Then, keep checking on YouTube. You never know what will pop up next.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great autobio that details the return of the journalist via the citizen. James O'Keefe details his experiences as a self made citizen journalist starting as an undergrad at Rutgers. He includes not only his success of doing the mainstream medias job, but also the lessons learned from mistakes along the way. He has done a great job of documenting his journey as he and his fellow citizen journalists take on the established media and the protective new mediates as he exposes the truth (Veritas) about the misuse of power, waste and corruption of policy makers and so called leaders of Society. James' struggle is broken down and defined as the clash between the journalist (almost extinct) and the anti-journalist (the mutation of journalists in the field and establishments of media and academia). This book will be an inspiration to all those that seek truth and a relief and glimpse of hope for those that realize they are being drowned in the mainstream muck. I would encourage you to enlighten yourself with an understanding of how news is really disseminated in our society.

[Benjamin Wetmore · Rating 2 out of 5]

not as good as I remember it.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never realized we were so close to becoming like a media-controlled left wing banana republic until Project Veritas came along. Read it, you'll see.