MAGA ‘Ratfucker’ James O’Keefe Charged After Trying to Prove Voter Fraud by Allegedly Committing It

This article was originally published in Common Dreams under Creative Commons 3.0 license. Read the original article.

In a right-wing political stunt gone ironically awry, MAGA provocateur James O’Keefe and an associate were criminally charged Wednesday in Minneapolis with unlawful voting and identity theft after allegedly impersonating registered voters in a Minnesota election while attempting to demonstrate how “easy” it is to commit voter fraud.

The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office (HCAO) announced that O’Keefe, 42, and Cam Higby, 26—both with the Citizen Justice League—are facing felony charges “for their conduct during the Minnesota primary election on August 11.”

According to HCAO, O’Keefe and Higby “filmed themselves and posted the videos to social media to try to sow doubt about Minnesota’s secure voting systems.”

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The pair “visited multiple precincts in Hennepin County and misrepresented their identities by giving election judges names of registered voters in the precinct without those voters’ knowledge or permission,” according to the prosecutor’s statement.

Under Minnesota law, “no individual shall intentionally misrepresent the individual’s identity in applying for a ballot, depositing a ballot in a ballot box, or attempting to vote by means of a voting machine or electronic voting system.”

Neither man is accused of actually casting a ballot—their alleged offense, according to prosecutors, was misrepresenting their identities while applying for ballots.

Announcing the charges in Minneapolis, Democratic Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said: “Elections are the bedrock of democracy and their protection is one of our highest priorities. Individuals engaging in unlawful conduct related to our elections will be held accountable.”

“Polling places are the heart of our democracy and should be places of safety and peace,” Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, also a Democrat, said on Wednesday. “Any attempt to disrupt or deceive our election workers will not be tolerated.”

While the story practically writes its own punchline, plenty of observers weighed in with their own takes on the pair’s predicament.

“James O’Keefe is a generational dumbass,” Marisa Kabas, who publishes the progressive newsletter The Handbasket, said on Bluesky.

The irony is particularly rich given the years that conservative activists—with O’Keefe featuring prominently among them—have spent stridently claiming US elections are plagued by fraud, almost always without producing evidence to support their assertions.

Higby denied any wrongdoing and accused prosecutors of waging “lawfare” against him. O’Keefe had not yet commented on the charges as of Wednesday evening.

O’Keefe first rose to national prominence in 2009 with undercover videos targeting ACORN, a community organizing network serving low-income people. Posing as a pimp alongside collaborator Hannah Giles, who played a prostitute, O’Keefe published dubiously edited video footage of ACORN employees discussing what he claimed was illegal activity. O’Keefe later agreed to pay former ACORN employee Juan Carlos Vera $100,000 to settle a lawsuit over the recording.

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Later, O’Keefe founded Project Veritas, which targeted Planned Parenthood, labor unions, journalists, Democrats, and other groups and people he opposed through hidden camera stings riddled with selective editing, deceptive tactics, and misleading narratives—all under the guise of investigative journalism.

Project Veritas was also involved in the “Stop the Steal” movement, which claimed Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election from President Donald Trump, while attempting to subvert the contest’s results. Movement leaders, and Trump, were leading inciters of the deadly January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection.

[Wc/GS]

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