Erik Prince, brother of Betsy DeVos, imagines himself a hero. He owned a mercenary army, which hired killers for foreign conflicts, now he has a network of spies who infiltrate peaceful domestic organizations, like teachers’ unions. If your phone is tapped, Erik or one of his spies might be listening in. Is this even legal? Does he care?
The New York Times reported on Prince’s latest vile caper:
Erik Prince, the security contractor with close ties to the Trump administration, has in recent years helped recruit former American and British spies for secretive intelligence-gathering operations that included infiltrating Democratic congressional campaigns, labor organizations and other groups considered hostile to the Trump agenda, according to interviews and documents.
One of the former spies, an ex-MI6 officer named Richard Seddon, helped run a 2017 operation to copy files and record conversations in a Michigan office of the American Federation of Teachers, one of the largest teachers’ unions in the nation. Mr. Seddon directed an undercover operative to secretly tape the union’s local leaders and try to gather information that could be made public to damage the organization, documents show.
Using a different alias the next year, the same undercover operative infiltrated the congressional campaign of Abigail Spanberger, then a former C.I.A. officer who went on to win an important House seat in Virginia as a Democrat. The campaign discovered the operative and fired her.
Both operations were run by Project Veritas, a conservative group that has gained attention using hidden cameras and microphones for sting operations on news organizations, Democratic politicians and liberal advocacy groups. Mr. Seddon’s role in the teachers’ union operation — detailed in internal Project Veritas emails that have emerged from the discovery process of a court battle between the group and the union — has not previously been reported, nor has Mr. Prince’s role in recruiting Mr. Seddon for the group’s activities.
Both Project Veritas and Mr. Prince have ties to President Trump’s aides and family. Whether any Trump administration officials or advisers to the president were involved in the operations, even tacitly, is unclear. But the effort is a glimpse of a vigorous private campaign to try to undermine political groups or individuals perceived to be in opposition to Mr. Trump’s agenda.
Mr. Prince, the former head of Blackwater Worldwide and the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, has at times served as an informal adviser to Trump administration officials. He worked with the former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn during the presidential transition. In 2017, he met with White House and Pentagon officials to pitch a plan to privatize the Afghan war using contractors in lieu of American troops. Jim Mattis, then the defense secretary, rejected the idea.
I posted this comment on the NYT site yesterday. I just checked and so far 90 people have liked what I wrote.
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Betsy DeVos works to privatize public education. She got the job of Secretary of Education because she and her family donated money to Republican campaigns. Her Federal marshals security is costing taxpayers $1 million a month. She is one of the most despised members of Trump’s cabinet.
Now we learn that Erik Prince, her brother, is active in recruiting spies to gather information that will destroy the American Federation of Teachers.
I am a retired teacher who is appalled. “Close ties to the Trump administration” speaks volumes about Erik Prince and our president.
Isn’t there something wrong with this picture? How corrupt can the Trump administration get before people have had enough?
Carolymalasia,
Fabulous letter. Thank you.
Can you imagine if a public school teacher did that?
I am so sick of the TWO sets of rules … one for the entitled and the other one for the rest of us.
Sorry … I typed your name wrong, carolmalaysia.
Yvonne: I had to laugh. If you read my comments, I OFTEN make mistakes. I’d like to blame spellcheck but unfortunately, it too often is my brain that caused the problem.
It is no surprise that DeVos’s brother runs a cloak and dagger company that allegedly commits human right violations. Why are we using public money to get dirt on a legal union?https://www.newsweek.com/erik-prince-trump-devos-human-rights-myanmar-1366923
Thanks, retired teacher,
I read the article and it made me sick to my stomach.
You are a treasure trove of information.
Erik Prince ain’t no prince but instead a greedy, sick THUG, that’s for sure.
Yvonne: It is my belief that there is something fundamentally wrong with the wiring of extremely wealthy people. CEO’s and dictators are in this category. How many people have they had to tromp all over people to ‘reach the top’.
How can the extremely wealthy stand having so much wealth when they know that millions of people are starving, living on the streets and ill from not having enough money to get any medical care?
None of this bothers them, and it should. They look DOWN upon those who are struggling when they should be helping. They have a driven goal of never being happy with what they have. Greed is something that is never fulfilled.
Betsy DeVos and her husband consider themselves ‘Christians’. They give money to politicians so that these lackeys will pass bills to increase their wealth. I don’t recall Jesus living in a mansion. He healed the sick, gave the hungry food and wanted people to care for each other. It’s hard for me to imagine exactly how Betsy, Dick or Erik can live with themselves.
Attending religious schools and being a member of a ‘Christian’ church isn’t helping DeVos become a better human being.
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DeVos was educated at all grade levels of Holland Christian Schools, including Holland Christian High School, a private school system located in her home town of Holland, Michigan. She graduated from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in business economics in 1979. During college, DeVos was involved with campus politics, volunteered for Gerald Ford’s presidential campaign, and attended the 1976 Republican National Convention to participate in a program for young Republicans.
DeVos grew up as a member of the Christian Reformed Church in North America. She has been a member and elder of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids. Former Fuller Seminary president Richard Mouw, with whom DeVos served on a committee, said she is influenced by Dutch neo-Calvinist theologian Abraham Kuyper, a founding figure in Christian Democracy political ideology.[
The DeVos family has been active in Republican politics for decades, particularly as donors to candidates and the party, giving more than $17 million to political candidates and committees since 1989.
It is interesting that The Netherlands has evolved from its Dutch Refomed influences, and it is one of the most liberal democracies in the world. The American version of the Dutch Reformed church seems much more conservative and rooted in the past.
Eric prince is a menace to this planet.
O’Keefe is an evil Incompetent clown. The fact that conservatives are putting money into his operation & trying to get Prince to train him is further evidence of how batsh__ crazy they are.
That mindset, where it is okay to use war-like infiltration methods, to attack and try to destroy the “enemy” who are normal, law abiding Americans opposed to your politics is abhorrent to me. Attacking teachers? Congressional campaigns? These are not terrorist organizations, but obviously these people see things differently. Only people who agree with them are considered worthy of the rights of citizenship. It is dangerous and toxic to our country. Remember when people got upset that Nixon would stoop to such underhanded tactics?
Back in 2016, my research tied DeVos & Prince to profiting off student data. It’s not new news that they meant harm.
Link: https://www.commoncorediva.com/2016/11/26/a-nation-scorned/
Erik Prince, leader of the Brown Shirts to uphold right wing values (sic, very sick). Project Veritas is another far right wing falangist group that does gotcha sneaky ops on unsuspecting liberal or left leaning groups. All very nasty stuff.
I saw Diane today on CSPAN2 Book TV with her dialogue/Q&A with Susan Solomon about “Slaying Goliath.” Excellent! It will be repeated throughout the day.
Falangists! The perfect word.
Brown shirts too.
I also saw the CSPAN broadcast. It is well worth watching.
Both have no moral compass!
The brother of our Secretary of Education is plotting against teachers? Ex-M16 officers, CIA and British spies are trying to infiltrate the teachers union? What chance to public schools have when the person in charge of the system views dedicated, talented, professionals as an enemy that must be taken down and infiltrated by spies. So strange and sad.
“Whether any Trump administration officials or advisers to the president were involved in the operations, even tacitly, is unclear. But the effort is a glimpse of a vigorous private campaign to try to undermine political groups or individuals perceived to be in opposition to Mr. Trump’s agenda.”
DeVos has to be asked if she had any involvement in this.
Is anyone else watching the Trump Administration people defending Trump’s response to the pandemic?
It’s terrifying. It’s like listening to people employed by a dictator. They go out there and humiliate themselves praising him, then lie about the disease statistics.
I hadn’t listened to any of them in months and it’s shocking how they are completely compromised- they’re terrified to contradict him by telling the truth. It’s no longer “the federal government” – it’s a Donald Trump cult
Chiara: I just read that two coronavirus patients are now in Indiana.
What bothers me is that since Trump wants to be the Great Leader, he will do all that he can to suppress the true number of infected people. His believers say that he did a lot to keep the US from becoming infected. He did nothing but that is what people believe.
As Dr. Trump said at the CDC: “Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability.”.
Chiara,
I think what is more terrifying is that the journalists covering those events completely normalize it instead of treating it as it is – shocking!
The NYT coverage of Trump’s appearance at the CDC presented Trump as perhaps a little full of himself, but very concerned and intelligent and rational. If someone hadn’t actually watched the video, they would have no idea that it began with the head of the CDC making a ridiculous statement praising Donald Trump as the great leader that was beyond frightening and right out of some Soviet propaganda film.
Corporate espionage and school privatization go hand in hand, along with all the waste, fraud, and abuse. Kinda puts the whole “students first” thing in the right perspective, huh. As if the Disrupters were ever about reforming education, sheesh! Imagine Mann or Dewey wiretapping teachers. Sheesh.
If (big if since I am not a big player in the war to save the public schools) my phones were tapped by Eric Prince’s Deep State thugs, I hope it costs him a lot of money for nothing. I do not use my phones all that much, maybe less than five minutes a month.
If I knew his thugs were doing that, I’d add more phone lines so it would cost him more.
We love Eric Prince!!!
I hope “We love Eric Prince!!!” was means as irony and acidic sarcasm
Lloyd,
Trumpers drop in from time to time.
Let the Trumpers that drop in here know that Trump expects them to attend maskless rallies, maskless church services, never wear a mask, and gather in big maskless crowds every chance they get with other Tumpers. And, before they start, have a legal will that donates their net worth to Trump.
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