James O’Keefe has scored a significant victory in his ongoing legal battle against CNN, with a ruling in his favor from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. This victory comes after three years, thousands of miles traveled, and nearly a million dollars in legal fees in his defamation case against the network.
In 2021 when CNN’s Ana Cabrera falsely accused Project Veritas (PV) of promoting misinformation on Twitter, leading to a suspension of the organization’s account. This defamatory claim was based on a misrepresentation of the facts—PV’s Twitter suspension was not for spreading misinformation, but for publishing truthful, yet supposedly private, information. Cabrera’s statement contradicted a prior CNN report which acknowledged the true reason for the suspension.
The defamation suit aimed to hold CNN accountable for these false claims that directly impacted PV’s reputation. Despite an initial unfavorable ruling from a federal judge in Georgia, who dismissed the lawsuit, O’Keefe and his legal team refused to back down.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals sided with O’Keefe, acknowledging that Cabrera’s statement was not only false, but materially false. The court also found that the statement had the potential to harm the reputation of Project Veritas. This ruling was a crucial step forward in the battle for truth in media, and it sent a strong message that news organizations cannot simply disregard the truth and misrepresent the facts without facing legal consequences.
Judge Ed Carnes, concurring in the decision, highlighted the absurdity of CNN’s defense, pointing out that a major news organization was essentially downplaying the importance of truth in its broadcasts. “If you stay on the bench long enough, you see a lot of things. Still, I never thought I’d see a major news organization downplaying the importance of telling the truth in its broadcasts,” said Carnes.
Hellbound and Down 