Today, a Pennsylvania judge granted a postmaster’s motion to file an amended complaint in a lawsuit filed against the rightwing video production house Project Veritas and several individuals. The lawsuit concerns a series of defamatory videos, maliciously produced and distributed by Project Veritas that falsely asserted that Erie, Pennsylvania Postmaster Robert Weisenbach backdated mail-in ballots in order to help Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. Protect Democracy has joined the suit, which was originally filed by Ogg, Murphy & Perkosky, P.C. in the Erie County Court of Common Pleas on April 22.
The sensational series of videos helped propel the burgeoning Big Lie around the 2020 election, which sapped critical faith in democratic institutions and fueled the misguided rage that boiled over in Washington D.C. on Jan 6, 2021, when rioters attempted to stop Congress from overseeing the constitutional transfer of power.
Defendant Richard Hopkins, who would later recant his accusations in an interview with post office inspectors, originally told Project Veritas that Weisenbach was part of an alleged mail tampering plot committed to stealing the presidential election from then-President Donald Trump. Despite admitting later that he had never heard anything incriminating, Hopkins told Project Veritas that he overheard Weisenbach discussing how he had backdated mail ballots that were received after Pennsylvania’s ballot deadline in order for them to be counted for Biden. As it turns out, Weisenbach was not even “Anti-Trump,” as Hopkins claimed—he voted for Trump….
The complaint can be found HERE.
More information about the case is HERE.