BREAKING: NYT pleads ignorance in answer to Project Veritas’ defamation complaint

"The [New York Times] didn't reach out for comment. And maybe you didn't do it because if you did do it, you'd have to publish that this was real," said Veritas' founder James O'Keefe.

"You didn't even pick up the damn phone to make a phone call. And you call yourself journalists!"

On top of this, the paper had to admit that the Maggie Astor article at the centre of the lawsuit was wrong about Minnesota law and has been forced to explain that the article was opinion despite the fact that it was presented as news.

The original article claimed that Project Veritas was "part of a coordinated disinformation effort" in its coverage of ballot harvesting in Minnesota.

Throughout the response, America's former newspaper of record claimed that they lacked "knowledge or information" to sufficiently reply to the complaint. O'Keefe has stated that he is adamant that this lawsuit will progress to a jury trial.

It is also worth noting that USA Today used The New York Times as a source for their fact-checking on PV, which Facebook then used to notify a substantial number of users that PV was spreading false information. As a result of this, USA Today may also face a lawsuit if they don't retract their fact check.

Project Veritas is at the forefront of combatting censorship. O'Keefe filed suit against The New York Times last year. A state Supreme Court denied the Times' request to dismiss the case.