There has been a controversy brewing over the past few weeks at Project Veritas between its board of directors and James O’Keefe, the founder and CEO of the organization known for its undercover sting videos exposing abuse and hypocrisy by powerful individuals and organizations.

On Monday, O’Keefe announced that the board had secretly stripped him of all of his authority and, therefore, he had tendered his resignation from Project Veritas, the Daily Wire reported.

The now-former head of Project Veritas strongly implied, however, that his mission to hold truth to power was not yet complete and that he would likely launch a new venture in that regard.

O’Keefe resigns in emotional speech to colleagues

In a videoed address to his employees that was subsequently posted to social media, O’Keefe revealed that he’d been “stripped of all decision-making last week” by the Project Veritas board and gave a run-down of the internal battle that had been ongoing for the past few weeks.

That culminated in his being relieved from his position as CEO and removed from the board of his own company, ostensibly only for 180 days, per a copy of the board meeting minutes that O’Keefe had obtained and shared in his prepared message on Monday.

“Currently, I have no job at Project Veritas,” O’Keefe said. “I have no position here based upon what the board has done — so I’m announcing to you all that today, on President’s Day, I’m packing up my personal belongings here.”

The board’s decision was quite likely in response to an ultimatum that O’Keefe had given the board days earlier for each of them to resign, which obviously was ignored and rejected. However, O’Keefe noted in his remarks to his employees that “Our mission continues on. I’m not done. The mission will perhaps take on a new name.”

🚨BREAKING: James O’Keefe’s Remarks to Project Veritas Staff: “I’ve been removed from CEO and Board”

WATCH James’ FULL COMMENTS here: pic.twitter.com/9LK4jLEPRw

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) February 20, 2023

Reportedly placed on leave amid alleged complaints

The inner turmoil at Project Veritas was first publicly revealed by New York Magazine’s Intelligencer in an anonymously-sourced Feb. 8 report which claimed that O’Keefe had been placed on paid leave while the board considered whether to remove him from his leadership position.

That report alleged both financial and personnel mismanagement on the part of O’Keefe and set the stage for his apparent eventual ouster.

The reported actions and intentions of the board did not sit well with supporters of O’Keefe, however, and a group of donors even sent a “cease-and-desist letter” from a law firm to the board that demanded they refrain from any further action and subtly threatened a potential lawsuit.

Project Veritas board and executives tell different story

Meanwhile, the Project Veritas board and executives released a couple of statements amid the developing controversy that sought to downplay what was happening and mislead the public with praise for O’Keefe — even as it has now been revealed that he was being stripped of power and ousted the entire time.

In response to O’Keefe’s announced resignation on Monday, the board issued a statement that accused O’Keefe of refusing to cooperate with their questions and internal investigation into allegations of “financial malfeasance” with donor funds and for generally being a tough boss for some current and former employees to work for.

“Even with all of this public fallout, the Board still wants to speak with James,” the statement concluded. “We did not fire him, nor do we want him to resign. We would like to continue conversations with James to resolve internal matters rather than litigate them publicly.”