Hours after a USPS whistleblower recanted his allegations of his supervisors tampering with ballots mailed after Election Day, Project Veritas has released video footage of the postal worker being "coerced" by investigators into taking back his accusations.
Last week, Richard Hopkins, testified that he overheard a postmaster in Erie, Pennsylvania, directing staffers to backdate ballots that were mailed after the Election Day deadline, as previously reported. Hopkins' claim, which was widely publicized by Project Veritas before being promoted by the Trump campaign.
The allegations were also included in a letter sent to Attorney General Bill Barr by Trump's GOP allies as a reason to open an investigation, which Barr greenlit a short time later.
'I Feel Like I Just Got Played'
On Tuesday, the Washington Post published a report stating that Hopkins had recanted his testimony, which the postal worker later refuted in a video. James O'Keefe, the founder of far-right activist group Project Veritas, has now released audio recordings of federal agents interrogating and "coercing" Hopkins into recanting his allegations.
"This is soviet style truth suppression," O'Keefe captioned a video clip, which also included an interview with Hopkins "They were grilling the hell out of me," Hopkins says in the interview with O'Keefe. "I'm kinda pissed. I feel like I just got played."
'I'm Trying To Twist You a Little Bit'
In addition to the interview, the video clip also included audio recordings obtained by Project Veritas from Hopkins' 4-hour interrogation by US Office of Inspector General agent Russell Strasser.
"Let me make good on that promise right away. Okay. This storm is getting crazy, right?" poked agent Strasser. "It's out of a lot of people's control. And so the reason they called me in is to try to harness that storm, try to reel it back in before it gets really crazy."
"Because we have Senators involved. We have the Department of Justice involved," Strasser continued before adding that Trump's lawyers have also reached out to him.
'I Am Scaring You'
"I am trying to twist you a little bit because of that, believe it or not, your mind will kick in," Strasser said. "We like to control our mind. And when we do that, we can convince ourselves of a memory. But when you're under a little bit of stress, which is what I'm doing to you purposely, your mind can be a little bit clearer and we're going to do a different exercise too, to make your mind a little bit clearer. So, but this is all on purpose."
"I am not scaring you. But I am scaring you," the agent concludes in the recording. Hopkins, who has since been suspended without pay, then tells O'Keefe in the interview that he believed the agents were trying to make him "distrust" Project Veritas and that he did not feel that the federal agents were interested in investigating his claims about backdating ballots, which he maintains to be true. Watch the clip below:
