Project Veritas's James O'Keefe. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
BOSTON (WBZ-AM) -- The group behind a series of controversial sting operations targeting news agencies and Democratic groups is filing suit against Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley over a Massachusetts law that bans secret recording of conversations.
Attorney Steven Klein said Project Veritas had plans for exposees in and around Boston, but those plans had to be put on ice due to the state's wiretapping law. He alleges the group's work is being illegally hampered.
"When the law bans secret recording in any circumstance, that's when it becomes unconstitutional," Klein said. "And there's no other law like that in the United States."
Conley's being represented by the Massachusetts Attorney General's office, which argues that the First Amendment does not give anyone the right to record another person without that person's knowledge--and that it's a state's right to protect that person's privacy.
Project Veritas was most recently in the news for its failed attempt to trick the Washington Post with a fake Roy Moore accuser.
Klein says Massachusetts has a long history of corruption, and believes Veritas stings could help combat that.
"If secret recording were allowed, particularly of public officials engaged in public duties, that would reveal, I think, many things that have gone undetected over the years," Klein said.
Not so, according to a filing from the state AG's office which says activists or journalists are free to eavesdrop and record what they hear through notes or secret visual recordings--and for that reason, neither their work or their rights are hindered.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Kendall Buhl reports