Ottawa official allegedly authored scheme to seduce reporter on camera

OTTAWA COUNTY — Ottawa County's new deputy administrator allegedly authored a 2010 plot to lure a female CNN reporter onto a boat where another conservative activist planned to faux-seduce her on camera in an effort to discredit the reporter and her network.

Benjamin Wetmore, 42, is an attorney licensed to practice criminal, real estate and nonprofit law in Texas with an extensive history in conservative political activism, including several political stunts with James O’Keefe, the controversial founder of Project Veritas, a right-wing nonprofit that used undercover video and staged encounters in an attempt to reveal media bias.

Wetmore’s history as an associate of O’Keefe is well documented.

The two were linked as early as 2004, according to reporting by The Austin-American Statesman, which profiled Wetmore in 2018 when he unsuccessfully ran for a district court judge seat in Hays County, Texas.

More: Ottawa County taps conservative political pundit Benjamin Wetmore for deputy role

In 2009, the two pretended to be volunteers for the Love Thy Prisoner Campaign, where they tried to get residents in Boston to "adopt a Jihad detainee" and become "pen pals with Guantanamo Bay detainees and put them into their loving homes."

Also in 2009, during an interview with The New York Times, O’Keefe credited Wetmore with giving him the idea for one of his most talked-about video farces: a campaign to rid a dining hall of Lucky Charms cereal, because it was offensive to Irish students (the video has since been taken down).

O’Keefe’s most well-known prank, however, was a series of undercover videos in 2009 that unraveled the nonprofit community organizing group ACORN after O'Keefe and a fellow female activist allegedly solicited advice from ACORN workers on setting up a brothel and evading taxes.

Prosecutors in New York and California eventually found no evidence of wrongdoing by the group and determined the videos were heavily and selectively edited. (O’Keefe and his female partner also later agreed in 2013 to pay $100,000 to settle a lawsuit with a former ACORN employee.)

In 2010, O’Keefe and three other men were accused of plotting to tamper with the office phone system of then-Texas Sen. Mary Landrieu. O’Keefe was convicted of a misdemeanor for entering Landrieu’s office under false pretenses. Although not arrested in connection with the incident, Wetmore allowed O’Keefe and two others involved in the scheme to stay at his house in New Orleans.

In 2010, CNN journalist Abbie Boudreau approached O’Keefe about participating in a documentary highlighting young conservative activists with the aim of profiling four "guerrilla journalists" and how they were shaping the opinions of the public.

O'Keefe requested a private meeting with Boudreau, suggesting he wanted to talk in person. O'Keefe recorded the call without telling Boudreau, and emailed it to friends and colleagues.

CNN, which later obtained the recording, reported on the incident. Boudreau also featured the incident in her documentary, “Right On The Edge," which aired in October 2010. She gave a personal account of the experience and evidence of the plot, which is still available on the network’s website.

Prior to the meeting with O'Keefe, then-Project Veritas Executive Director Izzy Santa told Boudreau that O’Keefe planned to set her up and later turned over emails and documents detailing an elaborate plan intended to sexually humiliate Boudreau and discredit the media network.

According to a 13-page document titled "CNN Caper" obtained by the network, the "equipment needed" for the prank included a condom jar, dildos, Alicia Keys music (though not Marvin Gaye because it's "too cliché"), lube, a ceiling mirror, posters and paintings of naked women, copies of Playboy and other pornographic magazines, Viagra pills, fuzzy handcuffs and a blindfold.

Also listed amongst the equipment was "hidden cams on the boat" and a "tripod and overt recorder near the bed, an obvious sex tape machine."

The plan also laid out a script, which O’Keefe later told CNN was authored by Wetmore. The author of the script was listed as “Ben.”

The Sentinel emailed Wetmore on Thursday morning requesting comment.

"Recent polling shows that Americans have record low trust in the media because of biased, politically-motivated so-called journalism," he wrote in response. "CNN is at the epicenter of this crisis; for this very reason, the document in question was an attempt 13 years ago at trolling CNN and was never meant to be taken seriously."

The script said the purpose of the prank was: "Using hot blondes to seduce interviewees to get screwed on television, you are faux seducing her in order to screw her on television,” according to notes in the script CNN obtained.

If there is fallout, the document said, "make sure to emphasize Abbie's name and overall status to help burden her career with this video, incident and her bad judgment in pursuing you so aggressively," CNN reported.

It continues to say, "If they go on the attack, you should point out the hypocrisy in CNN using the inherent sexuality of these women to sell viewers and for ratings, passing up more esteemed and respectable journalists who aren't bubble-headed bleach blondes and keep the focus on CNN."

O’Keefe emailed the network responding to a request for comment, saying he found "certain elements highly objectionable and inappropriate, and did not consider for one minute following it."

Santa provided additional emails, however, between herself, Wetmore and O’Keefe that outline O’Keefe’s participation, going so far as to ask Santa to have a graphic banner created that read “Pleasure Palace” and asking Wetmore: “Ben, you think I could get her on the boat?”

O’Keefe previously referred to Wetmore as a mentor, telling The New York Times in 2010: “Benjamin Wetmore: a mentor of mine; a genius,” after the ACORN videos were released.

Wetmore’s association with O’Keefe appears to have ended around 2010.

“I haven’t talked to him in a long time,” Wetmore told The Statesman in 2018. “He and I aren’t at terms.”

Although Wetmore hired O’Keefe to work at the Leadership Institute in Arlington, Virginia, after O’Keefe graduated from college, Wetmore told The Statesman he didn’t consider himself a mentor, but more of an associate.

“I am someone he knew,” Wetmore said.

In February 2023, Project Veritas' board of directors said it had uncovered “financial malfeasance” and accused O’Keefe of spending “an excessive amount of donor funds in the last three years on personal luxuries.” He was fired in August.

Just this week, Project Veritas' new CEO Hannah Giles resigned, saying the nonprofit had become “an unsalvageable mess” and alleging “past illegality” and “past financial improprieties” by O'Keefe.

Despite distancing himself from O’Keefe, Wetmore continued to work with O’Keefe associate Joseph Basel, one of the four men arrested in the New Orleans incident (Basel pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in that incident).

Wetmore was counsel for the American Phoenix Foundation, a nonprofit led by Basel that aimed to secretly tape Texas legislators and lobbyists — using guerrilla tactics similar to those employed by O’Keefe’s Project Veritas — in hopes of catching them engaging in unscrupulous practices.

A Texas lobbyist filed a lawsuit in 2016 demanding the American Phoenix Foundation turn over its financial records, after Basel and Wetmore wouldn’t explain who was paying them to take undercover video.

The lawsuit alleged Wetmore and Basel "withdrew several hundred thousand dollars from [APF's] bank account" in 2015 through 2016 and "paid that money to themselves and companies they control," but that "there are no invoices, receipts, payment records, accounting files or any other documentation to support these payments."

The lobbyist eventually won the lawsuit. Wetmore had withdrawn from the case by that time, telling the court he was no longer in communication with Basel and was no longer being paid, The Statesman reported. Basel was eventually held in contempt of court for continuing to refuse to turn over documents.

The nonprofit has since been placed in receivership.

After his unsuccessful judge bid in 2018, Wetmore moved to Michigan in 2021, jumping into the conservative political scene. He launched political consulting firm Victory Strategies LLC and advised then-MIGOP co-chair Meshawn Maddock regularly on issues and candidate campaigns during the midterm election cycle.

That, too, has proven problematic after former Wetmore colleague Adam Brassfield accused him of helping to operate a "pay to play" scheme in which former President Donald Trump would issue an endorsement in exchange for a $30,000 kickback to Meshawn Maddock and possibly to the Michigan Republican Party.

Maddock is one of 16 people charged for allegedly acting as a false elector in the 2020 presidential election.

Wetmore denied the allegations and filed a defamation lawsuit last month against Brassfield, seeking $75,000 in damages.

More: Wetmore sues ex-ally who alleged 'pay-to-play' scheme with Trump

Wetmore isn't the only new county employee associated with far-right politics. In July, Ottawa County Administrator John Gibbs hired Wetmore’s former employee, Jordan Epperson, as his executive aide, prompting an age discrimination lawsuit from a candidate who met more of the position's prerequisites.

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In November, the county announced the hiring of Wetmore, who'd been working as a legislative aide for Rep. Matt Maddock, one of several lawmakers active in Michigan's "Grand New Party," an offshoot of the Republican Party.

Wetmore replaced Patrick Waterman, who resigned July after citing a strained working relationship with Gibbs and a "lack of effective leadership" on the board of commissioners.

— Sarah Leach is executive editor for The Holland Sentinel. Contact her at sarah.leach@hollandsentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter @SentinelLeach.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Ottawa official allegedly authored scheme to seduce reporter on camera