Conservative political activist James O'Keefe speaks during the annual Conservative Political Action ... [+]

AFP/Getty Images

The conservative political activist James O'Keefe, considered a conspiracy theorist and provocateur of the far right, released hidden camera video taken by an "insider" at CNN that O'Keefe claimed would "expose" CNN as biased against President Trump.

O'Keefe is best known for his failed attempt to trick The Washington Post into publishing a false story about Roy Moore, then a candidate for U.S. Senate from Alabama. At the time, the paper's executive editor Martin Baron described it as "a scheme to deceive and embarrass us."

And now, CNN, which O'Keefe has repeatedly tried to damage, including a failed attempt to lure a CNN correspondent onto a boat outfitted with sex paraphernalia.

The recordings published to YouTube and Twitter Monday claim to capture conversations with CNN employees and audio from what O'Keefe described as network editorial meetings, including one call where a person identified as CNN president Jeff Zucker urges news staff to stay focused on impeachment-which would not be an altogether strange directive to journalists while the House of Representatives pursues an impeachment inquiry against the president.

In other videos, one person described as a CNN employee described a funereal mood at the network on the night of Donald Trump's election.

O'Keefe identified the "insider" as Cary Poarch, a satellite uplink engineer who said he had been hired as a contractor at the CNN bureau in Washington.

The undercover video includes conversations that appear to have been recorded during conversations at restaurants and bars away from CNN, as well as editorial calls that feature Zucker, CNN senior Vice President of news gathering Virginia Moseley and CNN political director David Chalian.

In July, President Trump defended O'Keefe from charges he's a conspiracy theorist, saying "he's not controversial, he's truthful." O'Keefe has previously tried to plant a false story in The Washington Post, and in May 2010, O'Keefe and three others pleaded guilty in federal court to a misdemeanor after posing as telephone repairmen in Sen. Mary Landrieu's New Orleans district office.

CNN has not commented on O'Keefe's latest attempt to discredit the network, and O'Keefe has not responded to requests for comment.

tag