NC woman ordered to pay legal expenses to Project Veritas related to 2016 investigation
Judge orders Shirley Teter to pay $15,920.52
An Asheville woman has been ordered by Chief United State District Judge Martin Reidinger to pay $15,920.52 in legal costs to Project Veritas related to a failed defamation suit filed after a 2016 Project Veritas video investigation into the activities of a political organization called Democracy Partners.
Shirley Teter sued Project Veritas (PV) for defamation when the organization was investigating Democracy Partners activities related to alleged “bird-dogging,” the training and paying of agitators sent into political rallies. The PV investigation uncovered bird doggers being sent into Trump rallies during the 2016 election cycle to incite violence.
On April 5, PV reported on the judge’s order for Teter to pay their legal costs, noting that she was being represented “primarily pro bono” by half a dozen high-out of town lawyers all of who claimed she should not have to pay the fees because she is “indigent.”
Reidinger overruled a previous decision that Teter was indigent, noting her ample representation was not consistent with that claim and in his ruling called it “so weak that it did not survive a motion to dismiss.”
The judge also was curious about the rush by one of the lawyers to dismiss who was paying the bills after an “unsolicited statement” by one of the attorneys.
Mr. Sasser only raised more questions by his unsolicited statement specifically disclaiming that the lawsuit was being funded by the Clinton campaign or theDemocratic Party, “ Reidinger wrote. “That was not the question that the Court asked; however, Mr. Sasser’s rush to assure the Court that certain political organizations are not involved begs the question of whether some other organization was involved.”
On April 7, PV published a video confronting Hillary Clinton herself about possibly paying for Teter’s legal fees. The video shows Clinton repeatedly denying knowing anything about Teter, Democracy Partners.
She also denied knowing Democracy Partners’ former President Bob Creamer.
“I don’t understand that. I don’t know Bob Creamer,” said Clinton.
Bird-Dogging and the 2016 Backstory
Individuals were caught on camera in 2016 by PV describing “bird-dogging” tactics which involve creating an incident to gain media attention. These tactics were being used to stir up incidents specifically at Trump rallies.
The individuals in the PV video made statements that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Hillary Clinton’s campaign know about it.
The three key individuals making these remarks were Scott Foval (American United for Change), Bob Creamer (Democracy Partners), and Brad Woodhouse (American United for Change, Correct the Record & American Bridge).
Brad Woodhouse is the brother of Dallas Woodhouse, a former executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party who occasionally writes for the John Locke Foundation’s news outlet, Carolina Journal.
A fourth person mentioned in the 2016 PV investigation was a man named Aaron Black, the Deputy Response Director for the DNC who also had a bio on file at the time with Democracy Partners. Black was tasked with handling “all things Trump on the ground,” and in PV’s 2016 said, “No one is supposed to know about me.”
Here is the 2016 PV video which viewers should be aware contains strong language:
Teter had been identified in PV’s video by Foval as one of their paid bird-doggers.
At a rally in Asheville, Teter was filmed in what was an apparent staged bird-dogging incident involving a man named Richard Campbell, a man with eye-sight issues. Teeter had claimed at the time Campbell “cold-cocked her,” but later changed her story.
At the time, I noted that only one news outlet in North Carolina covered the story involving Teter and Campbell. As of today, two North Carolina outlets have reported on Teter having to pay PV, BlueRidge Times-News, and an Associated Press article in the Times-News.
PV Video Fallout and more about Bob Creamer
Following PV’s 2016 release of the video in which it was stated that “through the chain of command” Clinton’s campaign is aware of Democracy Partners activities, Creamer resigned from the group.
“I am unwilling to become a distraction to the important task of electing Hilary Clinton,” Creamer said when he resigned.
Despite the resignation, Creamer is still listed in the “partners” section of the Democracy Partners website. That bio cites close involvement with the Obama administration “to pass the Affordable Care Act, hold Wall Street accountable, increase the minimum wage, improve overtime pay, pass progressive budget priorities, enact comprehensive immigration reform, pass legislation to stem gun violence and gain confirmation for President Obama’s nominations to the Supreme Court.”
According to his Wikipedia profile, Creamer “worked as an organizer with Saul Alinsky's last major project in Chicago” and later “founded and then led Illinois's largest coalition of progressive organizations and unions for twenty-three years.”
Related to leading progressive organizations in Illinois, in 2006 Creamer was sentenced to five months in federal prison and 11 months of home confinement related to a past check-kiting scheme while he was the executive director of Citizen Action Illinois.
Creamer is also the owner/founder of Strategic Consulting Group, a political strategy outfit with a long client list of progressive and far-left organizations and well-known Democratic political figures.
Creamer is married to Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL-9) and has ties to North Carolina, having received a BA from Duke University in 1969.