State Police in Maine, Vermont Detain Investigative Journalist James O’Keefe
Seamus OthotBY SEAMUS Sept. 27, 2024
The Vermont State Police and the Maine State Police both detained investigative journalist James O’Keefe while he was investigating a whistleblower report at the northern border, O’Keefe said during a recent live show with Tucker Carlson.
“So I go up there this weekend to get comment, like I do, and the state police detain me for trying to ask questions of the border patrol agents,” said O’Keefe during an interview with Tucker Carlson.
O’Keefe and his team headed to Northern Vermont to ask questions of Border Patrol agents after one agent, Zachary Apotheker, blew the whistle on the agency.
Apotheker claimed that the Border Patrol in his sector is being used to bring people into the country, and suggested that they are facilitating human trafficking of girls under 14.
Agents do not collect biometric data from girls under 14 and reportedly do nothing to verify where they are being sent or whether they are being connected with family members.
“We don’t have any data on them and we’re not checking the addresses that we’re sending these children with these people to. And we’re not connecting these families. We have no actual proof other than the documents,” said Apotheker.
The girls are then left extremely vulnerable to abuse from anyone claiming to be their relatives, or simply approaching them after they are released into the country.
Border Patrol served Apotheker with a cease-and-desist order after he spoke out, forbidding him from speaking to journalists.
O’Keefe and his team headed up to Vermont for answers.
They approached multiple agents with questions and were ignored or threatened with calls to the police or, in one case, dogs.
The team then sought an interview with Agent Robert Noe Garcia, chief of the Swanton, Vermont, Border Patrol sector.
The O’Keefe Media team found that other law enforcement officers had been posted outside Garcia’s house specifically to prevent them from asking questions.
The officer, State Trooper Daniel Bohnyak, accused O’Keefe of obstructing a public highway after he continued to ask questions and detained him.
“Right now I am telling you you are not free to leave, you’re being detained” said Bohnyak.
Video shows that O’Keefe was parked on the side of the road, leaving ample space for traffic to pass by.
Bohnyak called in backup and served O’Keefe with paperwork accusing him of trespassing and prohibiting him from being on Garcia’s property.
O’Keefe asked questions from a public street and did not set foot on Garcia’s property.
“We are in dangerous times when they call the state police on journalists to ask questions of the press,” said O’Keefe.
O’Keefe later announced with Tucker Carlson that following Apotheker’s testimony and the cease and desist order given to Apotheker by his superiors, five more Border Patrol agents are planning to come forward with whistleblower testimonies.
“I got wind over the last 24 hours that five more Border Patrol agents are gonna blow the whistle,” said O’Keefe.
The agency’s attempts to silence Apotheker and O’Keefe are instead inspiring more whistleblowers to come forward and reveal the truth to the American public.
O’Keefe’s investigation into the border comes as part of his upcoming documentary, “A Line in the Sand,” set to reveal the dire situation under the Biden-Harris Administration.
Though O’Keefe did not elaborate with Carlson, he did mention that he was also temporarily detained and questioned by the Maine State Police.
https://www.themainewire.com/2024/09/state-police-in-maine-vermont-detain-investigative-journalist-james-okeefe/