CNN’s verified public relations and communications team has tweeted a baseless and anti-journalistic legal threat at independent political reporter James O’Keefe. The move comes after O’Keefe and his Project Veritas group dialed into the CNN Editorial Call this morning, promising to publish public interest recordings of the CNN calls which the group claims to have had access to for months.

CNN’s claim – provided with no legal rationale – was shared by their often overzealous public relations team. The tweet also claimed to have referred the matter to “law enforcement” – a curious position given CNN’s repeated attacks on U.S. law enforcement over the past year.

The Veritas-recorded calls are set to be released December 1st at 7pm Eastern Standard Time.

CNN’s attempted to stifle O’Keefe’s free speech and reporting is especially revealing given the network and its anchors’ tendencies to cry “press freedom” in the face of President Trump. It is not clear whether the network has reversed its position on press freedom, or whether they simply believe it is only for them.

The network also features many Washington Post reporters as regular guests. The Washington Post’s strapline is “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” which CNN now appears to be in favor of.

Legal experts say this may be a felony. We‘ve referred it to law enforcement.

— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) December 1, 2020

Project Veritas is an independent, investigative news outfit which survives due to voluntary donations from the American public.

CNN is a major corporation, owned by AT&T, which survives due to carriage fees paid by cable subscribers whether they watch CNN or not.