Minnesota Prosecutor Charges Conservative Influencer James O'Keefe and Cam Higby Over Primary Election Stunt

A Minnesota prosecutor announced felony charges on Wednesday against conservative provocateur James O'Keefe and influencer Cam Higby, accusing them of unlawful voting and identity theft tied to visits they made to polling places during the state's August primary.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said at a news conference that the two men entered polling places on Aug. 11 and gave the names of registered voters in those precincts. According to Moriarty, the voters had not given permission and did not know their names were being used.

"Both men stopped short of signing the oath we all sign before receiving our ballot," Moriarty said. "But Minnesota law states clearly that no individual shall intentionally misrepresent their identity in applying for a ballot."

The pair relied on a Minnesota process known as vouching, which lets people vouch for other voters on Election Day. A registered voter who lives in the same precinct may vouch for as many as eight voters, and staff at residential facilities may vouch for their residents.

O'Keefe and Higby disguised themselves and filmed their visits with hidden cameras, then posted the footage on social media in August. In a post on X, O'Keefe said they wore "Muslim garb," including a full-face veil called a niqab in one case, and that their aim was to "expose the sheer lunacy of Minnesota's 'vouching' system."

Moriarty said the office of Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon alerted her office to the conduct. Police later interviewed the registered voters whose names were used, she said, and the names of deceased voters were also used. Asked how the men obtained the names, Moriarty answered, "We don't know that." She added that the two are not in jail and will receive a summons to appear in court in Minnesota.

After the videos surfaced, Simon said in a statement that the men's "apparent goal was to cast doubt on one or more Minnesota election laws that have been in force for over fifty years." He said they instead "revealed their ignorance of how those laws actually work" while exposing themselves to legal trouble. "We have zero tolerance for lying, lawbreaking, and disruptions at our polling places," Simon added.

Neither O'Keefe nor Higby responded immediately to requests for comment.

The case comes as President Donald Trump has alleged for years that Democrats have committed voter fraud or rigged elections against him. His administration has targeted Democratic-controlled states by seeking their voter roll lists and trying to identify alleged noncitizen voters.

O'Keefe has faced voter fraud controversies before. In 2024, he and Project Veritas, the group he founded, settled a lawsuit brought by a Pennsylvania postmaster after the group promoted a postal worker's false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. O'Keefe was removed as head of Project Veritas in 2023. Higby formerly worked as a journalist for conservative outlets and now runs a YouTube account with 285,000 subscribers.