TRENTON, NJ – Shortly after James O’Keefe and Project Veritas released a bombshell video of a Phil Murphy senior advisor explaining the governor will roll out a statewide vaccine mandate after the election, his campaign said two staff members were harassed in a parking garage.
Murphy’s campaign claims they were operatives of O’Keefe’s.
“Earlier today, two Latina staff members associated with the Murphy for Governor campaign and the New Jersey Democratic State Committee’s Forward 2021 coordinated campaign were lured into a parking garage, ambushed, and harassed by a team of six far-right extremists, including disinformation specialist James O’Keefe,” Murphy campaign spokesperson Jerrell Harvey said.
Murphy’s team alleges, after receiving a phone call from O’Keefe operatives who said that one of the women’s cars had been hit while parked in the campaign headquarters’ garage, the staffers were accosted by a group of men. The O’Keefe operatives proceeded to swarm the two women, corner them between parked cars, and chase them as they attempted to protect themselves by walking towards building security, the campaign reported.
“This kind of physical intimidation and blatant harassment of women should never be allowed,” Murphy for Governor Campaign Manager Mollie Binotto and NJDSC Executive Director Saily Avelenda said.
Murphy called on Jack Ciattarelli to condemn the attack by the alleged O’Keefe associates.
“It is absolutely outrageous for the safety of our team to be compromised by luring women into a dark parking garage and ambushing them, causing serious distress and trauma at a time when people working on all campaigns should be allowed to do their jobs without fearing for their safety. This is criminal harassment, plain and simple. We are calling on Jack Ciattarelli to immediately disavow the conduct of these far-right extremists and join us in denouncing James O’Keefe,” the two Democrats said.
Murphy’s team did not say whether or not a police report was filed and did not report which town the harassment occurred in. We will issue an update as more information becomes available.
Jack Ciattarelli’s campaign has never once responded for comment from Shore News Network, so we did not reach out on this matter. If Ciattarelli issues a statement, we will update it here.