By ERIC TUCKER

WASHINGTON (AP) — A former FBI agent and Pentagon contractor has sued the founder of a conservative nonprofit known for its hidden camera stings over secretly recorded videos showing the contractor criticizing President Donald Trump to a woman he thought he had taken on a date.

Jamie Mannina says in his lawsuit that he was misled by a woman he met on a dating website who held herself out as a politically liberal nurse but who was actually working with the conservative activist James O’Keefe in a sting operation designed to induce Mannina into making “inflammatory and damaging” remarks that could be recorded, “manipulated” and posted online.

Clips from their January conversations were spliced together to make it appear that Mannina was “essentially attempting to launch an unlawful coup against President Trump,” and an article released online with the videos defamed Mannina by painting him as part of a “deep state” effort with senior military officials to undermine Trump’s presidency, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Washington.

Mannina does not deny in the lawsuit making the comments. He says his words were taken out of context and were misrepresented in a description of the video that was posted on YouTube.

O’Keefe founded Project Veritas in 2010 but was removed from the organization in 2023 amid allegations that he mistreated workers and misspent funds. He has continued to employ similar hidden camera stings as part of a new organization he established, O’Keefe Media Group, which also is named in the lawsuit.

O’Keefe told The Associated Press that Mannina “voluntarily” offered up the comments in the recording and that it was important for the public to hear Mannina’s remarks. O’Keefe pointed out that the District of Columbia only requires the consent of one party, not both, for a conversation to be recorded. O’Keefe said the lawsuit was an “attack on the First Amendment” and that he was prepared to fight it in an appeals court if necessary.

“He said what he said. We did not take him out of context. The words that we reported came out of his mouth,” O’Keefe said, adding, “We stand by our reporting.”

The lawsuit includes claims of defamation, false light, fraudulent misrepresentation and violations of the Wire Tap Act. Though the lawsuit acknowledges that the city’s consent law for recording conversations, the filing asserts that the law nonetheless prohibits “the interception and recording of a communication if it was for the purposes of committing a tortious act.”

A recording that O’Keefe released shows Mannina being asked at one point by the woman, whose name was not disclosed in the lawsuit, about his “overall assessment of Trump.”

“He’s a sociopathic narcissist who’s only interested in advancing his name, his wealth and his fame,” Mannina can be heard saying. Asked in the recording whether there was anything he could do to “protect the American people,” Mannina replied that he was in conversation with some retired generals to explore what could be done.

The lawsuit was filed by Mark Zaid, a prominent Washington lawyer who routinely represents government officials and whistleblowers. Zaid himself was sued Trump last week after the president revoked his security clearance.

“Lying or misleading someone on a dating app, which no doubt happens all the time, is not what this lawsuit seeks to address,” Zaid said in a statement to The Associated Press. “The creation of a fake profile for the specific purposes of targeting individuals for deliberately nefarious and harmful purposes is what crosses the line.”

The complaint arises from a pair of dates that Mannina had in January. During their first date, the lawsuit alleges, the woman expressed her distaste for Trump and repeatedly pressed Mannina on his political views and about his work with the government. Mannina told her that included working as a “spy catcher” several years earlier when he was an FBI counterintelligence agent.

The lawsuit says Mannina and the woman met for lunch the following day, and as they left the restaurant, a man with a microphone approached Mannina and said, “Jamie, you’re a spy hunter, you say. Well, I’m a spy hunter, too, but I’m evidentially a better spy hunter than you.” The man was O’Keefe, the lawsuit says.

The complaint says Mannina was swiftly fired from Booz Allen, where he worked as a contractor, after O’Keefe contacted the press office and presented at least parts of the videos.

O’Keefe then released a video on his organization’s YouTube channel titled, “Pentagon Advisor Reveals Conversation ‘to Explore What We Can Do’ to ‘Protect People from Trump.’”

The lawsuit says the O’Keefe Media Group painted Mannina in a false light by misconstruing his words and his title, including by referring to him as a “Top Pentagon Advisor” when he was actually just “one of a countless number of defense contractors.” It says that characterization was intended to support “fabricated claims that Mr. Mannina was essentially attempting to launch an unlawful coup against President Trump.”

The lawsuit does not directly say why Mannina was targeted, but it does note that in 2017, when he was working at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, he published three articles in the Huffington Post and The Hill newspaper that were critical of Trump.

By ED WHITE

DETROIT (AP) — A 19-year-old man was arrested after spending months planning an attack against a U.S. Army site in suburban Detroit on behalf of the Islamic State group, authorities said Wednesday.

Ammar Said was planning to have another person commit a mass shooting at the Army’s Tank-Automotive & Armaments Command in Warren, but he didn’t know that two supposed allies were undercover FBI employees keeping track of every step, the government said.

Investigators recorded audio and video images of their meetings with Said, including handwritten diagrams of the site, which is known as TACOM and the Detroit Arsenal.

Said, a recent member of the Michigan Army National Guard, was arrested Tuesday shortly after launching a drone for a final look before an attack, the FBI said in a court filing.

“Helping ISIS or any other terrorist organization prepare or carry out acts of violence is not only a reprehensible crime — it is a threat to our entire nation and way of life,” U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon Jr. said.

The FBI said Said planned to send one of the undercover agents into TACOM with Molotov cocktails and assault-style weapons.

The other undercover operative told Said that he would “be on the first plane to Syria” after an attack.

“That makes two of us,” Said responded, according to the FBI.

Said, a Detroit-area resident, appeared in court Wednesday on charges of attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization and distributing information related to a destructive device. He agreed to remain in custody without bond.

Senad Ramovic, a lawyer who represented Said during the brief appearance, declined to comment.

TACOM employs thousands of people and manages the Army’s ground equipment supply chain. It says it is the only active-duty Army installation in Michigan.

Said was under investigation about a year ago when he told an undercover FBI employee about a “longstanding desire to engage in violent jihad,” or war, either overseas or in the U.S., the FBI said.

Authorities last July performed a secret search of his phone, which he had turned over to National Guard personnel before boarding a military aircraft. The FBI said it found references to jihad and images of Islamic State flags.

By MICHELLE R. SMITH

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s new pick for surgeon general wrote in a recent book that people should consider using unproven psychedelic drugs as therapy and in a newsletter suggested her use of mushrooms helped her find a romantic partner.

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Dr. Casey Means’ recommendation to consider guided psilocybin-assisted therapy is notable because psilocybin is illegal under federal law. It’s listed as a Schedule 1 drug, defined as a substance “with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” Oregon and Colorado have legalized psychedelic therapy, though several cities in Oregon have since banned it.

The surgeon general’s job is to provide Americans with the best scientific information available on how to improve their health and reduce their risk of illness and injury. Past surgeons general have used their position to educate Americans about health problems like AIDS and suicide prevention. The surgeon general’s warning in 1964 about the dangers of smoking helped change the course of America’s health.

Some, like Dr. C. Everett Koop, surgeon general under President Ronald Reagan, became widely known with substantial impact on policy, and others slipped easily from memory.

Means’ nomination follows a pattern from Trump to select people known for their public personas more than their policy positions. In the case of Means, the Republican president said he chose her solely on the recommendation of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “Bobby thought she was fantastic,” Trump said, adding that he did not know her.

Means, who received her undergraduate and medical degrees from Stanford University, began a medical residency in Oregon but did not complete it. Her medical license is listed as inactive. Contacted by phone, Means declined to comment on the record.

She made the recommendation about psychedelics in her 2024 book, “Good Energy,” which she wrote with her brother, Calley Means, an entrepreneur who now works in the Trump administration as a health adviser and who has said he invested in biopharmaceutical companies that specialize in psychedelics.

Much of the book focuses on metabolic health, what Casey Means calls “good energy.” She suggests a number of strategies to help people “manage and heal the stressors, traumas, and thought patterns that limit us and contribute to our poor metabolic health and thriving.”

One such strategy is to “consider psilocybin-assisted therapy,” referring to the compound found in psychedelic mushrooms. She details her thinking on the subject in a 750-word passage.

“If you feel called, I also encourage you to explore intentional, guided psilocybin therapy,” she wrote. “Strong scientific evidence suggests that this psychedelic therapy can be one of the most meaningful experiences of life for some people, as they have been for me.”

Though there have been some studies suggesting benefits from psychedelics, it has not been shown that benefits outweigh the risks. Psilocybin can cause hours of hallucinations that can be pleasant or terrifying. When paired with talk therapy, it has been studied as a treatment for psychiatric conditions and alcoholism, but very little research has been done in healthy people. Side effects can include increased heart rate, nausea and headaches. Taking it unsupervised can be dangerous. Hallucinations could cause a user to walk into traffic or take other risks.

Means wrote that psilocybin and other psychedelics have been stigmatized. She touted the benefits of MDMA, also known as ecstasy or molly, for helping people with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. The Food and Drug Administration last year declined to approve the use of MDMA as a therapy for PTSD after a panel of advisers found the research was flawed and there were significant risks in using it.

Means refers to psychedelics in her book as “plant medicine.” She describes how she took mushrooms for the first time around Jan. 1, 2021, after she was inspired by “an internal voice that whispered: it’s time to prepare.”

“I felt myself as part of an infinite and unbroken series of cosmic nesting dolls of millions of mothers and babies before me from the beginning of life,” she wrote, adding that in her experience “psilocybin can be a doorway to a different reality that is free from the limiting beliefs of my ego, feelings, and personal history.”

In a newsletter she published in October, Means said she had also used psychedelics to help her make “space to find love at 35.” She wrote that she “did plant medicine experiences with trusted guides” to become ready for partnership, punctuating the line with a mushroom emoji. She noted she was not necessarily making recommendations that others do the same.

In a post this month about her White House health policy wish list, Means said she wanted more nutritious food served in schools, suggested putting warning labels on ultra-processed foods, called for investigations into vaccine safety and said she wanted to remove conflicts of interest. She did not specifically mention psychedelics but said that researchers have little incentive to study “generic, natural, and non-patentable drugs and therapies” and that a portion of research budgets should be devoted to alternative approaches to health.

Calley Means has also advocated for the use of psychedelic drugs, writing in a 2021 blog post that he first tried psilocybin during a challenging time in his life and “it was the single most meaningful experience of my life — personally, professionally, and spiritually.” He said in 2022 that he had “sold all of my 401k” and bought stocks in two companies that are developing and researching psychedelics. He did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Casey Means’ confirmation hearing has not been scheduled. Trump chose Means after questions were raised about the resume of his first pick for surgeon general, former Fox News medical contributor Janette Nesheiwat, and he withdrew her nomination.

Associated Press Medical Writer Carla K. Johnson in Washington state and AP writer Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.

A former Tartan High School band director has admitted in court to sexually assaulting a DeLaSalle High School student in 2022.

Daniel James Felton, 32, pleaded guilty last week in Hennepin County District Court to the sole count of felony third-degree criminal sexual conduct in connection with assaulting the then-17-year-old girl while she was his music student at the Catholic high school in Minneapolis.

Felton, who was charged last August, entered the plea on Friday after reaching an agreement with the prosecution that calls for up to 120 days in the workhouse, five years of probation and a stay of imposition of his sentence, which means the felony conviction will be considered a misdemeanor if he successfully complies with the terms of his probation. Sentencing is scheduled for July 16.

Felton was the music director at DeLaSalle for nearly two years before leaving the school in August 2022 for Tartan in Oakdale, according to his now-deleted LinkedIn profile. The online page also said he was a professional gospel musician and a band director at The Holy Christian Church International in St. Paul.

Felton resigned from Tartan shortly after the victim filed a personal injury lawsuit against him and DeLaSalle in Hennepin County District Court. The civil suit remains pending in court, with a judge halting further proceedings in September until the criminal case concludes.

Felton lived in Brooklyn Park when the cases were filed but has since moved to Celina, Texas, court records show.

Assaulted in his car

The criminal complaint says the victim went to Minneapolis police in January 2024 and reported Felton assaulted her several times beginning in April 2022, which was her senior year at DeLaSalle. She said he was her band and choir teacher during her junior and senior years.

Felton added her on Instagram in April 2022 and began sending direct messages, which became sexual, she reported.

She said the first assault happened that month after Felton offered her a ride home after a concert. Instead of driving straight home, she told police, he took her to an empty parking lot and touched her in a “sexual manner,” placing his hand on her inner thigh, the complaint says. She reported the interaction made her feel uncomfortable and she asked him to take her home.

Additional sexual assaults took place between April 2022 and August 2022, mostly in his car, she told police. She reported he would “emotionally coerce” her into sex acts.

Police were given Instagram messages that Felton and the girl purportedly exchanged between April 2022 and September 2022. The messages include Felton telling her multiple times he loves her and describing in detail what he wanted to do to her, the complaint says.

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The civil suit was filed Feb. 9 by the Minneapolis law firm Storms Dworak on behalf of the victim, who is listed as “Jane Doe.” It includes screenshots of sexually-explicit Instagram messages purportedly sent to the girl by Felton and alleges several assaults, including one in his DeLaSalle office.

Felton also worked as a music teacher at Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis from January 2016 to early November 2018, according to the Minneapolis School District.

Felton taught in the Osseo school district in 2018 and 2019, then for the Spring Lake Park school district until leaving for DeLaSalle, according to his deleted LinkedIn profile. He had earned a Bachelor’s degree in music from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn., and then a master’s degree in music education from the University of Minnesota.

Felton’s teaching license is no longer valid, according to the Minnesota Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board’s website.