Video shows 'USPS whistleblower' was not alone when swearing to affidavit alleging mail-in ballot fraud

• The US Postal Service employee Richard Hopkins was not alone when he made his affidavit alleging mail-in ballot fraud, video obtained by Business Insider reveals.
• Hopkins, who says he voted for President Donald Trump, claimed he had overheard supervisors in Erie, Pennsylvania, discuss backdating mail-in ballots.
• That claim was seemingly legitimized by an affidavit that Hopkins signed, obtained through an online notary service, and later cited in litigation by the Trump campaign. Hopkins later retracted his claim.
• Video of Hopkins' declaration — provided by the notary to Business Insider — shows that two other men were present, one physically, when the affidavit was notarized.
• A draft of the affidavit was written by Project Veritas, a right-wing activist group.

A self-styled US Postal Service whistleblower who eventually walked back his claim that mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania were being backdated was in the same room as a man who appeared to be the right-wing activist James O'Keefe when he formalized his original accusations in an affidavit, as captured in video obtained by Business Insider.

"This is crazy," the USPS worker, Richard Hopkins, said in the video after raising his right hand and swearing the statements in his November 6 affidavit were true.

Another man could be seen in the background. He could also be heard earlier in the video consenting to the teleconference being recorded, telling the notary that "we have someone on the line" — a third man's voice could then be heard agreeing to the recording.

Jammy Kiggundu, a lawyer representing the notary Hopkins employed, said the "other persons' identities were not known." He provided the video to Business Insider, he said, after consulting with Texas' secretary of state. The affidavit was obtained through an online service that routed Hopkins to a notary in Texas.

The video gives more context as to how a comment purportedly overheard in the workplace — one about a single ballot being postmarked a day after US Election Day — turned into an inflammatory charge of voter fraud that has been amplified by President Donald Trump and other leading members of the Republican Party.

Under Texas state law, notaries are required to store recordings of "any video or audio conference" that takes place to verify the identity of the person or persons making an affidavit. This recording is saved for a minimum of five years.

In his affidavit, Hopkins, a USPS employee, asserted that he heard a supervisor in Erie, Pennsylvania, say he "was back-dating the postmarks on the [mail-in] ballots to make it appear as though the ballots had been collected on November 3."

After the claim was publicized by Project Veritas — the organization founded by O'Keefe — it was cited by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who requested a federal investigation, and in a lawsuit by the Trump campaign. "A brave patriot," the president himself said on Twitter.

Hopkins walked back his claim in an interview with USPS investigators, conceding that he only heard supervisors discussing that one ballot picked up November 3 was postmarked November 4, a day after the US election. "My mind probably added the rest," he said, admitting he never heard any discussion of changing the date. ("I voted for Trump and I'm a libertarian," he added later.)

Hopkins also said the dramatic conclusions he reached in the affidavit were the product of Project Veritas' influence.

"I was in so much shock — I wasn't paying that much attention to what they were telling me," he said of the affidavit.

Project Veritas, which did not immediately respond to Business Insider's requests for comment, has denied coaching Hopkins. Last week, a representative for Project Veritas told Salon.com that the conservative activist group provided Hopkins a "starter text" but that he revised it and was responsible for the final copy.

"Hopkins was the author of the affidavit," the representative said.

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