Zachary Freeman,Editor-in-Chief of TheCollegeConservative.com, recently chatted with famed conservative activist James O’Keefe, whose recent work with Project Veritas uncovered a Democratic official offering to help make a connection between the non-profit Obamacare enrollment group.

Snippets from his interview are fascinating:

…In a perfect world, James O’Keefe’s work would be hailed on both sides of the aisle as an island of justice and transparency in an otherwise opaque, at best, political system. But with lawsuit after lawsuit, subpoena after subpoena, and hit piece after ever-loving hit piece, reality finds O’Keefe at the center of a slanderous vortex. His name is surrounded by both truth and lies, and he is praised by some and passionately hated by others.

“You know, I really should go to church more,” O’Keefe quipped as we settled in for the first of several talks. His demeanor immediately conveyed the heavy realities of the past five years of his life, from federal charges and defamation suits to probation and search warrants. The types of things one hopes never to experience even once in an entire lifetime, O’Keefe battles regularly. “They’re going to graduate their attacks,” he said, admitting that having his evidence destroyed after being arrested on federal charges was a pretty dismal feeling. “The woman accusing me of sexual harassment,” he added, “that was pretty bad. People twist and they distort how things are.”

O’Keefe appeared in American news cycles after exposing the publicly-funded non-profit group ACORN for advising an undercover O’Keefe, posing as a pimp, on how to quietly traffic underage girls from El Salvador for a new brothel in Maryland. “Ever since I was a kid,” he said, “I’d turn on the TV and the news… it didn’t really capture the reality of our world.”

It was this scary reality that would drive O’Keefe to seek justice, regardless of the unorthodox and thankless methods it took to achieve. “Ultimately, deep inside, there’s a seed inside of you. You’re ultimately motivated by justice. The problem is, when you’re engaged in that struggle, you risk losing your soul. It’s really dirty. It’s a dirty fight.”

In many conservative circles, O’Keefe is a rock star, though he insists that he’s naturally a very introverted person. ..

When asked about whether or not he was motivated by the notoriety and attention, as many of his critics have claimed, he chuckled to himself. “There have been times in my life when I didn’t have a company. I didn’t even have any equipment. All I had was myself, and my Palm Treo, and I still went into the Bureaus and started asking questions.”