Project Veritas pointed out that this "opinion" appeared in The New York Times News section, and the court agreed that when a writer interjects an opinion into a news article (and will pursue legal protection as opinion), it stands to reason that the writer should have a duty to warn the reader … that it is opinion. The Times failed to do so, which the court considered to be concerning.

The court concluded that Project Veritas had developed a strong basis in law and reality that the defendants, The New York Times, behaved with real malice, that is, with awareness that the claims in the articles were false or made with reckless disregard of whether they were false or not, and that it should be able to "conduct discovery."

As a result of this decision, Project Veritas will be able to challenge New York Times reporter Maggie Astor and New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet under oath.