'Investigative Journalist' who produced ACORN tape arrested.

[SirNitram]

Link

Alleging a plot to tamper with phones in Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu's office in the Hale Boggs Federal Building in downtown New Orleans, the FBI arrested four people Monday, including James O'Keefe, 25, a conservative filmmaker whose undercover videos at ACORN field offices severely damaged the advocacy group's credibility.

Also arrested were Joseph Basel, Stan Dai and Robert Flanagan, all 24. Flanagan is the son of William Flanagan, who is the acting U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana. All four men were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony.

An official close to the investigation said one of the four was arrested with a listening device in a car blocks from the senator's offices. He spoke on condition of anonymity because that information was not included in official arresting documents.

According to the FBI affidavit, Flanagan and Basel entered the federal building at 500 Poydras Street on Monday about 11 a.m., dressed as telephone company employees, wearing jeans, fluorescent green vests, tool belts and hard hats. When they arrived at Landrieu's 10th-floor office, O'Keefe was already in the office and had told a staffer he was waiting for someone to arrive.
When Flanagan and Basel entered the office, they told the staffer they were there to fix phone problems. At that time, the staffer, referred to only as Witness 1 in the affidavit, observed O'Keefe positioning his cell phone in his hand to videotape the operation. O'Keefe later admitted to agents that he recorded the event.

After being asked, the staffer gave Basel access to the main phone at the reception desk. The staffer told investigators that Basel manipulated the handset. He also tried to call the main office phone using his cell phone, and said the main line wasn't working. Flanagan did the same.

They then told the staffer they needed to perform repair work on the main phone system and asked where the telephone closet was located. The staffer showed the men to the main General Services Administration office on the 10th floor, and Flanagan and Basel went in. There, a GSA employee asked for the men's credentials. They said they left them in their vehicle.

The U.S. Marshal's Service apprehended all four men shortly thereafter.

Landrieu said: "This is a very unusual situation and somewhat unsettling for me and my staff. The individuals responsible have been charged with entering federal property under false pretenses for the purposes of committing a felony. I am as interested as everyone else about their motives and purpose, which I hope will become clear as the investigation moves forward."


Landrieu's Republican counterpart, Sen. David Vitter, called for a racketeering investigation against New Orleans-founded ACORN last year in the wake of O'Keefe's videos.

"I've seen the news reports and it's obvious this is a very serious matter. We're blessed with an extremely competent U.S. attorney's office in New Orleans, and I know they'll handle this as aggressively as they have other serious cases," Vitter said in a statement.


ACORN spokesman Kevin Whelan said the arrest calls O'Keefe's credibility into question, and used the opportunity to point out that he "edited (ACORN videos) to make things look as bad as possible." He said, for instance, that O'Keefe actually wore a normal dress shirt when he was in the ACORN offices, but spliced in shots of him dressed as a pimp in the final videos.
But he also acknowledged that O'Keefe's undercover ACORN footage showed truly improper conduct by ACORN staff.

"ACORN's leadership and grassroots leaders have taken a whole series of steps, including commissioning an independent report that shows actually there wasn't illegal conduct by any of the ACORN employees involved, although we fired people involved for improper conduct," Whelan said.

O'Keefe on Thursday gave a speech to the Pelican Institute for Public Policy, a libertarian group in New Orleans.

Last fall, O'Keefe was hailed as a conservative hero for dressing as a pimp and taping ACORN employees offering advice on how he and a partner could get away with running an international underage prostitution scheme.
The New Orleans event was promoted with this glowing statement about O'Keefe by the Pelican Institute: "James has been a pioneer in the use of new media to drive these kinds of important stories. He will discuss the role of new media and show examples of effective investigative reporting."

The four men appeared in federal magistrate court Tuesday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Louis Moore wearing red inmate jumpsuits from St. Bernard Parish Prison. Moore is allowing the men to be released on $10,000 bond each.

The men have to go to pretrial services, a federal agency, tomorrow morning. Moore allowed three of the men to stay together Tuesday night, but ordered them to not talk about the case.

Eddie Castaing is the lawyer representing O'Keefe, Basel and Dai, all of whom are from out of town. He said Tuesday that he was not prepared to comment on the case and would know more Wednesday. He also said he gave one of his clients $60 to take a taxicab from St. Bernard Parish Prison back to wherever they are staying.


According to the Phillips Foundation's Web site, Dai was the editor-in-chief of the GW Patriot, an alternative conservative student newspaper, when he attended The George Washington University in 2006. According to information Dai posted in September 2007 on the university's online alumni directory, he lived in Naperville, Ill., helped run a "Defense Deparment regional defense counterterrorism/irregular warfare program" and then became assistant director of the Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence at Trinity Washington University, which prepares undergraduates for careers in intelligence.
On Tuesday at 4:40 p.m., O'Keefe, Dai and Basel were released from the jail and were waiting for a cab. Asked to comment, O'Keefe said only, "Veritas," which is Latin for "truth." O'Keefe's biography on the blog site http://www.BigGovernment.com says he works at VeritasVisuals.com, although that site does not appear to be functioning.

O'Keefe spent most of the time in the men's room off the jail's lobby, then hustled to the cab when it arrived. As he ran into the back seat, he called out, "The truth shall set me free."

Robert Flanagan's attorney, J. Garrison Jordan, said he believes his client works for the Pelican Institute. Asked the motivation for the alleged wiretap plot, he said: "I think it was poor judgment. I don't think there was any intent or motive to commit a crime."

I put the quotes around 'investigative journalist' because I don't consider altering your supposedly 'damning' videotape before presenting it, and tampering with phones as anything approaching journalism.

[Razorgeist]

Just read about this earlier. Hope they throw the book at the little prick.

[Darth Wong]

It's interesting that the original ACORN hit piece got so much media attention, but the fact that it was a total right-wing sham has gotten almost no media attention. Right-wingers are still ranting about ACORN vote-rigging.

[Akhlut]

So, is the truth that shall set him free the fact that his dad is the US Attorney in western Louisiana?

Hopefully he's far east enough for his dad's influence to be minimal and for him to get locked up for as long a time as he needs to be. After all, we need to be tough on crime, right?

[FSTargetDrone]

But, 'twas all in good fun!:

Lawyer: Phone scheme meant to embarrass senator

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN and BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE, Associated Press Writers Michael Kunzelman And Brett J. Blackledge, Associated Press Writers 2 hrs 20 mins ago

NEW ORLEANS – Four conservative activists accused of trying to tamper with a senator's phones were just trying to record embarrassing undercover video of her staff ignoring phone calls from constituents angry that she supported health care reform, one of their attorneys said Thurday.

The four, including activist James O'Keefe, known for posing as a pimp and using a hidden camera to target the community-organizing group ACORN, were arrested Monday after targeting Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu's office in a New Orleans federal building.

Attorney J. Garrison Jordan denied they were trying to disable or wiretap the phones in Landrieu's office.

"You're dealing with kids," he said. "I don't think they thought it through that far."

Instead, Jordan said, they hoped to get embarrassing video footage of Landrieu's staff handling constituent calls. Her office received complaints last month that callers opposed to her health care stance couldn't get through.

Landrieu was not impressed with Jordan's explanation.

"Attorneys are hired to spin for their clients," she said Thursday in an interview in Washington. "Good luck."

Protesters marched in front of Landrieu's office in Baton Rouge in December to criticize her support for Senate health care legislation and complain that they couldn't get through on her office phones. Landrieu said at the time that her office received a high volume of calls.

"Our lines have been jammed for weeks, and I apologize," Landrieu said in interview with The Advocate of Baton Rouge in December.

Jordan said his client, Robert Flanagan, the 24-year-old son of a federal prosecutor in Louisiana, did not intend to break the law when he went into the office posing as a telephone worker.

No matter their intentions, the four face the serious charge of entering federal property under false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony, which carries up to 10 years in prison. They are free on $10,000 bail.

Investigators are aware of Jordan's explanation, but are pressing ahead to see if that was indeed the men's motive, a senior federal law enforcement official said Thursday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Charged along with O'Keefe and Flanagan were Joseph Basel, 24, of Minnesota and Stan Dai, 24, of the Washington, D.C., area. The four are due back in court Feb. 12.

O'Keefe, Basel and Dai stayed with Benjamin Wetmore, a friend of O'Keefe's, while they were in New Orleans. Wetmore, a 28-year-old law school student, was O'Keefe's boss when he worked at the Leadership Institute, an Arlington, Va.-based program that trains conservative activists.

Wetmore declined to discuss their stay at his house and what they did while there. But he praised O'Keefe's work targeting ACORN on his Web site and said he hired O'Keefe in 2006, helping him hone his undercover camera craft.

In an Oct. 16 blog post, Wetmore criticized the Leadership Institute, where he no longer works, for not supporting O'Keefe's budding activism. Wetmore said he was "nearly fired for buying the initial video equipment that James used."

O'Keefe last year became famous for his videos about ACORN, the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, which has affiliates that register voters in urban and other poor areas of the country. He used a hidden camera to record as he brought a young woman posing as a prostitute to the group's offices.

In Monday's incident, authorities said O'Keefe used his cell phone to try to capture video of two of his fellow defendants in Landrieu's office before their arrest. The two posed as telephone repairmen — wearing fluorescent vests, tool belts and hard hats, one equipped with a hidden camera — and asked to see the phones at Landrieu's office. The fourth is alleged to have waited outside in a car with a listening device that could pick up transmissions.

O'Keefe has declined to discuss what he and the others were doing in Landrieu's office. But late Wednesday he told his Twitter followers that the government "concedes no attempt to wiretap."

Andrew Breitbart, whose biggovernment.com site launched O'Keefe's ACORN videos and who has since hired O'Keefe as a contributor, also downplayed the federal case.

"Their uniforms were outlandish," Breitbart said in an interview. "This was like 'Hee Haw,' a blatant clown-nose-on spectacle to make a salient political yet mildly humorous point."

O'Keefe hinted last week that he had a new, high-profile stunt in the works. Four days before he was charged in connection with the Landrieu incident, he promised his audience at a conservative think tank's luncheon they would be hearing about a project he was working on in New Orleans.

He wouldn't elaborate, according to people who heard his speech at the Pelican Institute's event last Thursday in New Orleans.

___

Associated Press Writers Justin Pritchard in New Orleans and Ben Evans and Pete Yost in Washington contributed to this report.

They oughta give these clowns a year or five and let them see how funny it is.

[DarkSilver]

What I desire to know is....

Attorney J. Garrison Jordan denied they were trying to disable or wiretap the phones in Landrieu's office.

"You're dealing with kids," he said. "I don't think they thought it through that far."

How the fuck does 20-somethings count as being kids?! Just because they are idiots, does not make them kids. They are free thinking adults, they broke federal laws, they are fully accountable for their actions.

[Edi]

It's just the usual right wing double standards where they screamed bloody murder about ACORN without ever really looking into it that much, but now when it's one of their own, they will shrilly demand that every stone be turned over ten times and that there cannot possibly be any wrongdoing there.

Anyone who defends this shitbag, fuck them.

[Vendetta]

It's interesting that the original ACORN hit piece got so much media attention, but the fact that it was a total right-wing sham has gotten almost no media attention. Right-wingers are still ranting about ACORN vote-rigging.

Even if it got just as much, or more, media attention, people would still remember the original report in favour of this. It's one of the quirks of the human psyche that we tend to remember things as we first hear them and forget later corrections.

[Edi]

Thread's a few days old, but not too old yet and there's an interesting piece on this particular asshat on Salon.com:

James O'Keefe's race problem

So this guy is a confirmed white supremacist, racist piece of shit in addition to everything else. Let's see how they try to whitewash this...

[Patrick Degan]

What I desire to know is....

Attorney J. Garrison Jordan denied they were trying to disable or wiretap the phones in Landrieu's office.

"You're dealing with kids," he said. "I don't think they thought it through that far."

How the fuck does 20-somethings count as being kids?! Just because they are idiots, does not make them kids. They are free thinking adults, they broke federal laws, they are fully accountable for their actions.

Are you kidding? In Republicanworld, you can be a "kid" right up to age 50 if it handwaves-away misconduct for a politican or operative.

[Liberty]

That Salon.com article got totally debunked here:

http://bigjournalism.com/retracto/2010/ ... salon-com/

The above site argues that it is complete bunk. I've never heard of this site, though, so I'm not sure of its credentials. Does anyone know what's going on here?

[Liberty]

Blumenthal defends his article here:
http://maxblumenthal.com/2010/02/okeefe ... st-confab/

[Garibaldi]

The above site argues that it is complete bunk. I've never heard of this site, though, so I'm not sure of its credentials. Does anyone know what's going on here?

The site is run by or affliated with Andrew Breitbart, who is O'Keefe's former employer, so, uh, take that for what it's worth.

[SirNitram]

That Salon.com article got totally debunked here:

http://bigjournalism.com/retracto/2010/ ... salon-com/

The above site argues that it is complete bunk. I've never heard of this site, though, so I'm not sure of its credentials. Does anyone know what's going on here?

It's completely bullshit. Any 'debunking' it does is not to be considered above the 'debunking' of global climate change, IE worthless bullshit. Huge conflict of interest: Breibart, the guy who RUNS THE SITE, paid and pushed O'Keefe. And the climate change comment isn't merely dramatic liscense, they label it as a hoax.

Breibart has been useful for funny. When this story unveiled, his five hour meltdown on Twitter was FUN.