Well...
Seems a bit more than "poor judgment" to me. As far as I can tell, this wouldn't even be legal under the "one party" consent laws that cover recorded telephone conversations (in some cases; others require consent of both parties).Activist filmmaker arrested in senator’s office
Man who exposed ACORN accused of seeking to wiretap Landrieu’s phones
msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 55 minutes ago
NEW ORLEANS - A conservative filmmaker whose undercover videos shone a spotlight on alleged corruption by the liberal activist group ACORN was arrested with three other men and accused of plotting to wiretap the New Orleans offices of Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La.
The FBI said in an affidavit that James O’Keefe was among the four men who were arrested Monday. Special Agent Steven Rayes said O’Keefe was helping two others, Joseph Basel and Robert Flanagan, who were dressed as employees of a telephone company and attempted to interfere with the office’s telephone system.
Flanagan is the son of William J. Flanagan, the acting U.S. attorney for western Louisiana. William Flanagan's office confirmed his son was among those arrested, but declined further comment.
The fourth man was identified as Stan Dai. All four were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony.
An FBI criminal complaint charging the men was unsealed Tuesday, and a magistrate set bond at $10,000 each after they made their initial court appearances wearing red prison jumpsuits.
‘Poor judgment’
None of the defendants commented on the allegations in court.
"It was poor judgment," Robert Flanagan's lawyer, Garrison Jordan, said in a brief interview outside the courthouse. "I don't think there was any intent or motive to commit a crime."
Eddie Castaing, who represented O'Keefe, Dai and Basel, said he had no details on the allegations.
"We are just grateful that they were not detained ... and they can go home to their families," he said.
Landrieu spokesman Aaron Saunders told The Times-Picayune the senator could not comment "because the details of yesterday's incident are part of an ongoing investigation by federal authorities."
O’Keefe, who calls himself an investigative journalist and filmmaker, made a sensation on YouTube last year when he produced reports exposing alleged corruption within the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, which promotes housing for low-income people.
O’Keefe was in New Orleans last week to give a speech at the Libertarian Pelican Institute. A witness on Landrieu’s staff told the Times-Picayune that O’Keefe showed up in Landrieu’s office Monday and claimed to be “waiting for someone to arrive.”
A spokesman for Landrieu declined to comment on the arrests.
Another sting in the works?
The arrests sparked immediate speculation on political blogs and Web sites that O’Keefe was planning an ACORN-style sting of Landrieu, a moderate Democrat who has been in the news recently because she negotiated an increase in Medicaid funds for her state before announcing her support for Senate health care legislation.
O’Keefe became a conservative hero by doing what Republicans had been trying to do for years — hurt the political affiliates of ACORN, which have registered hundreds of thousands of voters in urban and other poor areas of the country.
By producing undercover videos shot in ACORN offices, O’Keefe brought a firestorm of criticism that the group was helping its low-income clients break the law.
Using a hidden camera, O’Keefe, accompanied by a young woman posing as a prostitute, shot videos in various ACORN offices where staffers appeared to offer illegal tax advice and to support the misuse of public funds and illegal trafficking in children.
O’Keefe once was editor of a conservative magazine on the campus of Rutgers University in New Jersey, according to the Newark Star-Ledger.
ACORN calls itself the largest grassroots community organization of low- and moderate-income people in the country, claiming more than 1,200 neighborhood chapters in about 75 cities.
Until the controversy last year over the videos at ACORN offices, 10 percent of ACORN’s funds came from federal government grants. In September, Congress blocked previously approved funds from going to ACORN.
