Anti-ACORN "pimp" O'Keefe arrested in attempted bugging of senator's office

James O'Keefe, the conservative filmmaker who dressed as a pimp to sting the activist group ACORN, has been arrested for allegedly assisting in the attempted wiretapping of the office of Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu:

The FBI, alleging a plot to wiretap Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu's office in downtown New Orleans, arrested four people Monday, including James O'Keefe, a conservative filmmaker whose undercover videos at ACORN field offices severely damaged the advocacy group's credibility.

FBI Special Agent Steven Rayes alleges that O'Keefe aided and abetted two others, Joseph Basel and Robert Flanagan, who dressed up as employees of a telephone company and attempted to interfere with the office's telephone system. [Times-Picayune]

Comments

[Ugh]

Commence conservative whining about this being "retaliation" for O'Keefe ACORN stunts in 3...2...1...

[Brett Bellmore]

Nah, nail his hide to the wall. News gathering is no excuse for criminality.

[Hogan]

He's also being sued by the office director of Philadelphia ACORN for recording their conversation without her consent. I hope he's got a lot of lawyers in his family.

[Ugh]

Not you Brett, you're at least capable of being sensible, I've got my money on ErickErickErickSon

[Zach]

I imagine this triggers Federal anti-wiretapping statutes given that O'Keefe does business with websites in other states and the fact that it involved a sitting Senator's office. I wonder if DOJ dares to bring on accusations of overzealous prosecution by indicting him ("Oh sure they'll prosecute him, but not the real criminals at ACORN!!!").

Here's hoping he cuts a plea deal and implicates Brietbart in something!

[Phil]

Let's see if this causes a single person to re-think their prior position and consider that maybe, just maybe, what this douchebag released on the heavily-edited and, in some cases, overdubbed ACORN videos didn't best represent what actually happened there.

[Brett Bellmore]

Why would it? He didn't get caught faking something, like Rather. He got caught using illegal means to try to collect evidence, presumably for a story. This indicates he's willing to break the law, it doesn't implicate his honesty.

[Phil]

I didn't mean you, Brett. I meant people who claim to have principles and ethics.

[Phil]

Also I think representing yourself as a telephone repairman when you are not, in fact, a telephone repairman and are neither capable of nor empowered to fix the telephones actually is sorta kinda dishonest. Kinda. I mean, maybe that's not considered dishonest in the circles you run in, but most people I know would call that "lying." Or "fraud."

[Tony P.]

This indicates he's willing to break the law, it doesn't implicate his honesty.

Okay, this is not the MOST ironic sentence ever written on ObWi. But it does come close.

--TP

[Zach]

I think most well reasoned individuals would find breaking federal wiretapping laws to be a graver offense than falling for a practical joke. The media will surely come to the same conclusion and give this story a level of coverage mirroring its relative gravity.

Seriously, if you really want to find a disturbing pattern of conspiracy, you've got O'Keefe spying on community groups, O'Keefe wiretapping Senators, conservatives spying on CAIR and congressional offices of arab & muslim congressmen, Bob Ehrlich spying on crackerjack anarchists in Maryland, etc.

But it is true that a few people hired for the day by ACORN got high and wrote "mickey mouse" on voter registration forms because they were too stoned to work!

And some clownish wannabe Black Panthers intimidated a laywer in Philly (who is an honest to God liberal who just happens to think Holder and ACORN are in league to steal America)! The one on video with a weapon was prosecuted, but never mind that.

[Slartibartfast]

I like to think I hold the record, Tony. Or maybe Charles.

[Hogan]

And some clownish wannabe Black Panthers intimidated a laywer in Philly (who is an honest to God liberal who just happens to think Holder and ACORN are in league to steal America)!

And I would bet my monthly bar bill at the Loews Hotel that no lawyer in Philadelphia votes at the polling place where that happened.

[Zach]

And I would bet my monthly bar bill at the Loews Hotel that no lawyer in Philadelphia votes at the polling place where that happened.

He was a poll observer... probably for the GOP although he doesn't specify which party in his complaint and it doesn't really matter. Filing the complaint was the right thing to do. Basking in your celebrity of "guy who's cause is ignored by liberals" and exploiting the history of voter discrimination in the south and your involvement in it to push conspiracy theories about ACORN and Obama's dependence on Black-Panther-Wannabes isn't. The DOJ obtained an injunction against the guy w/ the club to stay the hell away from polling places, but since he's not behind bars the conspiracy lives on.

[Marty]

"Commence conservative whining about this being "retaliation" for O'Keefe ACORN stunts in 3...2...1..."

Give him a fair trial and then hang him.

[Eric Martin]

Why would it? He didn't get caught faking something, like Rather. He got caught using illegal means to try to collect evidence, presumably for a story. This indicates he's willing to break the law, it doesn't implicate his honesty.

Wait, he did get caught deceptively editing and overdubbing the original ACORN videos - such that he materially distorted the video representations.

That most certain DOES implicate his honesty, and directly in relation to the ACORN tapes themselves.

(PS: Did Rather actually get caught "faking" something, or did he unknowingly pass off fakes as the real deal? Intent matters.)

[Eric Martin]

Dangit Marty, you don't count either.

[Marty]

"Dangit Marty, you don't count either."

Not the first time I've been told that.

[Sebastian]

Hit him with whatever wiretapping gets people these days.

[Zach]

"Hit him with whatever wiretapping gets people these days."

In Liddy's day, four and a half years in prison, a million-seller book, and one of the most successful radio programs in the country. 99% chance it'll wind up as it did in the states that didn't prosecute him for wiretapping ACORN (which was no less illegal in many cases and likely also a Federal crime) because it'd be a huge publicity mess.

[Marty]

"Let's see if this causes a single person to re-think their prior position and consider that maybe, just maybe, what this douchebag released on the heavily-edited and, in some cases, overdubbed ACORN videos didn't best represent what actually happened there."

It never best represented what happened there. The best thing I could compare it ot is a stoolie, who caught in the act of a crime can still poit out other bad guys. Most of the stuff on ACORN turned out to be much ado, there were a few people who did things I found offensive, if not illegal.

Trying to bug someones office is a crime. That really doesn't need a lot of discussion.

[bc]

Uh, if the article is accurate and they were really trying to tap phones, prosecute 'em. No whining here.

(PS: Did Rather actually get caught "faking" something, or did he unknowingly pass off fakes as the real deal? Intent matters.)

Or did he "knowingly," as in being willfully blind, pass off fakes as the real thing.

[cleek]

Or did he "knowingly," as in being willfully blind, pass off fakes as the real thing.

your mind-reading is as good as mine !

[Marty]

"(PS: Did Rather actually get caught "faking" something, or did he unknowingly pass off fakes as the real deal? Intent matters.)"

It does matter, I am a firm believer in intent as a means to measure a mistake/offense. However, he loses either way. He either did it on purpose or didn't validate authenticity adequately. Either is an offense great enough to force the resignation and embarassment of a journalist at his level.

[Uncle Kvetch]

Remember these names. They'll be planning a cack-handed war for a Republican administration around 2030.

[golf clap]

[Uncle Kvetch]

Whoops, wrong thread, but it fits here too.

[russell]

cherchez l'argent

[fledermaus]

" He either did it on purpose or didn't validate authenticity adequately. Either is an offense great enough to force the resignation and embarassment of a journalist at his level."

Well what about all those media organizations' repeated airing of a dubbed and heavily edited video tape? Are you telling me that no media org - who, ya know, tape things for a business - can recognize a tape where one voice has been dubbed over?

I eagerly await the Dan Rather treatment for the lot of 'em.

[efgoldman]

ummm...

why in hell would they want to tap Landrieu's office?

did they want to find out if she was selling Pampers(tm) to Vitter?
did they want to find out if she was, in fact, eventually going to vote for HRC?
did they want to find out if she has a tootsie (what's the masculine of "tootsie?") on the side?
is she a major senate dem strategist?
what?

[random visitor]

I know that schadenfreude is pretty poisonous stuff to indulge in, but after reading a bit more on O'Keefe and the cheap tactics he used in his rise to fame, I admit I enjoyed some.
Flaunting the pimp outfit and calling Acorn people 'soulless' was a dirty block in the temple of pride he built before falling down.

I do wish him the best in picking himself back up and I honestly hope he finds a good way forward when everything is resolved legally.

Anyway, back to the log in my own eye

[KCinDC]

RV, don't worry about O'Keefe. If he is convicted, he'll no doubt tread the well-worn path of previous Republican criminals like Liddy and North and Colson. I expect he'll have his own talk show within a few years.

[Tyro]

Well, congratulations to Brett Bellmore for attempted "thread derail by way of factually incorrect accusation."

Look, at the end of the day, I noticed one thing about everyone who rants and complains about the danger of ACORN-- they're either criminals (O'Keefe) or lunatics (Michelle Bachmann, Karl Rove's vote suppression groups, right wing uncles across the country). Just about every single anti-ACORN partisan is in some way mired up to his eyeballs in moral dementia or other forms of corruption. O'Keefe was no exception. Eventually, his continued association with right-wing nuts landed him in the same place it lands everyone else: into a life of moral failure. The rich and well connected (Bush, Rove, Cheney, et al.), but dint of their station in life, are allowed to live well despite their moral taint. The rank and file (O'Keefe) are the ones who have to face the consequences of moral failure with the rest of the hoi polloi.

[Julian F]

This seems like a clear posting-rules violation to me:

I didn't mean you, Brett. I meant people who claim to have principles and ethics.

Posted by: Phil | January 26, 2010 at 05:02 PM

[Hartmut]

Julian F, I think that was just badly worded by Phil with no intent to insult Brett (in this case at least). I read it as aimed at people that boast about their moral standing while actually lacking it (i.e. hyoocrites). Afaict few here doubt Brett's honesty despite many finding his views often abhorrent.

[Hogan]

Filing the complaint was the right thing to do.

Agreed, and I note for the record that the NBP are pretty much assholes. If they were trying to intimidate voters, they need to be stopped; if they think they were doing counter-intimidation, then they did it in a stupid and counterproductive way and need to be stopped.

[Eric Martin]

is she a major senate dem strategist?
what?

Maybe she was seen as a potential swing on HCR, and thus worth gathering dirt on?

[Jesurgislac]

Hartmut: Afaict few here doubt Brett's honesty despite many finding his views often abhorrent.

Who would claim to be that who was not? Hmm?

[Jesurgislac]

Follow-up links:

James O'Keefe and the myth of the ACORN pimp

The report from an independent investigation (Appendix D - Video narratives is especially telling.

It's ironic that although there is no positive evidence that the Killian letters were faked, conservatives will still always bring up Dan Rather (even though the issue of having a terribly butch war President who'd deserted from the US military rather than face a drug test, is now past history... Sarah Palin's got much more embarrassing stories to share). But Andrew J. Breitbart engaged in conspiracy to attack ACORN: any bets whether conservatives will ditch him or embrace him for being revealed as a liar and fraudster?