A Bridge Too Far For ACORN-Hunter O’Keefe (UPDATED, 8:52 p.m.)
When James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles broke the news of their expose’ of ACORN offices across the country abetting criminal behavior last September, it was a great public service done on behalf of the American people to shine the light of truth on waste and fraud on the public dime. That O’Keefe was walking the line with his rather flamboyant and risky pimp-and-prostitute scenario was duly noted, however; it added a degree of Animal House-style entertainment to the scandal and made it too good to pass up for millions of Americans, but it wasn’t exactly above board.
But yesterday, it looks like O’Keefe might have tripped on his success. The 25-year old filmmaker was arrested yesterday in New Orleans along with three other twenty-somethings for apparently attempting to tap the phones in Mary Landrieu’s office.
According to the criminal complaint in the case, three men, including O’Keefe, entered Landrieu’s Poydras Street office on Monday, two of them – Joseph Basel and Robert Flanagan, dressed as telephone repairmen. Basel and Flanagan went to Landrieu’s office and represented that they were from the phone company. O’Keefe was already there, having told the staffers he was waiting for someone else to arrive. According to the complaint he pulled out his cell phone and positioned it to record Basel and Flanagan as they “manipulated” the main phone at Landrieu’s front office desk and purportedly tried to call the main phone from a cell phone. Having done this, the two men stated they would need to get into the main telephone closet. The receptionist directed them to the GSA office, located on the same floor of the Hale Boggs Building, where they repeated their request.
Things went south from there, as the GSA official asked them for phone company credentials, which they couldn’t produce and said their ID’s were “in the truck.” The gig was up from there, as law enforcement was notified and the plot was rolled up. Basel and Flanagan admitted they weren’t with the phone company and that they had entered the building on false pretenses, while O’Keefe and another man, Stan Dai, admitted to helping plan the caper.
Undoubtedly, O’Keefe was snooping for wrongdoing on the Senator’s part – and catching Landrieu in the midst of nefarious doings would be both unsurprising and a public service. But trying to wiretap a U.S. Senator is over the top under any circumstances and methods like that can’t be defended. The apparent juvenile nature of this plot doesn’t particularly reflect well on the New Media, either; in fact, it’s embarrassing in the extreme.
As a defendant in a federal criminal case, O’Keefe probably doesn’t have much to say, and that’s a pity. Because it would be very edifying for those of us who are in his debt for his ACORN work to know what the hell he was thinking.
UPDATE (5:28 p.m.): Fox News’ Eric Shawn reports that O’Keefe denies the operation in question was aimed at wiretapping Landrieu’s office, and has this quote from his lawyer, Michael Madigan:
“We don’t have any of the facts yet, but James O’Keefe, at heart, is a really good kid,” Madigan said in a statement to Fox News. “We are looking into this further and are awaiting hearing from James directly.”
Fair enough, and this situation certainly looks peculiar. Flanagan is the son of the actng U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana; it would be somewhat strange to think this group really is as dumb as they come off in the criminal complaint.
But if the goal wasn’t to wiretap Landrieu’s phones, what’s with the masquerade? Why ask to get into the phone closet? These guys had better have some good answers, and B.S. isn’t going to cut it.
UPDATE 2 (7:44 p.m.): It appears Stan Dai is a spook of some kind, as his official title is Assistant Director at the Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence at Trinity University in Washington, DC – a program “designed to increase the pool of eligible applicants for positions in the intelligence community with an emphasis on women, persons with disabilities and ethnic minorities, with diverse cultural backgrounds, language proficiency, geographical expertise and related competencies.”
Make of this what you will. But if this is the kind of covert op they teach at the ICCAE, it doesn’t bode well for the future of our intelligence agencies…
UPDATE 3 (8:03 p.m.): New Media titan Andrew Breitbart, with whom O’Keefe worked on the original ACORN videos, did a spot on the Hugh Hewitt show tonight in order to state that he had nothing to do with O’Keefe’s current project and no connection to Basel, Flanagan or Dai. Breitbart said he hasn’t talked to O’Keefe in three weeks and categorically disputes the characterization of O’Keefe’s gang as “Breitbart’s crew” by left-wing advocacy group Media Matters - Hewitt alleges that amounts to slander.
Apparently, O’Keefe is quoted by AP as saying, “’Veritas,’ Latin for truth, as he left a suburban jail Tuesday with suspect Stan Dai and Joseph Basel, both 24. All declined to comment. ‘There will be a time for that,’ Dai said. As he got into a cab outside of jail, O’Keefe said ‘the truth shall set me free.’”
UPDATE 4 (8:51 p.m.): WWL has coverage of the incident…
One interesting tidbit on Flanagan: not only is he the son of a U.S. attorney, he’s also on staff at the Pelican Institute, a conservative think tank based in New Orleans we at The Hayride can vouch for as a top-quality organization not given to illegality. Flanagan has written a number of blog pieces for The Pelican Post, the institute’s blog – most recently a rather non-threatening reference to the Heritage Foundation’s rating of America as only “mostly free” in its 2010 Index of Economic Freedom.
He was FRAMED!
"I am not a crook"
"The truth shall set me free"
LOL.
What he did to planned parenthood and ACORN was illegal.
Now it looks like he finally bit off more than he can chew.
He was FRAMED!
"I am not a crook"
"The truth shall set me free"
LOL.
What he did to planned parenthood and ACORN was illegal.
Now it looks like he finally bit off more than he can chew.
Eh. I doubt it. There's more to this than meets the eye, though. Hopefully we'll find out soon.
Eh. I doubt it. There's more to this than meets the eye, though. Hopefully we'll find out soon.
Why? This really doesn't make sense to me. I haven't heard any rumblings about Landrieu and anything illegal. I certainly won't make any judgments until I've heard his side of the story.
"I certainly won't make any judgments until I've heard his side of the story. "
I'm curious as to whether or not you afforded ACORN with the same respect. After all, the videos that O'Keefe gave to Fox were all heavily edited. Did you wait to see the full unedited tapes before condemning ACORN?
Yes, some of us did wait to render judgment until after having viewed the entire videos and reading the transcripts.
Interesting. Where did you get them since the full videos were never posted?
Don't be stupid. Go to biggovt, click contributors, find James' link, read transcripts, listen to audio, load the video into Adobe CS4 to your heart's content.
I had already condemned ACORN for the vote fraud they had been convicted of in multiple states and the million dollar embezzlement by Dale Rathke they had covered up in New Orleans, all of which had been the case long before O'Keefe showed up, but hey – that's just me.
But of course. ACORN has always been corrupt to the core. I shouldn't have replied to that post and was thinking about the individuals in each circumstance. Very idiotic of me to not see the true intent of their post. I need sleep before trying to take on any more ilLiberal insanity.
Why? This really doesn't make sense to me. I haven't heard any rumblings about Landrieu and anything illegal. I certainly won't make any judgments until I've heard his side of the story.
"I certainly won't make any judgments until I've heard his side of the story. "
I'm curious as to whether or not you afforded ACORN with the same respect. After all, the videos that O'Keefe gave to Fox were all heavily edited. Did you wait to see the full unedited tapes before condemning ACORN?
Yes, some of us did wait to render judgment until after having viewed the entire videos and reading the transcripts.
Interesting. Where did you get them since the full videos were never posted?
Don't be stupid. Go to biggovt, click contributors, find James' link, read transcripts, listen to audio, load the video into Adobe CS4 to your heart's content.
I had already condemned ACORN for the vote fraud they had been convicted of in multiple states and the million dollar embezzlement by Dale Rathke they had covered up in New Orleans, all of which had been the case long before O'Keefe showed up, but hey – that's just me.
But of course. ACORN has always been corrupt to the core. I shouldn't have replied to that post and was thinking about the individuals in each circumstance. Very idiotic of me to not see the true intent of their post. I need sleep before trying to take on any more ilLiberal insanity.
The second most-puzzling thing is how Keefe thought he could pull off more undercover stuff. He's been on TV so much, people know what he looks like. Even the best disguise might not be enough.
The second most-puzzling thing is how Keefe thought he could pull off more undercover stuff. He's been on TV so much, people know what he looks like. Even the best disguise might not be enough.
The more I think about this, the less sense it makes. If the objective is to bug Landrieu's phone, why film it? What would possibly be the point of creating incriminating evidence? I've seen enough of O'Keefe to believe that he isn't that stupid and there's a lot more to this story than we've been told so far.
"….If the objective is to bug Landrieu's phone, why film it?…"
Exactly! Completely mind boggling! I need to sleep on this before my head explodes.
The more I think about this, the less sense it makes. If the objective is to bug Landrieu's phone, why film it? What would possibly be the point of creating incriminating evidence? I've seen enough of O'Keefe to believe that he isn't that stupid and there's a lot more to this story than we've been told so far.
"….If the objective is to bug Landrieu's phone, why film it?…"
Exactly! Completely mind boggling! I need to sleep on this before my head explodes.
I had lunch with James last Thursday and believe me the kid knows what he is doing and has dirt on alot of corrupt people. I highly doubt this is what it seems to be he is not stupid to do stuff illegally.
I had lunch with James last Thursday and believe me the kid knows what he is doing and has dirt on alot of corrupt people. I highly doubt this is what it seems to be he is not stupid to do stuff illegally.
[...] Vitter For O’Keefe Caper Posted on January 26th, 2010 by macaoidh As the ever-more-curious James O’Keefe arrest story continues to develop, the Louisiana Democrat Party has now weighed in with a reliably breathless, [...]
At a loss for words here. This doesn't make any sense.
At a loss for words here. This doesn't make any sense.
If the charges are true, they all should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
If the charges are true, they all should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
If what I've just been told about all this is true, it'll make the ACORN tapes look like a greasedown in a Shiatzu before it's all said and done.
This is gonna be fun.
If what I've just been told about all this is true, it'll make the ACORN tapes look like a greasedown in a Shiatzu before it's all said and done.
This is gonna be fun.
For those saying this story doesn't make sense, I would just note that O'Keefe had shown a flair for the absurdly over the top with the ACORN videos and had made a big splash, so the notion that he might want to do something equally dramatic doesn't seem out of the question. And while it does strike me as profoundly stupid, people do profoundly stupid things all the time, and young men in their 20's, if YouTube is any indication, seem to be particularly susceptible to such antics.
For those saying this story doesn't make sense, I would just note that O'Keefe had shown a flair for the absurdly over the top with the ACORN videos and had made a big splash, so the notion that he might want to do something equally dramatic doesn't seem out of the question. And while it does strike me as profoundly stupid, people do profoundly stupid things all the time, and young men in their 20's, if YouTube is any indication, seem to be particularly susceptible to such antics.
As Paul Harvey was famous for saying, "And now, the rest of the story." I can't wait. James certainly found a way to upstage the State of the Union address.
As Paul Harvey was famous for saying, "And now, the rest of the story." I can't wait. James certainly found a way to upstage the State of the Union address.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Pat Austin, Scott McKay, Scott McKay, Scott McKay, Scott McKay and others. Scott McKay said: Post Edited: A Bridge Too Far For ACORN-Hunter O'Keefe (UPDATED, 5:28 p.m.) (http://cli.gs/ArqdG) http://cli.gs/ArqdG [...]
[...] is beginning to form as to what activist filmmaker James O’Keefe was up to when he was arrested outside of Mary Landrieu’s New Orleans office on [...]