The dirty tricks squad of right wing politics has been caught again, al la Watergate. James O’Keefe, filmmaker and ACORN hatriot was arrested Monday inside the offices of Sen.Mary Landrieu in downtown New Orleans, along with 3 others. The FBI alleges they were dressed as telephone repairmen to gain access inside the building for the purposes of wiretapping. A felony.
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, the office confirmed. All four were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony.
According to the FBI affidavit, Flanagan and Basel entered the federal building at 500 Poydras Street about 11 a.m. Monday, 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 affadavit, observed O’Keefe positioning his cell phone in his hand to record his co-horts.
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.
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 under-age prostitution scheme.
O’Keefe on Thursday gave a speech to the Pelican Institute for Public Policy, a libertarian group in New Orleans.
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.”
Looks like O’Keefe will be looking for a new role in prison, but not as a pimp.
The accusations against ACORN last year pall in comparison to wiretapping a US Senator, most if not all,against the community organization were unfounded. To the victor goes the spoils, but in the case of the flying monkey right, a return to G Gordon Libby, and E Howard Hunt is justified.
So, Progressives. Let’s make a list of the possible versions of spin that the righties are going to throw at us to explain this;
1. The FBI is a liberal organization only interested in arresting Republicans.
2. It doesn’t matter if they were violating the law because It’s Ok If You Are Republican.
We can only hope everybody mentioned in this article that broke the law get what they deserve.
OKeefe appears to have googled “Pimp” and come up with a picture of Huggy Bear on Starsky and Hutch, when planning his wardrobe for his “sting” operation.
I see you haven’t wasted any time not “wasting your time” saying anything of value, Corie..
You are indeed a woman of your word.
He’s not a journalist even though his money comes from Breitbart, who claims his ‘stings’ are news. Both of them should be facing more scrutiny in the days ahead…
Hopefully prosecutions too.
I personally find voter fraud to be a pretty serious allegation.
I guess it “palls” for those of you used to Chicago style politics.
One wonders if the slimy fingerprints of Boone Perkins the mother of all BS artists (gas or wind take your pick) are all over this adventure in the spirit of the Swift Boat affair?
T Boone Pickens? who knows, The right from Breitbart to FOX is well connected in this type of operation. But it is the rat%^&*ers kind of operation that the right and Nixon was doing back in the day with breaking into Daniel Ellsworth psychiatrists office to G. Liddy and E Howard Hunt and Watergate.
Wow, I finally got back in. I had to use firefox!
Listen, I need your help. I am having a debate in the YHR in an article “Is the City’s Code Probe Racialy Motivated,” which came out on the 27th with a guy called BigDave. Do any of you know whether this is Dave Edel? I believe it is can anyone confirm this?
Thanks
Hector Franco
Stupid fools should have just stolen irreplaceable secret documents and stuffed them down their pants. The Democrats proved that isn’t against the law, even from the National Archives.
Welcome back, Hector.
Yes, voter fraud is very serious, as much as disenfranchising over 100,000 blacks and Latinos in poor voter districts because they might vote against the Rs.
O’Keefe was found guilty of what? Gee I guess I missed the trial. That was fast.
O’Keefe wasn’t convicted of anything yet- only arrested for assuming false identities for the purpose of entering federal property illegally. This is certainly not the first time that cons have committed felonies of this nature, and surely not the first time such lawbreakers were welcomed on the official media arm of the extreme right, Faux News. O’Keefe has already made an appearance on Hannity, where he was hailed a a brave and courageous patriot. Moreover, O’Keefe admitted what he did. That was pretty fast, too.