New Details Emerge In The Arrest Of ACORN Whistleblower James O’Keefe

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by Joe Coscarelli | 4:17 pm, January 26th, 2010

» 39 comments

James O’Keefe — the upstart investigative filmmaker whose undercover video work got ACORN’s federal funding stripped — has been arrested by the FBI in Louisiana for attempting to wiretap the offices of Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu, according to the Times-Picayune. The paper is reporting that the FBI arrested O’Keefe and three others — Stan Dai, Joseph Basel and Robert Flanagan — two of whom dressed as telephone company workers to tap the Landrieu’s office telephone system. O’Keefe was reportedly posted inside the office and claimed to be “waiting for someone to arrive.”

Politico has the FBI affidavit available here.

Mediaite first chronicled O’Keefe’s rise to prominence when he posed undercover as a pimp looking for ACORN financing to run his fake prostitution ring, which resulted in the U.S. Census stopping work with the group. He also wore a pimp costume on Fox News, prompting us to interview some of O’Keefe’s former classmates to learn more about the man who brought such attention to himself and the then-newly launched BigGovernment.com.

O’Keefe had given a speech last week to Libertarian Pelican Institute for Public Policy in New Orleans, where he discussed “the role of new media and show examples of effective investigative reporting,” according to the paper. Now, it seems he took his undercover investigations too far. You could even say he got a little too big for his costume britches.

UPDATE — Andrew Breitbart provided Politico with the following comment:

“We have no knowledge about or connection to any alleged acts and events involving James O’Keefe at Senator Mary Landrieu’s office. We only just learned about the alleged incident this afternoon. We have no information other than what has been reported publicly by the press. Accordingly, we simply are not in a position to make any further comment.”

A Press Release from the US Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Louisiana:

United States Attorney’s Office

Eastern District of Louisiana

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: KATHY ENGLISH

TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2010 PHONE: (504) 680-3068

WWW.USDOJ.GOV/USAO/LAE FAX: (504) 589-4978

FOUR MEN ARRESTED FOR ENTERING GOVERNMENT PROPERTY UNDER FALSE PRETENSES FOR THE PURPOSE OF

COMMITTING A FELONY

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – JOSEPH BASEL, age 24, ROBERT FLANAGAN, age 24, JAMES O’KEEFE, age 25, and STAN DAI, age 24, were charged in a criminal complaint with entering federal property under false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony, announced the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

According to the complaint, which was unsealed earlier today, the arrest of FLANAGAN, BASEL, O’KEEFE, and DAI took place after BASEL and O’KEEFE attempted to gain access to the New Orleans office of United States Senator Mary Landrieu on January 25, 2010, while posing as telephone repairmen. According to the complaint, FLANAGAN and BASEL were each dressed in blue denim pants, a blue work shirt, a light green fluorescent vest, a tool belt and a construction-style hard hat when they entered the Hale Boggs Federal Building, located at 500 Poydras Street, New Orleans, Louisiana 70130. Once in the building, FLANAGAN and BASEL sought access to the offices of Senator Landrieu. O’KEEFE was already present in the office, holding a cellular phone so as to record FLANAGAN and BASEL. Once inside Senator Landrieu’s reception area, FLANAGAN and BASEL told a member of Senator Landrieu’s staff that they were telephone repairmen, and they requested access to the main telephone at the reception desk. FLANAGAN and BASEL then manipulated the telephone system. FLANAGAN and BASEL next requested access to the telephone closet because they needed to perform work on the main telephone system. They were directed to the main office of the United

ineStates General Services Administration, also inside the Hale Boggs Federal Building, where they again represented themselves to be employees of the telephone company and stated that they needed to perform repair work in the telephone closet. Both FLANAGAN and BASEL stated that they had left their credentials in their vehicle. In addition, the complaint alleges that O’KEEFE and DAI assisted FLANAGAN and BASEL in the planning, coordination, and preparation of the operation. The men were apprehended by the United States Marshal’s Service soon thereafter.

If convicted, FLANAGAN, BASEL, O’KEEFE, and DAI each face a maximum term of ten years in prison, a fine of $250,000, and three (3) years of supervised release following any term of imprisonment.

The United States Attorney’s Office reiterated that the complaint is merely a charge and that the guilt of the defendant must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

The investigation is being conducted by Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Deputy Marshals with the United States Marshal’s Service. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jordan Ginsberg.

* * *

ACORN, Affirmative Action bake sales, Big Government, Facebook, James O'Keefe, Joseph Basel, Mary Landrieu, Robert Flanagan, Rutgers University, Stan Dai

m

Very satisfying.
rmbltmbl

Well at least security still works.. in federal offices.
roxsteady

Probably not as much in Federal Prisons? He’ll be very popular!
Fidoohki

Maybe.. if it is true.
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

He’s probably going to get minimum sentence because his earlier stunt established his “credentials”, but he’ll probably also get a lecture from the judge and a lambasting from the public because he’s apparently filled with enough hubris, he thinks he can pull on an old television routine on a sitting US Senator and that he’s so smart, nobody has ever thought of it, before.

I mean, what did the kid think he’d get? Even if she was (doubtfully) on the take, she’s from an old political family in a famously corrupt state. What’d he think… she’d be plotting the assassination of her enemies and discussing casino kickbacks with her Lt. Gov. brother over a legally tappable phone?
roxsteady

Too bad no one told him it’s a felony. ACORN filed a civil suit against him and his whore last Thursday. This won’t help him.
Fidoohki

Roxsteady says,

FAUX whore.
rmbltmbl

Some more class from old “I actually believe stupid people should be shot in the back of the head” roxsteady, you really are a disgusting human being.
Jelperman

Don’t bend over for the soap!
Fidoohki

I read the affidavit, yeah O’Keefe is going away for a bit. 6 months at least.
same2u

So O’Keefe is indeed a criminal. Just another reason for the Fox News trash to laud him.

rmbltmbl, you are in the same trash pile maggot.
sarainitaly

Mary Landrieu “negotiated an increase” in Medicaid funds for her state before announcing her support for Senate health care legislation.

Sounds eerily similar to being on the take, to me.

m says:
January 26, 2010 at 4:25 pm
Very satisfying.

Just curious – why? You don’t think that ACORN should be exposed if they are willing to aid child prostitution? If they are telling people how to lie, cheat and steal from the system?
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

@sarainitaly: Considering some of Louisiana’s more recent scandals (Edwin Edwards, William Jefferson) and their colorful political history, I really don’t think satisfying a legislative request by the Republican Governor is in the same ballpark.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Joe-Callan/100000200979966 Joe Callan

Yeah, you can’t tap a phone line without a warrant! That’s unconstitut–oh. Wait.
Jim R

Republican criminal – but I repeat myself.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Bill-Adkins/1585417987 Bill Adkins

Yes, you do, Jim, you do repeat yourself. That said, wait a while – there are three of them – one of them will cut a deal and testify against the other two. And they’ll testify against their backers,, too. Will it be Breitbart? Will it be Fox? The world wonders — and we’ll soon know.
http://www.swissarmyjew.com Keeva

@sarainitaly – Actually, getting more money for her state is part of her job. While I personally believe Landrieu is on the take for herself, I cannot prove it, and the Medicaid payoff is not in that category.

I do believe that ACORN needed to be exposed and I am glad that they were. However, that does not condone the commission of a crime, which is what the FBI alleges in the Landrieu case. There is a world of difference between the hidden camera deal used in the ACORN gig (legal in every state unless minors are involved) and illegal wiretapping and tampering with a federal phone system.

@same2u – I would wait until there is any lauding of this crime before commenting. Fox was right to applaud the ACORN exposé. Let’s see what comes of this before the spitballs start flying. And, to be fair, if MSNBC tries to use this as some kind of exoneration of ACORN, then they are way off base. One has nothing to do with the other. Keep in mind that like everyone else, these people are innocent until proven guilty, so, regardless of wishful thinking, O’Keefe, et al are defendants and not criminals. That remains to be seen.

@Magister – I can only assume that he thought he now had some kind of immunity from reality. It is really important to note that Freedom of the Press is not an exemption from the law, which is obviously what they thought.

Note that a lot of cases are tossed every year over illegal recording of phone conversations.
TinaFromTampa

Taking a play out of the old Nixon playbook.
It worked so well for them the first time.
sarainitaly

call it what you will, but i think if HCR is the right move, she shouldn’t be essentially blackmailing the Dems, saying she won’t support it without $300M. Especially when we are broke, and this bill will just add to the deficit. Why should any congressman ever do anything, if they can just bribe/sell their votes?

I have no idea why the kid was tapping her phone lines. And breaking the law is a crime.

But I do think they did a great job on ACORN.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Yt-Truly/100000414616536 Yt Truly

Except that ACORN was NOT stripped of funding because that would be ILLEGAL, and it was also cleared of any wrongdoing.

Mediaite, I am disappoint.
same2u

Tina from Tampa,

I think the top sentence for a Watergate criminal was 52 months. I won’t feel the least bit sorry for that dirtbag O’Keefe if he does at least that much time. It was clear from the Acorn videos, that O’keefe was every bit corrupt and dishonest as were some of the individuals that were in his videos.
Cecelia

If the allegation is true, I feel sorry for O’Keefe because I would feel sorry for any young man whose friends were so allowed a little bit of acclaim to go his head to the point that he may have thrown away his future.

But no, if true, this action would go well beyond what the ACORN workers did.. This is a FEDERAL CRIME.

If O’Keefe has done the crime, he should do the time.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Larry-Wilson/100000661357489 Larry Wilson

CHANGE THE NUMBERS: http://www.numbersusa.com/change/immigration/numbers/
Jim R

For the otherwise factually deprived about ACORN or the Republican right wing jiad against them, I tend to believe researchers and journalism professors over right wing mouthpieces with an obvious agenda.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/shoptalk_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004047850

“We found that conservative “opinion entrepreneurs” –
primarily business and conservative groups and individuals – set the
story in motion, the conservative media (e.g., Fox News, conservative
talk radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh and his many local counterparts,
conservative magazines like the National Review, the Washington Times,
the Washington Enquirer, and the editorial pages of the Wall Street
Journal) heighten the sense of urgency with an unwarranted amount of
coverage, and the mainstream media report the same allegations with
largely the same conservative frames, usually without investigating
their veracity.

§ 95.8% of the stories about ACORN’s alleged
involvement in voter fraud failed to provide deeper context, especially
efforts by Republican Party officials to use allegations of “voter
fraud” to dampen voting by low-income and minority Americans that were
already documented at the time. Thanks to a House Judiciary Committee
investigation that released in August 2009 more than 5,000 pages of
White House and Republican National Committee e-mails and transcripts
of closed-door testimony by Karl Rove, former Bush senior advisor and
deputy chief of staff, and Harriet Miers, former White House counsel,
we now have further evidence that Rove personally orchestrated an
attack on ACORN. He insisted that a number of U.S. Attorneys prosecute
ACORN for voter fraud, even if there was no evidence for it. When one
of them, David Iglesias, the U.S. Attorney in New Mexico, investigated
the situation and discovered that ACORN had not engaged in any fraud,
he refused to prosecute the group. Rove quickly got Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales to fire him, part of a pattern that ultimately led to
the resignation of Gonzales in 2007.”…

…
As a result, what most Americans know about ACORN
involves phony allegations of “voter fraud,” misleading reports of
helping a pimp and a prostitute violate tax laws, and a misguided
conviction by some that ACORN stole the election for Obama. Although
this has been a bad story for ACORN, it hasn’t been a good one for the
news media, either.

*
Christopher R. Martin, professor of
journalism and communication studies at the University of Northern
Iowa, and Peter Dreier, E.P Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics
and director of the Urban & Environmental Policy Program at
Occidental College , are co-authors of “Manipulating the Public Agenda:
Why ACORN was in the News and What the News Got Wrong.”

There’s much more but “some” here, predisposed to believe otherwise, probably won’t.
Jim R

woops, probably won’t click the link and read the rest.
http://www.nukethefridge.com MartiniShark

For starters if he is guilty of this crime, then yes he should serve a sentence. No doubt there. What I’m baffled by is the disdain shown on this board for him. Why, because he exposed an orginization with clear institutionalized illegalities? I thought that was the kind of investigative journalism that normally gets heralded. But they exposed a liberal-leaning orginization, so that is bad? I don’t get it. The ACORN videos were some impressive work. If he was wire-tapping a Senator’s office that is stupid work.

Also, let’s not forget the media mantra folks, until he’s convicted this is an “alleged’ crime, correct?
da-wdc

“Clear institutionalized illegalities”? What were they and who at ACORN was convicted of a crime? That would be a place to start – with facts. Yes, some staff were fired for inappropriate conduct. That is not the same thing as institutionalized illegalities.

It’s true this is all “alleged” w/r/t O’Keefe. I do have disdain for that ridiculous getup of his. If I ever wore something like that, no way in hell I’d let myself be videotaped.
http://www.nukethefridge.com MartiniShark

Watch the videos. Repeatedly ACORN wanted to help out with illegal activity, in offices across the country.
timzank

So let me get this straight. When someone exposes illegal behavior, then subsequently gets caught doing something illegal himself, does that somehow automatically negate the illegal activity of the first person?

For instance, let’s say shortly after blowing Watergate wide open, Bob Woodward was arrested for beating his wife, or DUI, or sodomizing a small farm animal. Following the logic of most posters here, one would have to conclude the watergate defendants would have been given a pass because the guy that exposed them got arrested later on for something else, right? That’s your theory right?

Makes perfect sense.
/sarc
Jim R

Would that be the one creatively spliced tape that will be exposed in court in due time, or the unpublicized part where the ACORN employee was jerking the jerk’s chain?
http://www.karlspensen.blogspot.com Karl Spensen

This young man is a HERO and of COURSE is being PERSECUTED by the SOCIOFASCISTS who run our government!!1 They want to STIFLE any form of DISSENT, especially in brave young True American Patriots like O’Keefe!!1 I am VERY glad that the FOX NEWS (Most Powerful Name in News) Assignment Editor insisted on getting MORE CONTEXT for this story … because I am CERTAIN there is more than meets the eye here!!1 Like G Gordon Liddy and Col. Oliver North before him, I’m sure there is a Patriotic EXPLANATION for his so-called “CRIMES”!!!11
Snipzor

Ouch, wiretapping is a serious offense. Well done law abiding citizen!
The Real Royal King

As my wife was heading off to another day babysitting the ill-behaved moronic children of America’s parents, a/k/a teaching, she called to let me know that Gretch and Douchy are waxing eloquently about all of the mighty ills of non-rightist extremists in America, but are virtually silent about this matter. CNN gave it a good bit of coverage this morning. I can’t speak for Joe and his adoring Mika. Does anyone smell Griff Jenkins somewhere in this mix, or am I being a bit over-the-top myself?
The Real Royal King

Be Kareful Karl. Some don’t appreciate satire and nuance escapes them. Cecelia is probably baking cookies for you as I write. If she discerns the truth about you, you are in danger of being bludgeoned with venomous verbiage.
disgusted

The govt ‘wire-taps’ your phone without the “inconvenience” of obtaining a ‘court order’ – that’s OK! – I ALSO notice that “they” were the First to ‘release’ NOTICEs to the media!
Ted

Chris Matthews made this guy do it.
TfT

There is no wiretapping involved; this is just typical of the liberal media overreacting to the story because O’Keefe is a conservative. They will all have egg on the faces sooner rather than later. And that includes FNC who is still using the term “bug her office” when that appears to be NOT the case, and there is no evidence that wiretapping was involved.
J Baustian

I think Congress tried to strip ACORN of all funds, but they missed some. ACORN is still getting a bundle of federal money

These charges will be scaled back to misdemeanors, and no one will go to jail.
felixw

As I predicted back in January, the wiretapping charges and phone tampering charges against James O’Keefe have now completely disappeared.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/03/charges-reduced-in-alleged-phone-plot-at-landrieus-office/1

Maybe it is finally time for Mediaite to retract this article. And the rest of you who spread these false accusations — which anyone could see at the time were not only untrue, but didn’t even make sense (how can you bug a phone without bugging equipment?) — should also be honest enough to admit that you were wrong.