O’Keefe/Breitbart: Felony Arrest, Manipulation of U.S. Senator’s Phone Not What It Seems

You folks do realize that James O’Keefe never actually wore his ridiculous pimp costume into those ACORN offices on those doctored and illegally recorded video tapes, right? But, rather, he was filmed outside of the offices wearing his get-up, while appearing as the conservatively dressed boyfriend of a hooker trying to escape an abusive pimp when the cameras were rolling inside the offices. That’s just one of many deceptions O’Keefe carried out.

As one of two independent investigations of the incidents which clear ACORN of wrong-doing noted, this one by former MA Attorney General Scott Harshbarger [PDF]:

Although Mr. O’Keefe appeared in all videos dressed as a pimp, in fact, when he appeared at each and every office, he was dressed like a college student – in slacks and a button down shirt.

Since Crazy Andy Breitbart, who released the phony video tapes on his propaganda website, didn’t bother to man up and point that out before, during, or after posting them, or while appearing on Fox “News” and elswhere to promote both them and himself, or even after the reports came out, you may not have realized that salient fact.

You may also not have known that while both independent reports, the other one by the Congressional Research Service [PDF], found no criminal wrong doing by ACORN, they did find that O’Keefe likely the broke the law in at least two states by secretly recording the videos which had voice-overs deceptively edited into them later, “in some cases substantially,” according to Harshbarger’s report, so that it was “difficult to determine the questions to which ACORN employees are responding.”

In other words, the videos were a scam perpetrated by both Breitbart and his employee O’Keefe, who now faces felony charges that Breitbart has been tweeting his adorable angry little heart out over the last few days trying desperately to downplay. Who can blame him? Nothing less than whatever little credibility he ever had is on the line after all. No doubt P.T. Barnum faced similar circumstances as he plied his trade to the suckers born every minute. So do actual pimps. Like Andy.

But just imagine the years of outrage and endless repetition of the charges from the Rightwing media and their acolytes — folks like Crazy Andy — that would accompany four operatives allied with the Democratic Party, perpetrating a scheme to dress up as phony telephone company employees in order to access and manipulate the phone system in the office of a sitting Republican U.S. Senator.

Of course, it would be the Crime of the Century to the wingnuts, likely led by Breitbart, accompanied by cries of “What did Obama, Pelosi, Reid, ACORN, SEIU and Saul Alinsky know and when they did they know it?!” along with calls for resignations in disgrace because of it.

But when the “Liberal MSM” report on a very serious federal felony offense allegedly committed by four Republicans disguising themselves and attempting to interfere with the the phone system of a sitting Democratic U.S. Senator, well, that’s just another example of the outrageously “Liberal MSM,” at least according to Breitbart and O’Keefe’s latest attempted gambit.

That’s the embarrassing meme that the Rightwing propagandist and GOP operative Breitbart is busy Twittering himself to death in hopes of selling, as he desperately tries to reclaim any credibility that he or his GOP “news” outlets might have ever had.

Crazy Andy is angrily and frantically using the tried and true tactics of Republican Reframing Magic® in the wake of the felony arrest of his own employee O’Keefe, the dirty trickster, and junior propagandist-cum-failed-superspy. And given the rubes and dopes in the Not-Liberal-At-All MSM, it’s likely they’ll fall for it as hard as they fell for Breitbart/O’Keefe’s ACORN video scheme. Case in point: The “liberal” New York Times is already running a fawning 2,250-word feature story on Breitbart and his gang of desperados in Sunday’s paper. Can you imagine any such coverage of accused Democratic Party criminals like that?! And the GOP outrage that would accompany it if it did?!

But now that Breitbart and O’Keefe, as of Friday, have decided on a cover story (posted in full below), and seem prepared to stick to it and sell it, let’s give it a look before it all falls completely apart, as it largely already has, even before I had time to finish this story which I got distracted from after beginning to write it yesterday…

Breitbart’s recent Twittered attempts at spinning wingnut gold out of his employee’s federally felonious straw comes in conjunction with his release on Friday of O’Keefe’s first full statement since Monday’s arrest along with three others Republican dirty trickster co-conspirators — one, the son of Lousiana’s acting U.S. Attorney William J. Flanagan — during the alleged attempt to illegally interfere with the phones of U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA).

As posted on Crazy Andy’s BigGovernment.com site Friday, O’Keefe’s statement explains that his arrest according to an FBI affidavit, for having “aided and abetted … in the execution of the plan” to manipulate the Democratic Senator’s phone system after gaining access to it “by falsely and fraudulently representing that the [sic] were employees of a telephone company,” was all just one great patriotic “investigation”, O’Keefe informs us, for which, now that he’s been arrested, he’s learned he “could have used a different approach”.

His thin explanation for the incident — absurd on its face, but well promoted by Breitbart, naturally — hangs on the notion that the Repub tricksters weren’t trying to bug Landrieu’s office, they were just there to “ask the staff if their phones were working” after some complained in December they were unable to get through to the office during the health care vote, when busy signals were the rule of the day.

It’s unclear why they’d need a scheme at all — which included dressing up as phone company employees, “manipulating” the phone the at the reception desk, seeking access to the main phone closet, and keeping one man outside in the car with a listening device — to simply “ask the staff if their phones were working”, but reasonable explanations aren’t really required for this bunch of con-men, or the one who employs at least one of them.

Neither does O’Keefe explain in his statement what he had hoped to discover regarding Landrieu’s phone system at the end of January, in regard to apparent complaints that some had trouble reaching her office in Mid-December.

His lame explanation for it all — both before and after blaming the MSM for his own troubles, rather than taking personal responsibility for it, as an actual conservative might have done — hangs in this attempted sleight-of-hand from his statement:

When asked about [“constituents…having trouble getting through to her office”] Senator Landrieu’s explanation was that, “Our lines have been jammed for weeks.” I decided to investigate why a representative of the people would be out of touch with her constituents for “weeks” because her phones were broken.

Uh, yeah. But Landrieu’s representative never actually said “her phones were broken”. The representative said they were “jammed for weeks”. So O’Keefe’s explanation is a complete FAIL in that regard, for a start, not that the tea baggers who’ve come to idolize Breitbart and O’Keefe, or the “liberal MSM” (who do so as well) will bother to notice.

There is much more that can be taken apart in O’Keefe/Breitbart’s statement — for example the hypocrisy of calling for the release of the video tapes he made during the incident, even while both he and Breitbart still refuse to release the full and unedited ACORN tapes months after that scam was pulled — and I had hoped to do so over the weekend. But happily, Marcy Wheeler over at emptywheel beat me to it today.

Her analysis utterly destroys O’Keefe’s ridiculously desperate excuse for violating federal law. It’s short, sweet, and a must read, so please do so!

Breitbart has still failed to offer an explanation as to how it is that he should be let off the hook for what his employees do (he now enjoys Twittering that O’Keefe, who he’s admitted he has on salary, isn’t actually an employee, or some such falderal) and that O’Keefe is “innocent until proven guilty” (twittered disingenuously by Crazy Andy here, here, here and here) even while extending no such benefit of the doubt to anybody employed by ACORN, naturally.

ACORN, of course, deserves no such benefit of the doubt because, after all, they have the temerity to actually help millions of low and middle-income Americans legally participate in their own democracy, and other such GOP crimes.

J. Garrison Jordan, the attorney for Robert Flanagan — the accused perp who is also the son of the acting U.S. Attorney in Louisiana — downplayed all of it on Friday as little more than a youthful prank, telling the AP “You’re dealing with kids.” [Update 3/29/10: The link to AP’s story at the NPR website now shows up as “File Not Found” for some reason. Here’s another link to the same story.]

A “kid”, of course, whose father is an acting U.S. Attorney. And another “kid” who is, apparently well-connected and/or wealthy enough to afford a Superstar Republican Attorney. O’Keefe, who is 25 years old (the others are 24) has now lawyered up with Superstar Republican Watergate Attorney, Michael Madigan. Ironically, Madigan served as the attorney to Republican Howard Baker who famously asked, as the ranking member of the Senate committee investigating Watergate: “What did the President know and when did he know it?”

But, ya know, we’re just “dealing with kids” here, right? Nothing to see. Move along. ACORN may be plotting right now to steal another election after all!!!

O’Keefe’s statement follows in full below, but don’t bother looking for Wheeler’s devastating analysis of it over at Breitbart’s site as he’s apparently too cowardly to share it with the very readers he’s conned into believing they are receiving “fair and balanced” coverage of “news” and stuff.

Pimps like Andy, whether they’re wearing the threads are not, turn lots of tricks — and make lots of dirty money in the bargain.

* * *

The “Statement from James O’Keefe” follows in full below. Marcy Wheeler’s analysis shredding it, is here…

The government has now confirmed what has always been clear: No one tried to wiretap or bug Senator Landrieu’s office. Nor did we try to cut or shut down her phone lines. Reports to this effect over the past 48 hours are inaccurate and false.

As an investigative journalist, my goal is to expose corruption and lack of concern for citizens by government and other institutions, as I did last year when our investigations revealed the massive corruption and fraud perpetrated by ACORN. For decades, investigative journalists have used a variety of tactics to try to dig out and reveal the truth.

I learned from a number of sources that many of Senator Landrieu’s constituents were having trouble getting through to her office to tell her that they didn’t want her taking millions of federal dollars in exchange for her vote on the healthcare bill. When asked about this, Senator Landrieu’s explanation was that, “Our lines have been jammed for weeks.” I decided to investigate why a representative of the people would be out of touch with her constituents for “weeks” because her phones were broken. In investigating this matter, we decided to visit Senator Landrieu’s district office – the people’s office – to ask the staff if their phones were working.

On reflection, I could have used a different approach to this investigation, particularly given the sensitivities that people understandably have about security in a federal building. The sole intent of our investigation was to determine whether or not Senator Landrieu was purposely trying to avoid constituents who were calling to register their views to her as their Senator. We video taped the entire visit, the government has those tapes, and I’m eager for them to be released because they refute the false claims being repeated by much of the mainstream media.

It has been amazing to witness the journalistic malpractice committed by many of the organizations covering this story. MSNBC falsely claimed that I violated a non-existent “gag order.” The Associated Press incorrectly reported that I “broke in” to an office which is open to the public. The Washington Post has now had to print corrections in two stories on me. And these are just a few examples of inaccurate and false reporting. The public will judge whether reporters who can’t get their facts straight have the credibility to question my integrity as a journalist.

…And again, here’s Marcy Wheeler’s response to the above at emptywheel…

* * *

UPDATE 2/1/10: Our 7 questions for Andy, as AP investigates…

33 Responses

  1. Thanks for keeping us informed Brad. I am very curious about how much doctoring of the ACORN tapes he did.

    Any idea of the actual ages of these “kids” ?

    – Tom

  3. Nice job here Brad. You might be happy to know that I am beginning to convince both my conservative mother and aunt that election fraud are serious issues by sending them selected articles from your site. Keep up the good work.

  5. When they did the ACORN deceptive “sting”, the wingnuts said he should win a Pulitzer Prize, this is the new investigative journalism, etc…etc…

    NOW…that they’ve committed felonies, they’re “pranksters”, “just kids”, etc…

    They’re doing this so they don’t get worse sentences.

    Breitbart’s “stings” are in their death throes pretty quick, huh?

    I also love the way O’Keefe says he’s just trying to expose corruption. He should say: “I’m a GOP operative fabricating false corruption against only Democrats.”

    O’Keefe pretends he’s “just exposing corruption”. Yeah, right! He’s a “patriot” exposing corruption, don’t you know that??? Ha!!! C’ya in jail!!! And take Breitbart with ya!

  6. O’Keefe’s “patriotic” stings consist of trying to take down organizations that help the poor (ACORN, Planned Parenthood). Real “patriotic”. He’s a real American hero. Take down organizations that help the poor. How dastardly!

    Why doesn’t he do a “sting” in KBR or Halliburton???

  8. So, what were they doing there if they weren’t bugging the phones? In other words, with republicans, usually, you just have to reverse there words, and that’s much closer to the truth. When that hack of a lawyer says that they weren’t wiretapping, I have to assume means they wholly intended to wiretap her phones. Otherwise, what were they doing there? If all they wanted to do was ask the staff if there phones were broken is not a crime, which of course is exactly what their defense lawyers want me to think.

  10. Big Dan

    When they did the ACORN deceptive “sting”, the wingnuts said he should win a Pulitzer Prize, this is the new investigative journalism…
    __________________

    Maybe they should come up with an RNC Swift Boat Award. Breitbart and O’Keefe can come on stage to accept it, wearing prison issue, striped pajamas.

  11. We hear, see and read a constant stream of propaganda from the right-wing echo chamber about the supposedly evil ACORN even while this new generation of Watergate burglars tries to spin their way out the the guilt associated with their deceptions and crimes.

    We rarely see, at least in the MSM, the words uttered by the victims of the Fox noise propaganda campaigns.

    Here are a few excerpts [PDF] from ACORN’s Bertha Lewis in response to the Harshbarger report:

    Overall, the report paints a picture of an organization that is very different that the characterization presented on Fox News and in the imagination of pundits who have attacked us.

    It shows some employees and volunteers who were taken in, to varying degrees, by a scam based on the idea that a women and sometimes children were in danger and could be helped. Some took very appropriate action (like calling the police)— others less so.

    It shows an organization that is not perfect, but is made up of dedicated, people working hard on behalf of their communities.

    The past several weeks have been a very difficult time for the dedicated community leaders and organizers who have worked with ACORN organization to save homes, strengthen neighborhoods, and encourage millions to participate in democracy.

    Along with the challenges and pitfalls, the remarkable women and men who do ACORN’s work every day have made tremendous achievements.

    There are thousands of families today with roofs over their heads, grocery money in the bank, and stronger, safer communities because of what they have done. This work must go on, and it will.

    ACORN’s real “crime” in the mind of the billionaire-funded, hard-right is that ACORN dares to protect working class citizens from the ravages of the economic class war that has been waged by the billionaire class.

  12. I did NOT know that O’Keefe wasn’t dressed like a pimp when he actually went into the ACORN offices. The (NOT) liberal media did a great job keeping that from us, didn’t they? I’m sure it will (NOT) be blurted all over ANBCBSNNX beginning Monday.

    That’s astounding, I can’t believe I didn’t know that. That’s telling of the mainstream media. That’s more proof the MSM is complicit in pushing rightwing ideology and they aren’t liberal. They should be all over this straightening it out with the public that they “missed it”, that O’Keefe wasn’t dressed like a pimp. I’m sure they won’t.

  13. Let’s not let these four fraudsters give real citizen watchdogs and investigative reporters a bad name.

    Of course, fraudulently gaining entry to phone equipment is a serious problem, whether in someone’s home or a Senator’s office.

    What’s not a serious issue is O’Keeffe’s legal violations alleged for unauthorized video in public places. Such laws, while having some legitimate applications, are overbroad, used against true citizen watchdogs, and give investigative journalism an unnecessarily bad name.

    Let’s watch out for blowback in the sense of reaction this and other stories making it harder for watchdogs or even BradBlogs of the world who ARE following the law but are potentially stuck with violations truly technical in nature for trying to document public acts, like votes in elections, which in several states is a significant risk.

  14. Louisianagate doesn’t start or stop with Andy. The four “kids” will flip like trained seals when faced with hard time. Not so much Andy, I think, because he’s fronting for someone (or entity) much higher up the food chain. He’s just the bagman – but probably willing to fall on his sword for the big fish.

  15. Well, O’Keefe, there IS one thing I can agree with ya on:

    It has been amazing to witness the journalistic malpractice committed by many of the organizations covering this story.

    I don’t doubt it. I’ve witnessed an amazing amount of journalistic malpractice myself over the years.

    But it is yet another ironic statement coming from you. I am sure you are aware, right? I’d hate to think you actually believe in your own journalistic integrity.

  16. wtf Rooster? Robo-post much? On second thought, I suppose if we brought chickenshit into the discussion, it wouldn’t be that off topic wrt O’Keefe, Breitbart and the other knuckleheads, would it? Nevermind rooster…

  17. The TeaBuggers stayed with Ben Wetmore:

    The NYTimes article says:

    And then there was Ben Wetmore, 28, who was not arrested but who allowed Mr. Dai, Mr. O’Keefe and Mr. Basel to stay at his house in New Orleans this month. The authorities have not indicated that Mr. Wetmore, a Loyola law student, was connected to the incident at Ms. Landrieu’s office, but he has nonetheless played a vital role in Mr. O’Keefe’s career, as well as that of Mr. Basel and other activists.

    Now, here’s my question: did Ben Wetmore have knowledge of this TeaBugger sting? They stayed at Wetmore’s house. I’m SURE he had to know something. “Hey, Ben, we’re just going to dress up as fake telephone repairmen and go out for a while. We’ll be right back.” Come on! He knew something!

    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/us/politics/31landrieu.html?

    http://www.zoominfo.com/people/Wetmore_Ben_228208485.aspx

    http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:unLi8Kvl3qUJ:www.benwetmore.com/+benwetmore.com&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

    How about looking into Students for Life of America, they all seem to be members or connected to it:

    http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:-G9O3KDOctwJ:www.benwetmore.com/documents/SFLA/070525_SFLA-Video-Activism-Proposal.doc+site:benwetmore.com+benwetmore.com&cd=15&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

    http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:m-9v5663GdoJ:www.benwetmore.com/cmedia//2009/10/leadership-institute-and-organizational.html+site:benwetmore.com+benwetmore.com&cd=100&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

    How about the Vitters & LCRM?

    http://www.lcrmnow.com/

    One of the TeaBugger’s father’s is a DOJ attorney?

    How about FRC President Tony Perkins:

    http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2010/01/29/teabugger-okeefe-liberate-the-tapes-no-not-those-tapes/#comment-217434

    [ed note: Sorry, Danny, one of your links tripped the spam filter…. —99]

  18. They stayed with Ben Wetmore, who happens to be O’Keefe’s hero and mentor. Anyone think Ben Wetmore had nothing to do with it? Did they say to him: “Ben, we’re going out dressed as fake telephone repairmen, brb.”?

    Why is Breitbart all over TV running interference for O’Keefe? Anyone think that’s weird?

    One of the TeaBugger’s dad’s is a U.S. Attorney? Say what?

    Tony Perkins & Family Research Council had a protest there recently and the key thing was Landrieu not answering her phones?

    All these TeaBuggers are big pro-lifers?

    The Vitters have a permanent Louisiana Republican majority organization similar to DeLay’s Texas one?

    Too much coincidence, too many connections, how far up does this go?

    Students for Life of America:

    http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:-G9O3KDOctwJ:www.benwetmore.com/documents/SFLA/070525_SFLA-Video-Activism-Proposal.doc+site:benwetmore.com+benwetmore.com&cd=15&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

    These people are scary creeps!!! They’re NOT “kid” “pranksters”!!!

  20. Well BD, what it amounts to is that they’re using religious organizations to launder/funnel tax free corporate cash for political favoritism.
    I’m thinking they should drop all of the tax exemptions on the 501 c’s and whatever to force these donations out in the open and make them pay taxes on all of their ill gotten/donated money.

    It’ll hurt the small legit ones at first but not as much as the big corporate ones.

  24. Our country is being destroyed by brats.

    O’Keefe should take notice that Judith Miller didn’t come out looking good after she betrayed her countrymen.

    Someday, we’re going to get some perspective on all of this.

  25. What the Transcripts Show About the Doctored ACORN Video Tapes
    The following is an analysis of the heavily edited videotapes and partial transcripts posted on
    biggovernment.com by O’Keefe and Giles based in their undercover visits to ACORN and ACORN Housing
    offices. Below the analysis, an Appendix provides key excerpts from the posted transcripts.

    http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache%3A2gMYOIQdMBUJ%3Awww.acorn.org%2Ffileadmin%2FHomePageNews%2F2009Dec%2FVideo_Transcript_Analysis_withExcperts.pdf+ACORN+tapes+doctored&hl=en&gl=us

  26. I hate these guys, because they do stuff like this, they’re well-funded, it does higher, they control the media, yet call it liberal, and there’s no more Woodward/Bernstein investigative take down/out the fraudsters in the corporate owned, bought out, controlled media that controls what the people in this country think. These creeps mission was to discredit ACORN, and they don’t care if someone gets thrown under the bus. Mission accomplished, polls show it worked, O’Keefe’s ACORN false sting. Because the mainstream media didn’t make the REAL story about O’Keefe’s doctored videos. They actually control our congress, causing them to put out legislation against ACORN faster than we could get health care. I wish congress would act on health care like they acted on ACORN. They should all resign.

    Right now, congress should be apologizing to ACORN and the mainstream media should be pounding O’Keefe & Breitbart and running 24×7 how they doctored the ACORN videos AND the Planned Parenthood ones were “highly doctored”.

    They are allowed to get away with it because of the controlled media. The mainstream media is the top of the pyramid allowing all of these things to happen.

    The MSM should be digging into all the religious overtones of this whole think, how John Perkins/Family Research Council “happened” to be protesting Landrieu’s phones…then this happens. Come on! There’s an obvious connection and it goes way up, with Family Research Council, Students for Life in America, Ben Wetmore, John Perkins, the Vitters, the Louisiana Council for a permanent Republican Majority, and much more. They’re not all “independent” and happen to be doing the same damn things! The MSM, in my opinion, is knowingly ignoring all these connections.

    The right controls the MSM, and calls it liberal as part of the sham. Like Brad said: reverse it – 4 Democratic operatives bug a sitting Republican senator…and the Democratic party would have to disband.

  27. And let’s not lose sight of the fact that the Bush/DOJ scandal happened because the fired DOJ attorneys would not bring up false charges against ACORN and Democrats, and don’t forget the Seigelman case, either.

  28. Frank Schaeffer should step into this conversation. He probably knows a lot about Family Research Council, John Perkins, Students for Life of America, Ben Wetmore, and all these religious fanatics.

  29. “The public will judge whether reporters who can’t get their facts straight have the credibility to question my integrity as a journalist.”

    I literally just about threw up when I read that. My stomach turned over, I am in no way kidding.

    Hey, dipsh*t, I’m the public, and I say you have no integrity, and are as much a journalist as George W. Bush is a rocket scientist.

  30. Do you think that if they tried a hoax like this at a bank,especially say Federal Reserve or on Wall Street at Goldman Sachs, the reaction would be the same from the media,or from the arresting authorities?

  31. T.R.O.—–Classic! It’s a case of doing the same thing (as at ACORN) and expecting the same result (not getting arrested), like they think they’re not being ‘watched’ after their first felony.

  33. Max Blumenthal has a new story up at Salon about O’Keefe’s racist activities -with photos- and information on the Aryan nation groups particpating at these events.

    This was a series of racist baiting from O’Keefe over several years prior to the Landrieu office arrest.