Uncategorized

FBI: Former Fake Pimp Tried To Bug Lady Senator

By Michael Scherer | @michaelscherer | January 26, 2010 | +

UPDATE: O’Keefe announced on January 29 that he was not trying to wiretap the phones, just test them. See his statement here.

Remember James O’Keefe, the skinny white kid, who dressed as a cartoon pimp and exposed ACORN as a mess of an organization, rocketing himself to Fox News fame? Well he was just arrested by the FBI for allegedly trying to wiretap Sen. Mary Landrieu’s phone in New Orleans. Really.

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. . . . A witness from Landrieu’s staff said O’Keefe was present in the office and claimed to be “waiting for someone to arrive.”

I will bet a copy of Glenn Beck’s holiday classic, The Christmas Sweater, that the FBI finds a video recording of the whole ordeal. Some of O’Keefe’s best pimp work, after the jump.

Related Topics: james O'keefe, mary landrieu, Uncategorized

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  • bogartshat

    Why didn’t they just call up the NSA and ask to listen to their tapes?

    Bogart’s Hat
    not Bogart Shat

  • http://fourlegsrgood.wordpress.com fourlegsgood

    What goes around, comes around. I hope he likes jail.

  • apr2563

    MS: Did you comment on the arrest so you could allow us to view the Acorn video for the zilllionth time? Would you explain how O’Keefe has not allowed public the unedited version of that video?
    Michael, Mr. Passive Agressive..

  • Ivy_B

    We’ll see how the suit the Philadelphia office filed comes out. I hope his jail term won’t inhibit that suit. I saw so little coverage of the actions of the Philadelphia office of ACORN – instead it was the few bad apples above, just like those in the Iraq prison that we saw over and over.

    http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/82480057.html

  • queencersei

    So when will he be getting a radio show ala G. Gordon Liddy?

  • dhampton100

    INCREDIABLY STUPID! This is a prime example of what happens when one person tries to destroy another by any means necessary. It will be interesting to see if he gets treated like any other criminal. One of the guys with him is the son of the Acting U.S. Attorney for Louisiana. I wonder if this is evidence that stupidity is hereditary.

  • Ivy_B
  • Ivy_B

    Blending Michael’s last post and this one, Think Progress documents Fox News first coverage of this story.

    http://thinkprogress.org/2010/01/26/fox-okeefe/

  • Matt

    If the ACORN story was a mega blow for the Left, this should be just as damaging for the Right. It presents much of the tea party/Fox crowd as fraudulent.

    http://www.political-buzz.com/

  • http://www.ghostnote.com Cookie Puss

    Is a Lady Senator like a Boy Reporter?

  • kathy

    More at the Atlantic.

    And Michael – ditto what Cookie Puss said. Am I missing some literary allusion? Did you not think we would know Sen. Mary Landrieu? Lady Senator? Well at least you think she’s a lady. Hardly anyone would accuse many of the other senators of being gentlemen. right?

  • nflfoghorn

    Glenn Blech’s “classic” ANYTHING is an incorrect connotation.
    .
    Mighty funny how someone who tried to paint an organization he hates in a bad light wound up darkening his own door. Any non-sloppy, “fair and balanced” news organization would’ve smacked this punk down ‘long time ago. But we still got Sludge et.al. to deal with.

  • kathy

    And from the Atlantic, re: one of the men arrested:

    The Swamp’s Mark Silva reports that Flanagan, 24, is the son of the acting U.S. attorney in Shreveport, William Flanagan.

  • queencersei

    I wouldn’t count on it Matt. Seriously, he could end up with his own radio show or at the very least become a Fox News contributor. Former incarceration is not a mark of shame for Conservative pundits, it is a badge of honor.

  • formerlyjames

    Get the full unbiased story on Fox Knews.

  • apr2563

    When will MS?

  • gysgt213

    “As Dave Weigel notes, “O’Keefe had become a conservative media star since the ACORN sting.” Rep. Pete Olson (R-TX) even introduced a resolution praising O’Keefe and his partner, would-be prostitute Hannah Giles, for “their diligent investigative journalism.” In a statement announcing the resolution, Olson said, “Hannah and James should be applauded for their efforts to root out corruption and abuse of federal tax dollars.” He also claimed O’Keefe was “setting an example for concerned citizens across America.”
    .
    http://mediamattersaction.org/blog/201001260008

  • apr2563

    This is in the grand tradition that has been the MO since Nixon, Lee Atwater, G.Gordon Libby, Donald Segretti, Chuck Colson. Segretti called dirty tricks “rat
    f**king”, as in f**ing democrats. Classy bunch.

    blocking democrat campaign phones
    sending out mailings in minority districts stating the wrong date for voting, as they have done recently
    sending out a questionaire that mimics a census form,
    as they are doing now
    false press releases
    forging letters
    push polling
    enemies lists
    Arkansas Project-Richard Mellon Scaife
    phony robo calls
    lies about military heroes McCain, Cleland, Kerry
    CREEP
    The list is infinite.
    Now, new and testee and others will say, dems do it too. Yeah, they do use dirty tricks at times. But no group has mastered the art as well as the Republicans. It passes from generation to generation. Watch Buchannan chuckle with glee when these methods are talked about.

  • abdullah69

    So who was paying O’Keefe?

    Nearly forty years ago, members of the MSM were exhorted to “follow the money.” No doubt the intrepid reporters at Fox are doing that as we write.

  • Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I thought I was missing some pop culture reference, some play on Specter/Bachman, something in the post. I didn’t, did I?

  • apr2563

    Sorry to make a generalization but O’Keefe looks like every male Young Republican I have ever met. Maybe they could get him to enlist and go to Afghanistan to pay for his felony. Young Republicans aren’t too quick to join the fight.

  • razionaltinker

    I love and totally agree with queencersei’s
    January 26—- 9.1 response.

  • http://theblindspotsofgod.wordpress.com lawyermommy

    I think the bigger question is “Who set up that chomp”? With technology the way it is these days, who goes to offices to bug phones?? You can but phones remotely and easily so who goes to the location to do it?? Probably some easily fooled bone head!

    I am sure no one feels sorry for him. I am even surprised he was given any mention here. What a YAWN! :)

    LM

    http://theblindspotsofgod.wordpress.com/2010/01/15/technology-savvy-nigerian-criminals-are-the-greatest-threat-to-national-security/

  • http://www.jesus-on-taxes.com Ned Netterville

    In the grand tradition of liberal and conservative political practices, I must ask: What is Mary Landrieu hiding?

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