Community | January 26, 2010 | 33 comments

James O'Keefe ARRESTED In Landrieu Phone Scheme, 3 Others Also Charged

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NEW ORLEANS — A conservative activist who posed as a pimp to target the community-organizing group ACORN and the son of a federal prosecutor were among four people arrested by the FBI and accused of trying to interfere with phones at Sen. Mary Landrieu's office.

Activist James O'Keefe, 25, was already in Landrieu's New Orleans office Monday when Robert Flanagan and Joseph Basel, both 24, showed up claiming to be telephone repairmen, U.S. Attorney Jim Letten's office said Tuesday. Letten says O'Keefe recorded the two with his cell phone.

Flanagan, the son of acting U.S. Attorney Bill Flanagan in Shreveport, and Basel asked for access to a phone at the reception desk. Then they asked for access to a phone closet so they could work on the phone system. The men were directed to another office in the building, where they again said they were telephone repairmen.

They were arrested later by the U.S. Marshal's Service. Details of the arrest were not available. A fourth man, Stan Dai, 24, was also arrested, but Letten's office said only that he assisted the others in planning, coordinating and preparing the operation.

Federal officials did not say why the men wanted to interfere with Landrieu's phones or whether they were successful. Landrieu, a moderate Democrat, declined comment Tuesday. She has been in the news recently because she negotiated an increase in Medicaid funds for her state before announcing her support for Senate health care legislation.

Bill Flanagan's office confirmed his son was among those arrested, but declined further comment.

An FBI criminal complaint charging the men was unsealed Tuesday, and a magistrate set bond at $10,000 each after they made their initial court appearances wearing red prison jumpsuits.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/26/james-okeefe-arrested-in-_n_437506.html
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33 comments // James O'Keefe ARRESTED In Landrieu Phone Scheme, 3 Others Also Charged

  • SleepDirt
  • SleepDirt
  • SleepDirt
    • 0
      SleepDirt  

    • Jonathon Turley blogs: They have been charged with entering federal property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony.
      However, that is likely only the first charge. There are a host of additional charges, particularly if the prosecutor support the widespread speculation of an alleged conspiracy to wiretap the office of a federal official.
      It is not clear if the authorities confirmed an effort to wiretap or found such equipment — as opposed to another prank-like video.
      Moreover, I would expect other possible arrests. Usually there are other individuals with knowledge of such a boneheaded plan.
      As for Flannagan’s father, he is in Shreveport and thus not necessarily involved in any official capacity. Obviously, he will be insulated from any role in any investigation under standard procedures for conflicts.

      ....

      Depending on who they spoke to in the course of this day, they could also conceivably face charges under 18 U.S.C. 1001, in giving false information to federal officers.

    • 2 years ago
  • desertcat
    • 0
      desertcat  

    • THESE GUYS COMMITTED NO CRIME, THEY WERE ON A MISSION FROM GOD, INSTRUCTIONS FROM PAT ROBERTSON. NO ONE KNOWS THIS BUT PAT GOT INFORMATION FROM THE ANGEL GABRIEL THAT SOME YEARS AGO THE SENATOR MADE A PACT WITH THE DEVIL. SHE TURNED FROM THE RIGHTEOUS RELIGIOUS RIGHT AND SOLD HER SOUL TO THE DEMOCRATIC DEVIL, SECOND ONLY TO SATAN HIMSELF. THESE MEN WERE JUST GOING TO MAKE SURE THAT SHE DID NOT SPREAD THIS EVIL TO THE INNOCENT CHILDREN WHO MIGHT ASK HER QUESTIONS.
      REPRESENTING THESE MEN WILL BE SARAH PALEN, DICK CHENEY AND ANN/ANDY COULTER. WHO ELSE BETTER TO DEFEND THEM BUT PEERS.

    • 2 years ago
  • eternal_springs
    • 0
      eternal_springs  

    • I imagine they're destroying all the posters of him they had ready for their little confab in Hawaii?? Karma, indeed!! It's always very nice to see it play out.

    • 2 years ago
  • locutus
  • 02
  • device80
    • 0
      device80  

    • so was he wearing the pimp outfit when he tried to fix the phone? lol, no one would believe a white pimp, thats like a monogamous morman..

    • 2 years ago
  • bike10
    • 0
      bike10  

    • Good Republicans of moral and family values. The party of dirty ticks find some way to destroy a candidate and avoid the issues. Mr. Steele is the one new faces and part of the big tent for the GOP?

    • 2 years ago
  • SleepDirt
  • SleepDirt
    • 0
      SleepDirt  

    • Where is the conservative troll Breitbart/Fox Defense League? (sound of crickets)

      Conservatives who were crowing about what a genius this twit was six months ago are goosestepping away from this as fast as their little jackboots will carry them, now that it's blown up in their faces.

    • 2 years ago
  • SleepDirt
    • 0
      SleepDirt  
    • Image

    • The plot thickens...

      Oops: Breitbart admits paying activist who tried to bug Democratic senator

      (...) “We have no knowledge about or connection to any alleged acts and events involving James O’Keefe at Senator Mary Landrieu’s office," Breitbart remarked. "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.”

      And yet, on a radio interview the same day, Breitbart told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that O'Keefe was all but an employee.

      HH: Last question, in terms of his relationship with you not connected to this event, are you still, is he in your employ in any way?

      AB...What he does for the site exclusively is he tells his life rights, basically. So when he puts a story out there, it's on the Brietbart sites, the Big sites, that he can tell people what transpired. So...

      HH: Do you pay him for that?

      AB: Yes.

      HH: And are you free to tell me how much you pay him?

      AB: I'll...perhaps at another date, but he's paid a fair salary.

      HH: Is he...so he is an employee?

      AB: I'm not sure that's technically the thing, but yes, he's paid for his life rights. And he's, you know, he's still...we reserve the right to say yes or no to any of the stories that he puts up on our site as we do to any other contributor who comes to the site.

      HH: Will it be a mischaracterization to say he was working for you when he went about this?

      AB: Well, I mean, no. He was not involved in anything that was related to Big Government, or Breitbart.com.

      In a follow-up posting on his website BigGovernment, Breitbart said he wasn't leaping to any conclusions -- but noticeably omitted the fact he was paying O'Keefe.

      "Let me state clearly for the record: wiretapping is wrong," he wrote. "But until I hear the full story from James O’Keefe, I will not speculate as to what he was doing in Louisiana."

      http://rawstory.com/2010/01/oops-breitbart-admits-paying-activist-bug-democratic...

    • 2 years ago
  • panichead
    • 0
      panichead  

    • Random thoughts and questions:
      1.) When this clown walked into the Acorn offices and ran this scheme dressed as a "cartoonish pimp", the black women who worked in the offices didn't "bust out laughing" at the absurdity of his outfit ? They had to have known this was some sort of joke. The Acorn workers have probably seen and heard it all and this little stunt had to have made for plenty of laughs. I believe it was a "copy & paste" job.
      2.) Was this gonna be another "copy & paste" job ?
      3.) Is this idiot just someone seeking attention ? (ie: Tila Tequila, Balloon boy, any reality star, or girls who slept with Tiger)
      4.) Were they encouraged by the right-wing blogoshere ?
      5.) Were they encouraged by FUX News, O'Rielly's warriors (Grif fJenkins) ?
      6.) Will Mr. O'Keefe's next expose' be about "prison rape and intimate relationships in the Angola State Pen"
      7.) Does this go higher up to Mr. Flanagan's father the State Attorney ?
      8.) Or maybe the Rep. party ?
      9) Is there something in the "patriot act" that could hang these fools out to dry ?
      10.) When I was 24 - 25 I was serving my country in the Army, These trust fund babies need to do something "truly patriotic" and enlist instead of commiting felonies.
      11.) Maybe that can be there sentence if convicted. All 4 must join the Army as 11-Bravo (grunts) and be sent to the Kush Valley and do something productive for their country.

    • 2 years ago
  • SleepDirt
    • 0
      SleepDirt  
    • panichead:

      "Is there something in the "patriot act" that could hang these fools out to dry ?"

      Seems reasonable to me.
      I see no reason at all that this should not be regarded as an alleged act of terror.
      it only seeks fitting that any such action against a Federal facility should be responded to appropriately.
      Military commission, indefinite detention, no habeus corpus rights, coercive iterrogation. Just like it would if these four were of Middle Eastern origin. After all, what's good for the goose....

    • 2 years ago
  • lifestudentno83
    • 0
      lifestudentno83  
    • panichead:

      Sorry Panic, he wouldn't be headed to the State Pen. He'd be in Federal Prison, since wire-tapping falls under their jurisdiction. This is only if trust fund baby doesn't get off with a slap on the wrist.

      I wish he would head to the State Pen. He'll know how his girlfriend felt paraded around in that hooker outfit once he got his hand shoved in the pocket of some 6-foot-2inch bruiser named Bubba.

    • 2 years ago
  • VC1
    • 0
      VC1  

    • He's a nice, conservative, republican, middle-class white guy and one that every mother wants her son to be like and daughter to marry. It's OK for him to do shit like this, as he's shown in the past. As one attorney said, ''It was poor judgment, I don't think there was any intent or motive to commit a crime.'' So smack the back of his hand, pat him on the back, and while we're at it, give him a couple of crosses to burn, a swastika tat, and a guest spot on FOX and forget that the law applies to people like him.

    • 2 years ago
  • nanac
    • 0
      nanac  

    • Karma is a bitch! O'keefe and his Republican conspirators, purposely spread false allegations about Acorn....Their main objective was to discredit and destroy the name of Acorn....They didn't care about the millions of low and moderate income people, that Acorn represented... They wanted to stop Acorn's successful voters registration, so they needed to dry up their funding...This is how the Republican Party win their elections, by illegal means and nothing is beneath their Party...This latest crime, is more evidence of their disregard for the law..Where are all of the Acorn haters, and the Fox viewers on this issue? Excellent post!

    • 2 years ago
  • kennymotown
  • timetide
    • 0
      timetide  

    • i loved this. did they really think those outfits would hide them? It's almost like they saw a corny move and siad "thats a great idea!". and my prediction is fox news is going to either not report this or claim thats its a frame job by the Obama administration to silence opposition.

    • 2 years ago
  • lifestudentno83
    • 0
      lifestudentno83  

    • O'Queefe.. err, I mean O'Keefe will be out in a week within appearing in court. His bond is only 10k, and I'm sure dear ol' dad will foot the bill.

      Also, watch how he doesn't get any jail time. Just a finger wag and a "tsk, tsk". He's already nothing but a replaceable cog in the Republican/Draconian Propaganda Machine.

      I wish they would throw the book at him and his stooges, but I know better.

    • 2 years ago
  • lifestudentno83
    • 0
      lifestudentno83  
    • lifestudentno83:

      So if he does get time, it will be in cushy Fed Pen. Still doesn't seem fair to me, and I still have my doubts about him doing time. His pops is a U.S. Attorney General, so I'm sure he has some pull. I sincerely doubt he would even do a year if jailed.

      Sorry Slara, I got no more faith in the system. If I steal a Big Mac from McDonald's because I'm hungry, then I'll go to jail and rot.
      But kids from certain affluent business or government families can get away with murder(Laura Bush).

    • 2 years ago
  • artemis6
  • EdJoyProductions
  • kennymotown
    • 0
      kennymotown  

    • Don't you know this just goes a lot deeper and republican money is behind this, I guarantee that. Don't we all remember the big stink about ACORN during and after the election and how most of the stink was false and then these guy made that so called proof of ACORN film with the phony hookers. This has been a constant attack on the Obama administration with what has proven to be largely just a hack job on a decent organization. Keep digging FBI we will show the nation how low the Republican (Watergate) party will go.

    • 2 years ago
  • Progresshiv
  • kennymotown
    • 0
      kennymotown  

    • I just caught this news on the way home from work, and sounds as if the FOX network may also be in on the scheme. Lets see what fools back this douche and his co-conspirators, like they did in the phony ACORN investigation crap.

    • 2 years ago
  • mcjk
  • KSirys
  • SleepDirt
  • SleepDirt
  • SleepDirt
  • SleepDirt
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