Posted on 01/26/2010 1:02:28 PM PST by BuckeyeTexan
Developing ... James O'Keefe, of ACORN sting video fame, and three other suspects have been arrested by the FBI for interfering with LA Senator Landrieu's phone system on federal property.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
FWIW, it was actually ABC. And, although ABC did have to pick up Food Lion's legal expenses - which I'm sure were exorbitant - the jury didn't award but $1 in punitive damages to Food Lion, primarily because the actions ABC captured at Food Lion were so reprehensible. Again, FWIW.
With modern PBX systems gaining access to the wire room will ordinarily not yield anything of use (unless you're stealing CAT 5 wire or something).
As I noted earlier the FBI has experts who can be called to testify regarding the security of any federal phone system in any particular location. They did so in the Patriot Act hearings. They will testify that nothing these gentlemen had available to them would have "interfered".
You can prove intent, but you need to have a crime as well ~ not success of a crime ~ but a crime, and "interfering" with something that's not "interferable" probably doesn't rise the level a jury will comprehend.
The FBI has a genius at work right now figuring out how these guys can do a plea that lets them completely off the hook but makes sure they don't try it again.
Demonstrators in DC regularly pay a $15 peacebond for ducking into an otherwise "closed" federal building.
If this is true, it was very stupid.
You don’t defraud, no matter what the reason.
+++++++++++++
Right. And it will damage the overall public impression that ACORN/COI sting was morally justified and useful, with that of some kid grabbing at attention and trying to bring people down.
Not sayin’ the RATS shouldn’t be scared of being brought down.
But not like this. It’s too rich a corruption environment to be doing stupid stuff like this, imho. I hope he gets a fair shake at justice...
sarc/ mebbe he should start a non-profit for the poor and support the RATs, they’ll let him skate then.../sarc
Sarcasm...
My thoughts exactly. Frame up...
They should've been wearing Black Panther militant uniforms. Then Eric Holder himself would be jumping to their defense.
Sounds like maybe a “Candid Camera” stunt gone awry....
The guy might have been a mole, and this was a sting.
It doesn’t say WHY they did it or what they planned to do. They actually didn’t do anything to the phone system based on what I read, just that they pretended to.
What could they achieve with DISCOVERY?
If they weren't dressed that way, they weren't authentic enough.
Wonder what they thought they’d hear/find in Landrieu’s office?
There's the relevant question. Does an attempt amount to a violation of the law. Depends on the statute, I guess. An individual who goes into a bank and asks where the vault is may intend to break into it, or he may just be curious. Here you have the possibility that the intent was to show how bad the security surrounding the phone system was, not to actually tap it. There's some wiggle-room here. I'd say the final disposition is unlikely to be a conviction of the initial charge, though there may be some lesser offense that fits the actual fact set.
And all of this just after Breitbart (at the Rick Perry bloggers’ summit this past weekend) calls for the New Internet Media to destroy the wretches in the MSM.
What was O’Keefe thinking?
That'd be something like the "office phone" that sets on an end table and is used, with permission, by guests.
They opened the handset, closed the handset, and called the phone twice.
Hmmm ~ deep crimes.
The wire room thing is irrelevant. You could go into any office and ask them where the wire room was and 99 times out of 100 the person you were addressing would say 'Hunh?"
It may have been their motive to show what doufouses the staffers are in Moon Landrieu's daughter's New Orleans office ~ although I don't know why you'd have to prove that ~ it's not like Senators keep that stuff secret.
The other oddity of this getting little attentino is that one of the other suspects is the son of a District Attorney in Louisiana.
You wrote:
“This will be on the news ad nauseum for a long time.”
Yeah, unlike the ACORN sting itself. I bet Charlie Gibson already knows about this this time!
Clearly, he wasn't. It's too bad as this will be fodder for the press to deflect other more important and pressing issues.
Does it strike anyone else as ‘strange’ that the arrests were made by the US Marshall’s service? Isn’t that a bit unusual?
The incident occurred in the Federal Building.
United States property.
Federal Jurisdiction.
The FBI undoubtedly has an office there.
According to the affidavit, O'Keefe confessed. I have a feeling his next journalism project is going to be a jailhouse diary.
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