Filmmaker Who Targeted ACORN Arrested in Alleged Senate Phone Scheme

Fox News ^ | 01/25/10

[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.

[muawiyah]

You may be onto something ~ first of all the US Marshall's Service did the bust, not the FBI. Secondly, these guys got all the way to a US Senator's office with bags of tools, ladders, and so forth ~ AND NO IDs.

You haven't been able to do that with a federal building since 9/12/01.

The Left must have thought building security was racially insensitive in its exclusivity.

Next, international jewel thieves clean out Smithsonian!

[Peter W. Kessler]

Once inside the reception area, Flanagan, the son of acting U.S. Attorney Bill Flanagan in Shreveport, and Basel asked for access to the main phone at the reception desk.

Really, really weird. I agree, if all this is true, O'Keefe is in deep doo-doo.

[Thunder90]

The problem with this is now ACORN can, in the eyes of the Democrats and the Feds, legitimately sue Okeefe and get their funding back. It also will allow (and the Feds will encourage) Maryland and other states to prosecute Okeefe and Hannah Giles over the ACORN videotapes.

[CRBDeuce]

Good thing he didn’t perpetrate the crime on an Indian Reservation or he coulda had the entire Native American population demanding reparations./s

[Thunder90]

The ridicoulis thing is that Okeefe may be charged under RICO because of the pending charges out of Maryland and California.

[HighlyOpinionated]

They were arrested later by the U.S. Marshal's Service.

If the FBI caught them, then why did the U.S. Marshal's Service arrest them? Something's just not kosher with this story.

[tanknetter]

It'll be interesting to see what happened, and what happens.

On a not-unrelated note, good WaPo article (rarity I know), on how Paul Harvey jumped the fence at a US nuclear facility in the 1950s, lied repeatedly to security and investigators, but ultimately got a pass. Even led to a close friendship with J. Edgar Hoover

[buckalfa]

“Could O’Keefe be that stupid, or is this some sort of frame up?”
So what, someone made O’Keefe and his co-conspirators wear telephone repairman/technician's clothes and forced them to make entry into Landrieu’s office? Not likely.”

Agreed. As self satisfying as it was to see Acorn exposed by O’Keefe last summer, one must admit his tactics then bordered on being illegal, and he might have actually had charges filed against him in Maryland.

[stephenjohnbanker]

LOL!

[rae4palin]

He was framed.

[muawiyah]

They didn't succeed in getting to the blocks ~ I suspect they knew that. So, what we have here is a couple of guys playing with a publicly available handset in a Senator's reception area.

All the rest of it is BS. Since they weren't armed I doubt there's any real crime here that can be made to stick.

BTW, if they've installed an improved PBX and done all the correct security procedures for it, there's no way it can be tapped anyway. You'd need to access it over the wire ~ hitting the blocks won't do anything for you.

One of the reasons for certain provisions in The Patriot Act was so the FBI could tap cellphones AND modern PBX mediated systems using modern systems. You can't wait until the call is initiated to start your tap with the good stuff out there today. You have to be hooked up long before a call is made!

[OldDeckHand]

"US Senator's office with bags of tools, ladders, and so forth ~ AND NO IDs."

No, they allegedly told the staffer that they didn't have their telephone repairman ID's. You're making an assumption that they didn't have any ID on them at all. The US Marshall will frequently effect arrest on behalf of other federal agencies. I wouldn't read anything into it, especially considering that the alleged crime occurred in the federal courthouse - where the US Marshall's have purview.

[happinesswithoutpeace]

/mark for later

[muawiyah]

The FBI has experts in this field available 24/7. They will swear to this being an ineffective way to tap a phone.

[SeattleBruce]

“FREE THE NEW ORLEANS 4.”

LOL.

[dmz]

What page? I’m not seeing an admission.

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Item 10 in the linked affidavit.

[muawiyah]

US Marshalls did the bust. The FBI is into it for the paperwork.

There's a major difference in the personnel ~ the Marshalls are all big guys, tough, can handle anything. The typical FBI guy is a college grad dink.

Not that they're bad, but they need lots of guns to help them.

[Red Steel]

Anyone besides me see the irony in the FBI’s handling of this case vs. the Crotch Bomber?

This "case" I'll bet has a higher priority with the Obama administration.

All the Feds have here, according the the affidavit, is O'Keefe misrepresenting himself to gain access to the building. For the government to prove their case, OKeefe would have had to tamper with the phone system with the intent to bug it. I see none of that in the affidavit.

[library user]

I didn’t look hard enough. Thanks. Yeah, doesn’t look good.

[muawiyah]

GSA also has “guards”. THey got past the guards. No notice in any of this who is guarding this particular building.