The Conservative Sham

Jiro

Jiro

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Videographer, three others get probation in Senate office incident
(CNN) -- Conservative videographer James O'Keefe and three co-defendants pleaded guilty Wednesday to entering federal property under false pretenses for a January incident in which they tried to tamper with the phone system in the New Orleans office of Sen. Mary Landrieu.

O'Keefe, 25, and co-defendants Joseph Basel, 24, Robert Flanagan, 24, and Stan Dai, 25, were each fined $1,500, placed on probation and ordered to do community service, according to a Department of Justice statement.

The four were arrested in January after Basel and Flanagan posed as telephone repair workers to get into Landrieu's office.

O'Keefe also was in the office and secretly videotaped the incident, while Dai was outside, according to the Justice Department statement.

Landrieu, a Democrat, had voted in favor of the Democratic health care reform bill the previous month.

Calling himself an "investigative journalist," O'Keefe claimed he was trying to test the credibility of a claim by Landrieu that her office had been unable to field calls from constituents opposed to her stance on the Senate health care bill because her phone lines had been "jammed for weeks."

Basel and Flanagan told a staffer in Landrieu's office that they were telephone repairmen and were granted access to the reception desk's phone system. All four were arrested shortly after leaving the office.

O'Keefe is the same conservative activist who dressed as a pimp last summer and visited the offices of ACORN, which bills itself as an advocacy group for low- and middle-income families, to solicit advice on setting up a brothel, among other scenarios, law enforcement officials confirmed.

He secretly recorded the visits on videotapes that were posted on the Internet, leading to a media firestorm. ACORN announced in March it was shutting down due to a loss of funding.
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what a shameless bunch operating on dishonesty and deception..... federal offense... not good.
 
The article got it wrong. He did not attempt to tamper with the phones. He only pleaded guilty to entering a federal building under false pretenses.
 
darkdog said:
The article got it wrong. He did not attempt to tamper with the phones. He only pleaded guilty to entering a federal building under false pretenses.
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you sure?

Four plead to misdemeanor in senator phone case
(Reuters) - Four men pleaded guilty to entering Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu's office in New Orleans under false pretenses to secretly tape her staff, the U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday.

Among those pleading to the misdemeanor charges was James O'Keefe, who became known for posing as a pimp and filming workers with the liberal grassroots group Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) as they gave him advice on how to flout housing laws.

That incident attracted a big audience after being posted on YouTube. It forced ACORN to disband its formal national operations and reorganize its state chapters.

In the Landrieu incident, two of O'Keefe's associates, Joseph Basel and Robert Flanagan, dressed as telephone repairmen, entered her New Orleans office in January under the pretense of performing repairs, the Justice Department said.

O'Keefe had gone into the office just before them, telling staff he was waiting for a friend. Instead, he secretly recorded the conversations. A fourth individual, Stan Dai, waited outside to help if needed, prosecutors said.

The four were later arrested after Basel and Flanagan tried to gain access to the main telephone system for Landrieu's office, but were confronted by General Services Administration employees who manage government facilities.

O'Keefe was ordered to pay a $1,500 fine, perform 100 hours of community service and was placed on three years of probation. The other three were each ordered to pay a $1,500 fine, perform 75 hours of community service and placed on two years probation, the Justice Department said.

Flanagan is the son of acting U.S. Attorney Bill Flanagan in Shreveport, Louisiana.
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Filmmaker Who Targeted ACORN Arrested in Alleged Senate Phone Scheme
The independent filmmaker who brought ACORN to its knees last year with an undercover expose was arrested this week along with three others, including the son of a federal prosecutor, and accused of trying to interfere with the phones at Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu's office.

The independent filmmaker who brought ACORN to its knees last year with undercover exposes was arrested this week along with three others, including the son of a federal prosecutor, and accused of trying to interfere with the phones at Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu's office.

Federal officials did not say why the men wanted to interfere with Landrieu's phones or whether they were successful. 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.

Calls to the cell phone of the filmmaker, James O'Keefe, were not returned, but his lawyer, Michael Madigan defended his client's character.

"We don't have any of the facts yet, but James O'Keefe, at heart, is a really good kid," Madigan said in a statement to Fox News. "We are looking into this further and are awaiting hearing from James directly."

O'Keefe, 25, already was 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.

In 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.

After handling the phone, "Flanagan and Basel next requested access to the telephone closet because they needed to perform work on the main telephone system," Letten's office said.

The men were directed to another office in the building, where they're accused of again misrepresenting themselves as 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.
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are both Fox News and Reuters wrong too?
 
Sorry for the slow response. It's been a busy few days. Anyway, this is a detail the media bungled from the beginning. It's probably one of those things were one paper gets it wrong and the rest run with it. Andrew Breitbart's site, biggovernment.com has posted a court document where the government acknowledges that the men had no intent to tamper with the phones here. Here's the money quote.

In this case, further investigation did not uncover evidence that the defendants intended to commit any felony after the entry by false pretenses despite their initial statements to the staff of Senatorial office and GSA requesting access to the central phone system. Instead, the Government’s evidence would show that the defendants misrepresented themselves and their purpose for gaining access to the central phone system to orchestrate a conversation about phone calls to the Senator’s staff and capture the conversation on video, not to actually tamper with the phone system, or to commit any other felony.
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darkdog said:
Sorry for the slow response. It's been a busy few days. Anyway, this is a detail the media bungled from the beginning. It's probably one of those things were one paper gets it wrong and the rest run with it. Andrew Breitbart's site, biggovernment.com has posted a court document where the government acknowledges that the men had no intent to tamper with the phones here. Here's the money quote.
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Whether or not it was their intent, the outcome was the same. Tampering with the phone system...a felony.
 
jillio said:
It would appear those double standards are at work again.
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Indeed.....Federal government going after these guys yet not going forward with the case involving armed Black Panthers at polling places......disgusting
 
Jiro said:
I take it that you condone their action because they brought down ACORN?
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They went to far this time, and they will pay a price.......But as an American I am glad some people have the courage to try to expose government corruption
 
TXgolfer said:
They went to far this time, and they will pay a price.......But as an American I am glad some people have the courage to try to expose government corruption
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government corruption? ACORN is not a government agency.
 
But actually I was referring more to what was going on in the Senator's office
 
and O'Keefe is somebody's fresh meat now
 
TXgolfer said:
On probation????? :shock:
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I see that he's on 3-years probation... 100 hrs of community service.... and $1,500 fines.

well then now he's somebody's bee-itch :lol:
 
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