Posted on 01/26/2010 12:41:17 PM PST by Cheap_Hessian
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 fourth person, Stan Dai, was accused of aiding and abetting Basel and Flanagan. All four were charged with entering fedral property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony.
A witness from Landrieu's staff said O'Keefe was present in the office and claimed to be "waiting for someone to arrive."
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
I believe someone is lying.
No need to wonder. The MSM will blow this up to look like a scandal on the order of the Watergate break-in, and will beat our side over the head with it until the cows come home.
James O'keefe just gave the Dems a much-needed distraction from Obama's floundering administration, and the Democrat implosion.
Something doesn’t smell right.
“A witness claims” he was there?
They did not get a wire tap in place, if that was their goal. If they were actually trying to break the law, I’m glad they got caught. This Pimp has some explaining to do.
Something about this story is weird.
The FBI guy says he ALLEDGEDLY aided and abetted. HOW??????
Amateur field engineers.
You don’t need to expose yourself like this to listen in on phone calls or bug an office.
I’d have sent a few nice trojan horse devices in via mail....
They would not have been smart enough to figure it out...not in Landrieu’s office.
Ouch! That is going to leave a mark.
Do you think he was set up somehow? Seems like he would be smarter than this.
I want to hear their side of the story before I start throwing rocks.
******
A conservative activist who has caused problems for the community organizing group ACORN and the son of a federal prosecutor were among four people arrested and accused of trying to interfere with phones at U.S. 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, according to U.S. Attorney Jim Letten’s office. Letten says O’Keefe recorded the two with his cell phone.
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.
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, 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.
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.
An FBI criminal complaint charging the men was unsealed Tuesday.
My initial reaction is that O’Keefe is way to smart and careful to involve himself in any such plot. I think I’ll wait and see how this works out.
Do I think they would go to any lengths to harm him. Why, yes I do.
Bet this has the Dims nervous.....
I have a few thoughts about James. One of his first appearances after the tapes were released was on Fox and he was dressed up as a pimp. Sometime later he appeared on Glenn’s show. Glenn asked him if this was all a joke to him and O’Keefe seemed to have a little trouble answering that question. I came away with the impression that, although he may be a conservative and distrusts ACORN, ultimately he was doing this for attention. Perhaps this stunt was an attempt to get back into the spotlight (I’m not assuming he’s guilty of anything yet, just playing devil’s advocate).
Secondly, as another poster mentioned, I’m not entirely sure he’s guilty or perhaps this is just being overstated in order to get a little payback from the whole ACORN scandal.
Just a side note, wasn’t the ACORN office in N.O. raided a few months ago? Could there be a connection between these two stories?
Finally, even though it probably wasn’t the best idea to dress up like a telephone company employee and try to tape a government official’s phone, it just seems to me that maybe James had some inside knowledge of what was going on inside the office. I mean, you don’t just wake up one day and decide to tape the phone of some random (I know Mary really isn’t random) law maker. He had to have some sort of tip that something nefarious was going on. Also, I would like to know how they got caught. Did one of the employees recognize him from a photograph?
If true, he’s a dumb ass...
Even if he had caught her 'red handed' he's still in bigger trouble. Wire tapping anyone is a felony. Wiretapping a federal official is a big time felony.
These idiots are going to do some serious hard time.
I agree it is quite possible it was a setup. Take note of the fuzzy language in the accusation:
“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. “
So, O’Keefe himself was not dressed as a telephone company employee, but he supposedly “aided and abetted” them? If he were dressed as a telephone worker, I’d have much less cause for doubt.
Also, it says that attempted to “interfere” with the office telephone system. That seems rather vague.
It would not surprise me at all if a couple of felons were offered a deal or paid to show up at Landrieu’s office, when O’Keefe had an appointment there, and say he was working with them to bug the phones.
I’m learning not to believe initial reports, especially if they are vague. OK, sometimes I fall for it, but in this case I want more details and substantiated facts.
It would appear the cold civil war between the Right and Left is heating up a few degrees.
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