Pimp Down!
Can we be too surprised? After everyone patted James “ACORN Pimp” O’Keefe on the back for secretly taping and entrapping ACORN workers, is it any surprise he would crank his shenanigans up to felony?
A federal law enforcement official said one of the suspects was picked up in a car a couple of blocks away with a listening device that could pick up transmissions. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was not part of the FBI affidavit.
O’Keefe said only “veritas,” Latin for truth, as he left jail Tuesday with suspects Stan Dai and Joseph Basel, both 24. All declined to comment.
As he got into a cab outside the jail, O’Keefe said, “The truth shall set me free.”
Story continues below
The fourth suspect, Robert Flanagan, 24, was released earlier Tuesday. His father, Bill, is the acting U.S. Attorney based in Shreveport. He was first assistant under Republican President George W. Bush appointee Donald Washington before Washington stepped down this month. President Barack Obama recently nominated Stephanie A. Finley for the post. His father’s office declined to comment.
All four suspects were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony, which carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Flanagan is the only suspect from Louisiana. Basel is from Minnesota; O’Keefe, New Jersey; and Dai, the D.C.-Virginia area.
“It was poor judgment,” Flanagan’s lawyer, Garrison Jordan, said in a brief interview outside the courtroom. “I don’t think there was any intent or motive to commit a crime.”
via James O’Keefe ARRESTED In Mary Landrieu Phone Scheme, 3 Others Also Charged.
ACORN Pimp aka Young Tricky Dick [too much?] may be in a bit of trouble. The Federal kind. O’Keefe could probably be pegged as the “ringleader” if you consider his penchant for covert multimedia. It was poor judgement, and it seems they committed a crime in an attempted security breach. Hugh Hewitt decided to host Brietbart to a no holds barred interview. What say you Breitbart? (bold is mind)
HH: Tell me about James O’Keefe a little bit.
AB: Let me also state this, because this is new in the Associated Press copy. O’Keefe said, “Veritas,” Latin for truth, as he left a suburban jail Tuesday with suspect Stan Dai and Joseph Basel, both 24. All declined to comment. There will be a time for that, Dai said. As he got into a cab outside of jail, O’Keefe said the truth shall set me free. So right now, what we have is information that is coming from the mainstream press that is presuming James O’Keefe’s guilt. This is a highly motivated press right now to take the story line that’s being spoon-fed by people that I don’t even know, to make sure that he’s guilty. And he’s going to have to prove himself innocent. And I’m not going to get into speculation as to what happened. I need to get as much information as I can. And from the standpoint of the blogosphere, and upholding the highest standards possible, we’ve put up my statement on all three of the sites – Big Government, Big Hollywood and Big Journalism, along with the latest Associated Press copy, to make sure that we’re not trying to avoid this story, to pretend that it’s not happening.
via An Interview With Andrew Breitbart About The O’Keefe Arrest.
First off, Brietbart must understand, O’Keefe is innocent until proven guilty and that the AP is neither judge nor juror nor the custodian of evidence to be used against the ACORN Pimp Crew. Federal prosecutors will be tasked with building a case against him and he will have his day in court. Brietbart, contradicts himself as he quotes the “AP copy” to raise O’Keefe and Dai’s claim that they have some truth that will set them free, and then Brietbart claims that same AP copy is only presenting information that indicates that O’Keefe and friends are guilty.
If Brietbart was consistent, he would be alarmed O’Keefe was speaking in Latin, wonder if he was being radicalized by Militia theories that helped spawned Timothy McVeigh and want him transferred to Gitmo for enhanced interrogation (torture).
UPDATE: O’Keefe was paid by directly by Brietbart to engage in guerilla journalism.
In an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt yesterday highlighted by Media Matters, Breitbart acknowledged that O’Keefe was on his payroll:
AB: When the story came to us, what I wanted to do was to make sure that the ACORN story got as much widespread dissemination as humanly possible. The videos that he independently produced went on YouTube. And so Huffington Post, every single site put it out there, including my sites. 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.