Independent filmmake James O’Keefe was arrested in New Orleans this week along with three others in a phone scheme targeting liberal Senator Mary Landrieu. O’Keefe and three others were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony.
FOX News reported:
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.
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.
Big Government editors said they had no idea O’Keefe was working a sting in New Orleans.
NOLA reported:
O’Keefe on Thursday gave a speech to the Pelican Institute for Public Policy, a libertarian group in New Orleans…
The four men appeared in federal magistrate court this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Louis Moore wearing red inmate jumpsuits from St. Bernard Parish Prison, where they are being held. Moore is allowing the men to be released on $10,000 bond.
UPDATE: Barack Obama’s ACORN supporters releases a statement today.
The Hill reported:
ACORN took to Twitter to express its satisfaction with O’Keefe’s arrest with three other individuals after they were caught attempting to wiretap the New Orleans office of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.):
Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving soul. http://bit.ly/bNR2ZC #acornfacts #p2
Over the summer O’Keefe and his associate Hannah Giles posed as a pimp and prostitute while filming undercover video of ACORN employees.
The footage led to a political firestorm on Capitol Hill resulting in Congress voting to temporarily strip ACORN’s federal funding.
UPDATE: Oh boy. HotAir says a conviction may include 10 years in prison.
