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Last year Conservative film maker James O’Keefe was a political star.
He and a friend, Hanna Giles, dressed up as a pimp and prostitute (respectively) in a film that gave ACORN (a national community activist group) a basket of problems. In their guise the duo filmed a few ACORN employees giving illegal advice.
The ensuing controversy cost ACORN their federal funding and turned O’Keefe into a conservative rock star.
Well he’s back. This time in hand-cuffs.
O’Keefe and three others were arrested earlier this week for allegedly attempting to tamper with Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D LA) office. More specifically the phones.
Two members of the crew entered Landrieu’s New Orleans office dressed in construction garb (think Bob The Builder). After tampering with the phone system in the Landrieu’s office the two, posing as repair men, asked for access to the building’s main telephone system.
Here is where the wheels started to come off. The two were asked for identification, when they could produce none suspicions were raised. Shortly after all four were arrested by federal marshals.
Unfortunately for O’Keefe and his compatriots, this is a tad more than a simple prank. They are being charged with entering federal property under false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony. This carries a charge a max sentance of 10 years and a fine up to $250,000.
In layman’s terms: this = big trouble.
O’Keefe’s motives are another question. The operation was initially identified as a failed wire tapping. Interestingly, O’Keefe claims his intentions were less sinister. Instead of bugging the phones, O’Keefe and company planned to disable the phones.
The crew allegedly wanted to see how Landrieu’s office handled a problem with the phones. TPM has a detailed analysis here.
Whatever the out come of this particular case may be, it was only a matter of time before O’Keefe’s methods got him into the hot box. ACORN is suing O’Keefe for video tapping their employees without permission.
The once bright future of this young filmmaker is now turning jumpsuit orange.
