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ACORN Video Hack Busted Bugging Senator's Phones
By
John Del Signore
Published Jan 27, 2010
Modified Jan 27, 2010
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By
John Del Signore
Published Jan 27, 2010
Modified Jan 27, 2010
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Remember that conservative kid who punk'd the community organizing group ACORN with a hidden camera, fueling a right-wing backlash against the organization that contributed to Congress cutting their funding? We don't want to disillusion you or anything, but it turns out he's kind of shady. On Monday, James O'Keefe and three pals—all 24 years old—were arrested in New Orleans trying to bug the phones of Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu's office. Naturally, O'Keefe videotaped the whole thing, so there's that to look forward to.
According to the FBI affidavit [pdf], O'Keefe, Stan Dai and Robert Flanagan (who is the son of William Flanagan, acting U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana!) gathered at Landrieu's office around 11 a.m. dressed as telephone company employees and told staffers they were there to fix the phones. Landrieu's employee let them fiddle with the main phone at the reception desk, but then they said they needed access to the telephone closet, which was on the tenth floor. When someone there asked to see their credentials, they claimed they forgot them in the car, and soon after the U.S. Marshal's Service apprehended them, the AP reports.
It's unclear why O'Keefe and his cohorts have targeted Landrieu in their earnest Ayn Rand crusade; it's probably because the Democrat wants to help lazy poor people or something. (Some right-wingers have attacked her over the $100 million in extra Medicare subsidies she won for her state in the Senate health bill.) After being released last night on $10,000 bond, O'Keefe shouted "Veritas" (Latin for "truth"), presumably because "Sic Semper Tyrannis" is a little played out.
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John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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