{"id":233180,"date":"2010-01-26T17:11:20","date_gmt":"2010-01-26T22:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rhrealitycheck.org\/blog\/2010\/01\/26\/acorn-nemesis-3-others-arrested-wiretapping-sen-landrieu"},"modified":"2010-01-26T19:54:03","modified_gmt":"2010-01-27T00:54:03","slug":"acorn-nemesis-and-three-others-arrested-for-wiretapping-office-of-sen-landrieu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/233180","title":{"rendered":"ACORN Nemesis and Three Others Arrested for Wiretapping Office of Sen. Landrieu"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nFour people were arrested on Monday trying
\nto bug telephones in<\/a> the New Orleans’ office of Democratic Senator Mary
\nLandrieu. Among those arrested was James O’Keefe, the filmmaker best known for
\nthe ACORN video scandal<\/a>. Another, Robert Flanagan, is also the son of the
\nacting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, William Flanagan.\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n\tAccording to the FBI affidavit,
\n\tFlanagan and [Joseph Basel] entered the federal building at 500 Poydras Street
\n\tabout 11 a.m. Monday, dressed as telephone company employees, wearing
\n\tjeans,\u00a0 fluorescent green vests, tool
\n\tbelts, and hard hats. When they arrived at Landrieu’s 10th floor office,
\n\tO’Keefe was already in the office and had told a staffer he was waiting for
\n\tsomeone to arrive.\n\t<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen Flanagan and Basel entered the
\n\toffice, they told the staffer they were there to fix phone problems. At that
\n\ttime, the staffer, referred to only as Witness 1 in the affidavit, observed
\n\tO’Keefe positioning his cell phone in his hand to videotape the operation.
\n\tO’Keefe later admitted to agents that he recorded the event.\n\t<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter being asked, the staffer gave
\n\tBasel access to the main phone at the reception desk. The staffer told
\n\tinvestigators that Basel manipulated the handset. He also tried to call the
\n\tmain office phone using his cell phone, and said the main line wasn’t working.
\n\tFlanagan did the same.\n\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThey then told the staffer they
\n\tneeded to perform repair work on the main phone system and asked where the
\n\ttelephone closet was located. The staffer showed the men to the main General
\n\tServices Administration office on the 10th floor, and both went in. There, a
\n\tGSA employee asked for the men’s credentials, after which they stated they left
\n\tthem in their vehicle.\n\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThe U.S. Marshal’s Service apprehended all
\n\tfour men shortly thereafter.\n\t<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nThe motivation for their actions are not known at this time, nor is it known whether
\nthey were acting
\nwith anyone else.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n\tRobert Flanagan’s attorney, J.
\n\tGarrison Jordan, said he believes his client works for the Pelican Institute.
\n\tAsked the motivation for the alleged wiretap plot, he said: "I think it
\n\twas poor judgment. I don’t think there was any intent or motive to commit a
\n\tcrime."\n\t<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nThe Pelican Institute<\/a> "is a Louisiana-based think tank founded last year by
\nnative New Yorker and Tulane grad Kevin Kane."\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n\tThough it labels itself as
\n\t"non-partisan," the Pelican Institute is undeniably bent toward conservative
\n\tand libertarian political philosophies, with a concentration on limiting
\n\tgovernment.\n\t<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nAccording to Politico<\/a>
\n"the four men could each face up to 10 years and a fine of $250,000 if they are
\nconvicted.\n<\/p>\n

\nMedia Matters also has more info about the other men arrested. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Four people were arrested on Monday trying to bug telephones in the New Orleans’ office of Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu. Among those arrested was James O’Keefe, the filmmaker best known for the ACORN video scandal. Another, Robert Flanagan, is also the son of the acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, William Flanagan. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-233180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}