Conservative filmmaker James O’Keefe has gone public with what is likely to be his defense at trial to the felony charge that he entered federal property with “false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony.”
In a statement published on bigovernment.com, O’Keefe says that he was merely trying to refute the claim of Landrieu that her office could not field constituent calls because her telephones had been “jammed for weeks.” He said “I decided to investigate why a representative of the people would be out of touch with her constituents for ‘weeks’ because her phones were broken. . . . In investigating this matter, we decided to visit Sen. Landrieu’s district office — the people’s office — to ask the staff if their phones were working.”
The description in the affidavit shows more than asking the staff if their phones were working. They asked to see the main telephone system. Such a stunt is particularly dangerous at a time of terroristic concerns. Any number of political extremists could claim to be journalists in trying to infiltrate secure areas. Moreover, such stunts can lead to unpredictable responses from security personnel, including lockdowns and detaining large numbers of individuals. It is a perfectly moronic practice that raises questions of not just O’Keefe’s judgment but his mental faculties.
O’Keefe’s continued public statements show a lack of control and caution in this criminal defense case. Most attorneys bar clients from making such comments. While there has been no confirmation of the reported gag order in the case, O’Keefe was reportedly told to “avoid all contact, directly or indirectly, with any persons who are or who may become a victim or potential witness in the subject investigation or prosecution on including but not limited to: unless for business purposes only.” That would not normally bar public comments, but his public statements could trigger a formal gag order in the case. Putting aside of rules restricting public statements in local rules (and any possible gag order), it is always a high-risk practice. O’Keefe is now locked into this defense because of his public statements. They can be admitted at trial. Moreover, if he decides not to take the stand, his public comments are likely to magnify the suspicions of the jury. In a case that is likely to turn on the jury’s view of motivation and intent, such presumptions can be highly damaging.
O’Keefe appeared willing to plead to entry under false pretenses while contesting the “intent to commit a felony.” The difference is considerable. Entry under false pretenses alone presents a maximum sentence of 6 months. Here is the language of Section 1036:
§ 1036. Entry by false pretenses to any real property, vessel, or aircraft of the United States or secure area of any airport or seaport
How Current is This?
(a) Whoever, by any fraud or false pretense, enters or attempts to enter—
(1) any real property belonging in whole or in part to, or leased by, the United States;
(2) any vessel or aircraft belonging in whole or in part to, or leased by, the United States;
(3) any secure or restricted area of any seaport, designated as secure in an approved security plan, as required under section 70103 of title 46, United States Code, and the rules and regulations promulgated under that section; or
(4) any secure area of any airport,
shall be punished as provided in subsection (b) of this section.
(b) The punishment for an offense under subsection (a) of this section is—
(1) a fine under this title or imprisonment for not more than 10 years, or both, if the offense is committed with the intent to commit a felony; or
(2) a fine under this title or imprisonment for not more than 6 months, or both, in any other case.
Of course, if he succeeded in defeating the felony component, he could be convicted and then sentenced to the full six months in the case. This also does not include any collateral charges like 18 U.S.C. 1001 for false statements to federal agents or other possible efforts to expand the counts by the prosecution.
Absent surveillance charges, the felony would be Section 1362;
Whoever … willfully or maliciously interferes in any way with the working or use of any [radio, telegraph, telephone or cable, line, station, or system, or other means of communication, operated or controlled by the United States], or attempts or conspires to do such an act, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.
Section 2 of that law expressed includes:
(a) Whoever commits an offense against the United States or aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures its commission, is punishable as a principal.
He appears intent in claiming that he was not going to interfere with the system, but only observe it. Even under this claim, the government could argue that any effort to test the system could cause interference. Moreover, the government could argue that O’Keefe’s team was interfering with the system by telling the staff that there was a problem that required work to be done. The law refers to any interference (willfully or maliciously) “in any way.”
For a jury, they are likely to be left with the same confusion of why O’Keefe thought this would prove anything of substance to show that the phone were working at that time. Yet, he appears to have thought that the operation was so important that he mentioned it to a conservative group as something they should be looking for in the coming days.
O’Keefe now says “[o]n reflection, I could have used a different approach.” Hmm, “I could have used a different approach” rather than dress men up as telephone repair men and try to secretly record events in a senatorial office. O’Keefe has always showed a surprising lack of concern over the legality of his actions as in the ACORN controversy. Maryland is a two-party consent state and O’Keefe showed no concern over whether he was engaging in unlawful surveillance.
O’Keefe is defining himself as an “investigative journalist” in operation and obviously effort to use constitutional claims to deter prosecution in the case. Such claims tend to undermine efforts of legitimate journalists who need these protections to conduct apolitical, substantive investigations. Presumably, he would also have to argue that Joseph Basel, 24, Robert Flanagan, 24, and Stan Dai, 24, were also journalists. For commentary on this aspects, click here and here and here.
Landrieu’s office released a statement saying that the evidence clearly shows the men were “attempting to manipulate the phone in her office.”
The biggest problem for O’Keefe may be Basel, Flanagan or Dai becoming cooperating witnesses. If any of them are willing to testify that they intended to shut off the phones (even in testing them) or interfere with their operation, O’Keefe would be in considerable jeopardy. He is only magnifying those risks by continuing to speak publicly on the charges.
Below is his statement:
The government has now confirmed what has always been clear: No one tried to wiretap or bug Senator Landrieu’s office. Nor did we try to cut or shut down her phone lines. Reports to this effect over the past 48 hours are inaccurate and false.
As an investigative journalist, my goal is to expose corruption and lack of concern for citizens by government and other institutions, as I did last year when our investigations revealed the massive corruption and fraud perpetrated by ACORN. For decades, investigative journalists have used a variety of tactics to try to dig out and reveal the truth.
I learned from a number of sources that many of Senator Landrieu’s constituents were having trouble getting through to her office to tell her that they didn’t want her taking millions of federal dollars in exchange for her vote on the healthcare bill. When asked about this, Senator Landrieu’s explanation was that, “Our lines have been jammed for weeks.” I decided to investigate why a representative of the people would be out of touch with her constituents for “weeks” because her phones were broken. In investigating this matter, we decided to visit Senator Landrieu’s district office – the people’s office – to ask the staff if their phones were working.
On reflection, I could have used a different approach to this investigation, particularly given the sensitivities that people understandably have about security in a federal building. The sole intent of our investigation was to determine whether or not Senator Landrieu was purposely trying to avoid constituents who were calling to register their views to her as their Senator. We video taped the entire visit, the government has those tapes, and I’m eager for them to be released because they refute the false claims being repeated by much of the mainstream media.
It has been amazing to witness the journalistic malpractice committed by many of the organizations covering this story. MSNBC falsely claimed that I violated a non-existent “gag order.” The Associated Press incorrectly reported that I “broke in” to an office which is open to the public. The Washington Post has now had to print corrections in two stories on me. And these are just a few examples of inaccurate and false reporting. The public will judge whether reporters who can’t get their facts straight have the credibility to question my integrity as a journalist.
For the full story, click here.
According to O’Keefe, videotape of the event will fully exonerate him. If we take that at face value, then all that is left is the charge of misrepresentation to gain access to a federal office. This may be the cause of some squirming by the four young men, because the federal government and
its officers do not like to be trifled with, and the ability to bring punishment to US citizens for minor offenses isn’t limited to smoking a joint without the benefit of having a judge as a blood relative.
http://biggovernment.com/2010/02/01/possible-okeefe-explanation-he-was-an-acorn-secret-shopper/#more-67786
jharp:
I made no mention of taxes or anything else, I was asking for waynester to comment.
Government does need to collect some amount of taxes to fund certain things. I doubt there are very many people that don’t think so. Military, police, fire-all valid functions of government. Although you could fund them privately fire and police maybe the military who knows.
The Internet was created for defense so were our highways.
“And you folks really that shallow that you can’t see the role government plays in our infrastructure?
Do you travel on private highways or do you use the government funded interstate highway system? Funded through TAXES!”
No but I am smart enough to know that government doesn’t have any money to fund anything, it all comes from us. And if you don’t provide an incentive for people to go out and work, you wont be able to fund much of anything.
Human nature likes to be rewarded. It is the monkey in us, see banana get banana. If banana behind glass monkey give up on getting banana. If taxes to high then monkey cant get banana and give up trying. Make it possible for monkey to get bananas monkey will get more bananas and then other monkeys will have bananas.
Put up glass wall all monkeys starve to death and monkey government has no bananas so they starve to. Stupid selfish monkey government want to keep all bananas so put up glass wall. what does monkey government do when bananas all gone? Spread bananas around so monkey shit creates new banana trees and then more monkeys have bananas.
I call that monkey economics or the allegory of the banana.
BeDuhGangster,
You are Good. What happened to Waynester deGangster? I think you and Gobbels’ would even found commonality eventually. Provided that you were not sent to one of the fronts to express your Views. I understand near the end that Africa was the bloodiest, and starvation was rampant as they were sending all provision’s to the different fronts going on in Europe.
I suppose it is hell when you are out of supplies such as gas, diesel and food. Kind of reminds me of that Kid O’Keefe and his conspirators. Are the powers that be going to send in reinforcements? or are they going to be left to fend for themselves? Stay tuned. I am sure that something will happen, Herr BeDuhGangster. It just depends on which side you are rooting for. I bet the Right wins this one. Did you know that Flanagan’s Daddy is a Bush Appointment? Do you think he will take one for the Team? Don’t think so, a Federal Felony is kind of hard to explain on your Employment application.
It also makes it hard to travel abroad. There are a lot of Country’s that won’t let Convicted Felons enter the Country, depending on what kind of Felony. Just ask Roman.
Oh, does it get any better.
“Google’s (GOOG: 532.47*, +2.53, +0.47%) recent fourth-quarter earnings report indicated the company now generates approximately $1.3 million a year in revenue per each employee. Even less-successful Yahoo! (YHOO: 15.01*, -0.01, -0.06%) rakes in $512,000 in revenue a year for every worker.””
Byron,
Please share with me how much “revenue” Yahoo and Google would be generating without the government developed and financed internet?
And you folks really that shallow that you can’t see the role government plays in our infrastructure?
Do you travel on private highways or do you use the government funded interstate highway system? Funded through TAXES!
I know just like your comparison of Hitler.
“In a capitalist economy, jobs don’t consume wealth — they create it. Google’s (GOOG: 532.47*, +2.53, +0.47%) recent fourth-quarter earnings report indicated the company now generates approximately $1.3 million a year in revenue per each employee. Even less-successful Yahoo! (YHOO: 15.01*, -0.01, -0.06%) rakes in $512,000 in revenue a year for every worker.”
Generating revenue does not equal creating wealth. It’s very easy to sell $1 bills for 80 cents.
How much revenue did General Motors generate last year? Enron in 2002?
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it,”
Very appropriate you quoting Goebbels.
waynester:
can you please comment on this?
“Only in government do jobs “cost” money. In a capitalist economy, jobs don’t consume wealth — they create it. Google’s (GOOG: 532.47*, +2.53, +0.47%) recent fourth-quarter earnings report indicated the company now generates approximately $1.3 million a year in revenue per each employee. Even less-successful Yahoo! (YHOO: 15.01*, -0.01, -0.06%) rakes in $512,000 in revenue a year for every worker. That’s money that’s earned by providing a value, not simply being appropriated by force and redistributed by Uncle Sam. Kucinich’s suggestion that jobs cost money is antithetical to the wealth a productive job is actually supposed to.”
Duh,
“I’m not looking for revenge on O’Keefe, and I’m not looking for vindication of ACORN. That is probably the major influence on our perspectives.”
I am a liberal and you are, if I may be so bold, a conservative, but I am not a fan of anyone who helps people find tax dodges … from little guys like Acorn helpers to big guys like high-falutin’ accountants. (I think paying taxes is a good thing.) I see O’Keefe more along the lines of that “dirty-tricks” guy from All the President’s Men and I view dirty-tricksters as ordinary political operatives who have been plying their skills for centuries and are thus regular players in the game. (all parties value them) So I’m honestly not looking for revenge on O’Keefe or vindication of Acorn either.
Truth be told … I like law and order (I’m not referring to the TV show) and I am fascinated by the legal twists and turns our system takes in attempting to bring said law and order to society.
In following the discussion between yourself and ThirtyPercenter, I wasn’t interested in the politics but in the knotty situation that those four young men found themselves and the legal positions they could be facing.
Told ya they were gonna start pitting this against the Black Panther case.
Free James O’Keefe
By Ben Stein
http://spectator.org/archives/2010/02/01/free-james-okeefe
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” – Joseph Gobbels (emphasis added)
The Left and Global Warming
Mighty big if, less than 30%
“Interesting disappearance/reappearance. Duh and bdaman retreat, Waynester steps in.
Conspiracy Theories, don’t you just love them.” – Bdaman
I don’t think it qualifies as a conspiracy if you’re all the same person.
“especially Friedman who created this current financial crisis
Interesting contention in view of the fact that he died in 2006 and had no direct Gov’t policy (monetary or otherwise) input for at least forty years”
Interesting fact actually. From his perch in Chicago, the owlish Mr. Greenspan was a direct influence on the wrongly called “free market” economists who were his student’s and disciples. Greenspan and his ilk infested the Fed like the roaches they were and since the age of Reagan Friedman was the chief economic ringmaster and prophet whose disciples helped destroy any hope of Russian liberty and corrupted the world bank with their policies. It all went back to Friedman.
” They’re all either getting paid for their deeds and/or they lack the capacity to see any side bt their own. Perhaps both.
That you think the only reason someone would disagree with you would be if they are getting paid to is illustrative.”
Do you understand the meaning or “or” and perhaps?
Also Byron is quite correct. I have actually known what you would call “collectivists” of all stripes very well, they tried to recruit me and became opponents of mine politically. I have written here extensively about that period of my life and the fact of my being called names like “running dog of capitalism.”
I do believe in regulated capitalism and that Marx was off base in his solutions. Most of those “collectivists” I knew those many years ago were indeed just as bad as anybody you would find
admirable.
The thing is when I talk about it I’m talking from knowledge and experience, when you do so it’s because you’re just perpetuating the propaganda. Heed Buddha’s Goebbels quotes well because you and your ilk are examples of the same behavior. however, for all I know you mat find that a complement.
““I don’t have time to respond to bs from a collectivist. Collectivism, in it’s varied formulations, is the single most life and liberty destroying political philosophy the world has ever known.”
Anyone who could make a statement like this is either a propagandist, fool or both. Certainly it shows the lack of any political understanding, but merely is an expression of you wearing your team regalia. There are no collectivists in elective office today, but merely centrists.” – Mike S
Its ironic that he’d label me or anyone a collectivist considering this blog seems to be dedicated to the rights of the individual.
Perhaps he isn’t familiar with the meaning of the word?
waynester:
““the enemies of liberty.”
The enemies of liberty are in fact leftists/statists/collectivists, many of whom are denizens on this very blog.”
not me, I like free markets. Actually you might be surprised to know that neither Mike S nor Buddha are fans of Marx. I cant speak for Mike S. or Buddha but I have read on a number of their discussions with me that they think capitalism is fine. They just think that some government regulation is required. I am pretty sure Mike S. thinks, if I remember correctly, that most of the Marxists he has met were looney toons.
So I suggest you re-evaluate your position, take your head out of your a . . . and engage Mike and others in a civil discourse.
And truth be told if you are a fan of Ayn Rand you should know that she did not think much of Hyack and Von Mises. Although I have yet to fully understand why. Dogma is dogma whether it be right, left, center, Christian or other.
“You either don’t know or refuse to accept that for the TV news media, video (normally) qualms a lot of doubts, they are drawn to it like moths to a flame(I know this from personal experience) And video like that, if it had been, say, a sting against the NRA for example, or a Republican senator, would have aired almost immediately.” -Waynester
And you either don’t own a TV or refuse to turn it on.
They were covered. The story was everywhere. I couldn’t stop hearing about it.
And because of it swift action was taken cutting ACORN’s federal funding.
What more did you want?
Waynester
1, February 1, 2010 at 11:47 am
“the enemies of liberty.”
The enemies of liberty are in fact leftists/statists/collectivists, many of whom are denizens on this very blog.
____
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” – Joseph Gobbels (emphasis added)
“The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly – it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over” – Joseph Gobbels
“Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it” – Adolph Hitler, right wing Nazi war monger, author of “Mein Kampf”.
and last but not least . . .
“Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.” – John Stuart Mill, English philosopher and economist, author of “On Liberty”.
http://books.google.com/books?id=f14SAAAAIAAJ&dq=John+Stuart+Mill&printsec=frontcover&source=an&hl=en&ei=jRxnS-bGOdOUtgegl-iqBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CB8Q6AEwBA#v=twopage&q=&f=false
” They’re all either getting paid for their deeds and/or they lack the capacity to see any side bt their own. Perhaps both.
That you think the only reason someone would disagree with you would be if they are getting paid to is illustrative. Projecting perhaps? If so, who is paying you? Move America Forward (The Bamster’s permanent campaign organization)? or George Soros?
“especially Friedman who created this current financial crisis
Interesting contention in view of the fact that he died in 2006 and had no direct Gov’t policy (monetary or otherwise) input for at least forty years before that. Do you always illustrate your ignorance so blatantly or is this just a bad day?