Four men were arrested for trying to tamper with a Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu’s phone on Tuesday.
All four men were in their mid 20’s, one of whom made a name for himself to Conservatives last year. James O’Keefe is known for playing pranks and being ostentatious to get a rise out of Liberals. Last year, he posed as a pimp and secretly videotaped a meeting with ACORN, asking for advice on how to run a brothel. His videos have been praised by Conservatives, and see his investigative journalism as “going where others fear to tread.”
Also arrested following in the footsteps of their journalist-in-training were Joseph Basel, Robert Flanagan and Stan Dai, all 24 years of age according to federal officials.
Robert Flanagan is the son of William Flanagan, interim United States attorney for the Western District of Louisiana. He’s sure making his father proud.
According to an affidavit from the FBI, two of the men entered the offices dressed as telephone company workers. O’Keefe followed them in, ostensibly to record them in the act. They asked to be shown to the telephone closet after their “calls” to the phone system “failed.” They were arrested there by US Marshals, and released on $10,000 bond.
The lawyer of Flanagan told the New York Times that “there is no wiretap allegation,” and it’s just a case of using bad judgment.
O’Keefe’s father told the NY Times that “[My son] is an outstanding young man doing investigative journalism. He studies a different form of journalism, and he pushes the limits a bit.”
There’s a fine line between investigative journalism and complete idiocy – these guys push that limit, at least.
