ACORN cleared of wrongdoing

[j_b]

The video tapes widely shown by the corporate media were edited to create the impression of wrongdoing. A tale of the use of propaganda in the corporate media to attack advocates of the destitute.

 

 

"Brooklyn prosecutors on Monday cleared ACORN of criminal wrongdoing after a four-month probe that began when undercover conservative activists filmed workers giving what appeared to be illegal advice on how to hide money.

 

While the video by James O’Keefe and Hannah Gilesseemed to show three ACORN workers advising a prostitute how to hide ill-gotten gains, the unedited version was not as clear, according to a law enforcement source.

 

“They edited the tape to meet their agenda,” said the source.

 

O’Keefe and Giles – who visited ACORN offices in several cities, including its Brooklyn headquarters – stirred controversy when they posted the videos on their Web site.

 

They were hailed as heroes by the likes of Rush Limbaugh and their footage led several government agencies to temporarily cut funding for ACORN as the prosecutors opened an investigation.

 

“On Sept. 15, 2009, my office began an investigation into possible criminality on the part of three ACORN employees,” Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes said in a one-paragraph statement issued Monday afternoon.

 

“That investigation is now concluded and no criminality has been found.”

 

The Democratic majority must feel so proud of themselves today. Defunding an important piece of political infrastructure because racist right wing hit men doctored some tapes is so very, very smart.

http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/03/01/acorn-cleared-cowardly-dems-must-feel-great-for-defunding-them/

[j_b]

1. Transcripts reveal that O’Keefe and Giles said they needed ACORN’s help to protect Giles from a violent pimp—but they carefully edited this out of their videos1. O’Keefe and Giles used clever editing and voiceovers to hide a key fact that the transcripts show to be true in each case: In each office, the duo claimed that 20-year old Hannah was being threatened by a violent abusive pimp. They pleaded for ACORN to help protect the prostitute (and in some cases underage girls as well) from the pimp by helping her get a place to live. O’Keefe and Giles edited this out of the video given the news media and the public, but neglected to remove it from the transcripts.

 

Remember, for example, the tape of the NY ACORN worker advising the prostitute to hide money in a tin can, presumably to evade taxes? The transcript shows it was so the pimp “can’t get it from you if he wants to come and rip up the place.” And the prostitute told the loan counselor that her pimp had “ all these 13, 14,15 year old girls from El Salvador and that’s what—I need to protect them like I know what its like and I have to protect them and like give them somewhere to live.” 2

 

2. While their press releases claim they were posing as a “prostitute and a pimp,” the transcripts show that O’Keefe consistently introduced himself as Giles’ boyfriend trying to protect her.3 While we have seen videos of O’Keefe’s ridiculous “pimp” get-up, with Chinchilla cape, hat, and walking cane, these are all outdoor visuals. In the actual videos in the offices, every view of O’Keefe shows him dressed in normal casual business attire.

 

3. In each of the cases, the ACORN staff advised the prostitute to pay taxes, not to evade them. They correctly advised, as any tax lawyer or properly trained tax preparer would have, that the IRS requires taxes to be paid even on income from illegal activities, but does not require disclosure of the illegal activity itself. 4 For over half a century, this is the way the courts and the IRS have reconciled the right not to incriminate oneself with the obligation to pay tax on illegal activities. Indeed, among the IRS codes from which filers must select, there is none for prostitution, and the closest codes are for entertainment or personal services.

 

http://www.acorn.org/fileadmin/HomePageNews/2009Dec/Video_Transcript_Analysis_withExcperts.pdf

[Phil K]

This thread needs more pictures of crooked politicians.

[j_b]

or perhaps a video of Tiger's latest escapade :-)

 

What does it mean that some goons can doctor videos to be picked up in a firestorm of media coverage (nice job "journos"), leading up to action by congress to de-fund the organization being victimized?

 

5 months later the truth comes out in a 5 lines blurb on page 27.

[billcoe]

This thread needs more pictures of crooked politicians.

..or bitches and hoes....

 

jb, thanks for the heads up and "THE REST OF THE STORY". I hate being manipulated, that kind of shit really pisses me off, despite how common it is. With any luck, the slander litigation will rebound hard, although isn't the smarmy pimp actor still in jail for wiretapping a Congresswoman?

[G-spotter]

I hate being manipulated, that kind of shit really pisses me off, despite how common it is.

 

Maybe you're just easy to manipulate.

[tvashtarkatena]

I looked at the source of the ACORN thing and decided on day 1 it was just another helping of talk radio bullshit.

[j_b]

This thread needs more pictures of crooked politicians.

 

On second thought, this thread needs more pictures of crooked "journalists" because they are guilty of giving legs to this scam.

[j_b]

I looked at the source of the ACORN thing and decided on day 1 it was just another helping of talk radio bullshit.

 

Unfortunately, it was just another helping of BS by the entire corporate "press", NYT included: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7701

[Crux]

...isn't the smarmy pimp actor still in jail for wiretapping a Congresswoman?

 

James O'Keefe

[tvashtarkatena]

I looked at the source of the ACORN thing and decided on day 1 it was just another helping of talk radio bullshit.

 

Unfortunately, it was just another helping of BS by the entire corporate "press", NYT included: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7701

 

In addition to smelling a little off, the story was also irrelevant to any issues or organizations that I think matter at all.

[j_b]

The existence of the story itself is relevant to issues of national importance insofar ACORN has been targeted by the right wing and its media for years. ACORN is the main organization fighting against the all important conservative strategy of suppressing minority and poor voter turnout. ACORN being targeted by a smear campaign is nothing new, and this latest episode shows they will stop at nothing.

[tvashtarkatena]

Well, I don't disagree. It's just that, even if the story were true, the misdeeds of three members of a large activist organization doesn't define the organization itself or negate it's past accomplishments. Admittedly, I don't deal too much in the area that ACORN was involved in, and I'm not very familiar with the organization itself. The Rfucks do try to pull a few shenanigans regarding keeping voters from the booth locally...I was personally involved in one incident (it was very satisfying to watch one of our legal observers shut the dumbfuck up right quick by informing he that he was rather blatantly violating the law...almost always the case when the Right actually has to go mano a mano in any legal sense), but they focus most of their stupid pet tricks in FL, OH, and other more pivotal states.

 

It's interesting to mention that the Rfucks have a well oiled national machine for voting obstruction, because they know they're in a permanent minority, and they know that minorities have long been on to their racist (war on drugs, anyone?) and economically marginalizing agenda. The Dems, of course, don't need to play that game...and they don't.

[StevenSeagal]

You can bet Glenn Beck covered this new development on his show, right?

[tvashtarkatena]

You mean the upcoming show he's broadcasting live from the University of East Anglia?

[tvashtarkatena]

It's not hard to imagine that the country would separate vertically, in a moral and intellectual sense, into those who are either stupid and/or lie a lot, and those who are not and/or don't. The two groups never really had much use for each other anyway.

 

Stupid, which tends to get one into shitty situations, and lying; the go to extraction strategy for such people. Like toast and butter.

 

Republican party = stupid liars. It's pretty much as simple as that as far as I'm concerned at this point. Those few R congressmen who kick off a campaign intending to tell the truth are quickly re-educated by the party. Pretty near 100% of them come out of it as full blown shitbags.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Pretty near 100% of them come out of it as full blown shitbags.

 

You have something in common with them then!

 

[111]

Hopefully some of the legal fallout sticks to this little fuck and we don't have to hear his BS for a long time.

[StevenSeagal]

Actually I'll bet Glenn Beck is already mounting a fundraising drive to cover his legal expenses in this fight against "liberal witchhunts and tyranny!"

[billcoe]

Crazy stuff.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/09/29/okeefe.cnn.prank/index.html?iref=24hours

[111]

what a liddle shit. Those parents needed to spank their kid a little more for being such a manipulative P.O.S.

[Crux]

Karl Rove

[LUCKY]

extreme right or extreme left is no place to be ...it just piss's me off the politics of the day...

[Fairweather]

Oh really?

 

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/11/26/acorn-workers-convicted-admitted-guilt-election-fraud/?test=latestnews

 

The scandal-plagued ACORN may no longer exist, but its tarnished legacy lives on in court, as the activist group and its former employees face criminal punishment.

So far this year, at least 18 former workers have admitted guilt or been convicted on varying charges of election fraud. The punishment has ranged from probation to several months of prison time.

ACORN, once a powerful advocate for low-income and minority voters, shuttered its operations amid plummeting revenues in March, six months after conservative activists posing as a pimp and prostitute caught on video some of the group's employees offering them tax advice.

But the group is still facing charges in Nevada on conspiracy to commit the crime of compensation for registration of voters.The trial, originally scheduled to begin Monday, has been postponed likely until next year.

Former workers across the country already are being punished for their criminal activities.In Miami, seven former ACORN voter registration canvassers were convicted of "false swearing-in an election," and sentenced to probation and community service and banned from participating in future political campaigns, according to court documents.

In Pennsylvania, six of seven former ACORN workers who were charged in an investigation were convicted of unsworn falsification and interference with election officials. Four have reached a plea agreement on reduced charges and will serve two years of probation. Cases against two others who entered pleas to reduced charges are pending.

Charges against the seventh, Eric Jordan, are not being prosecuted because Jordan has pleaded guilty to much more serious charges, including aggravated assault, resisting arrest and carrying firearms without a license.

In Milwaukee, three former ACORN workers have been convicted of election fraud.

Last week, Kevin Clancy was sentenced to 10 months in prison for his role in submitting falsified voter registration forms before the 2008 election. Clancy will start his sentence once he finishes another sentence he is currently serving for armed robbery.

Clancy's co-worker, Maria Miles, who pleaded guilty to election fraud in August, will be sentenced on Dec. 6.

In September, Frank Walton pleaded guilty to submitting 54 fake voter registrations during the 2008 presidential campaign. He faces up to 42 months in prison and a $10,000 fine when he's sentenced Dec. 6.

In Washington state, Kendra Lynn Thill was convicted in March of voter registration fraud in the 2006 midterm election. In Nevada, a former ACORN supervisor pleaded the equivalent of a no-contest in a case alleging that canvassers were illegally paid to register voters during the 2008 campaign. But while Amy Busefink's plea acknowledges the state had evidence for a conviction at trial, her lawyer said she still plans to challenge the constitutionality of the state law prohibiting paying canvassers based on the number of voter registration forms they turn in.

 

 

 

 

[billcoe]

Somehow I have the feeling that a large group of various individuals could easily have a bunch wild hairs here and there while trying to do the right thing systematically. (ie, that one of them was caught and convicted for armed robbery doesn't mean that this organization was encouraging their workers to do that kind of thing, etc etc)

 

The Acorn news seems less willful and malicious to me than what the guy who started to take them down "James o'Keefe, did next http://www.politico.com/static/PPM145_new_012610.html and next http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/29/james-okeefe-cnn-abbie-boudreau_n_743313.html . For the first "prank" at the Senators office he was found guilty and sentenced to serve 3 years probation, 100 hours of community service, and pay a $1,500 fine. Turns out that they actually were not planing on wiretapping the place, but were trying to do an Acorn and film by lying who they were. Read more on that one if you wish and this is Fox, judgmental and unbalanced: http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/05/26/a-guilty-plea-from-james-okeefe/#ixzz16UuMxhxr http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/05/26/a-guilty-plea-from-james-okeefe/

 

That Breitbart appears to still employ him at http://biggovernment.com/jokeefe/ seems to me a discredit to any web site professing to get to the truth. In such situations my mom always pitched this ancient proverb to cover it: "The road to hell is paved with good intentions".

 

Don't know what laws were broken or if he will serve any time for the "prank" on the CNN reporter. I suppose that this would all have a certain harmony if he serves jail time as a cell mate with that Acorn guy you note that was caught in an armed robbery.

 

 

"O'Keefes statement for the first arrest:

 

"Statement from James O’Keefe

by James O'Keefe

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 perpetuated 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.

 

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."

 

He's been kind of quiet on the second one.