This is what happens when you idolize people like McCarthy, Nixon, Cheney & Bush:
4 men charged with U.S. Senate office infiltration in New Orleans
(CNN) — Four men were charged Tuesday after attempting to illegally access and manipulate the phone system in a district office of U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana, a local U.S. attorney’s office said.
Joseph Basel, 24, Robert Flanagan, 24, James O’Keefe, 25, and Stan Dai, 24, were charged with entering Landrieu’s New Orleans office, which is federal property, under “false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony,” according to the attorney’s office.
Law enforcement officials say they believe O’Keefe is the conservative activist of the same name who dressed up as a pimp last summer and visited an office of ACORN, a liberal community organizing group, in order to solicit advice on setting up a brothel, among other scenarios.
He secretly recorded the visits on video and posted them on the Web, leading to a media firestorm.
Flanagan is the son of William Flanagan, the acting U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, his office said.
Articles on conservative Web sites connect O’Keefe to a man named Joe Basel, describing them as conservative student activists and filmmakers.
According to the news release Tuesday and an affidavit by FBI Special Agent Steven Rayes, who is based in New Orleans, Basel and Flanagan attempted to gain access to Landrieu’s office Monday while posing as telephone repairmen.
The two men were “each dressed in blue denim pants, a blue work shirt, a light green fluorescent vest, a tool belt and a construction-style hard hat when they entered the Hale Boggs Federal Building,” the release said.
After they entered the building, the two men told a staffer in Landrieu‘s office they were telephone repairmen, according to the release and Rayes’ affidavit. They then asked for, and were granted, access to the reception desk’s phone system.
O’Keefe, who had been waiting in the office before the pair arrived, recorded their actions with a cell phone, Rayes’ affidavit said.
Flanagan and Basel later requested access to a telephone closet, claiming they needed to perform work on the main phone system, the release and affidavit said.
According to Rayes’ affidavit, the two men went to a U.S. General Services Administration office on another floor and requested access to the main phone system. A GSA employee then asked for their credentials, and the two men said they left them in their vehicle, the affidavit said.
All four men have admitted their roles in the operation to federal agents, Rayes’ affidavit said.
If convicted, the four men would each face a fine of $250,000 and up to 10 years in prison, according to the news release.
“Because the details of yesterday’s incident are part of an ongoing investigation by federal authorities, our office cannot comment at this time,” Landrieu spokesman Aaron Saunders told CNN.
Articles posted January 14 on CampusReform.org and Political Vanguard, both conservative Web sites, quoted O’Keefe and a man identified as Joe Basel as conservative student activists and independent filmmakers.
“Don’t just respond to news, but actually create your own headlines,” O’Keefe is quoted as saying by CampusReform.org.
