A hero of conservatives who targeted a community-organizing group with ties to US President Barack Obama is now accused of orchestrating an attempt to tamper with telephone lines at a Democratic US senator’s office inside a federal building.
It’s not clear what James O’Keefe, 25, and three young conservatives were trying to accomplish on Monday at the New Orleans office of Senator Mary Landrieu, who has been criticized by conservatives for securing more benefits for her state in exchange for her support on health care legislation.
The conservative activist was previously known for posing as a pimp on hidden camera to target the liberal group ACORN. All four have been involved in conservative politics.
State Democrats quickly called the alleged plot a “Louisiana Watergate,” but federal officials have not yet said why the men wanted to interfere with Landrieu’s phones, whether they were successful, or even if the goal was political espionage.
The operation’s style recalled the famous Watergate break-in at the Democratic Party’s national headquarters, which ballooned into a scandal that consumed former US president Richard Nixon’s administration and led to his resignation.
A staff member in the office told the FBI that two of the suspects, including the son of an acting US Attorney, wore white hard harts, tool belts and fluorescent vests and said they needed to fix a problem with the phone system.
According to an FBI affidavit, O’Keefe was already sitting in the waiting area and recorded the men on his cellphone camera when they walked in.
A federal law enforcement official said one of the suspects was picked up in a car a couple of blocks away with a listening device that could pick up transmissions. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was not part of the FBI affidavit.
O’Keefe said only “Veritas,” Latin for truth, as he left jail on Tuesday with suspects Stan Dai and Joseph Basel, both 24. All declined to comment.
As he got into a cab outside the jail, O’Keefe said: “The truth shall set me free.”
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