Ok, here's are my notes on this - Shuster showed class and integrity when admitting he overstated when he said that O'Keefe and Company had engaging in "Wiretaping". A charge I myself made via twitter and have no problem correcting the record. The facinating thing about Breibart is he can't even take that concession in good spirit and has to try and berate Shuster for it after he's repeatedly corrected the record.
2nd point, even though the Federal Complain didn't including a charge for "Wiretaping" - it's still a Felony Charge that carries up to ten years so Brietbart's attempt to minimize this into a "Non-crime" is patently ridiculous and highly telling.
Shuster then goes on the attack and asks why has Breibart and other Right-wing Neo-Journalists continued to accuse ACORN of being criminals when there's isn't even a criminal complaint filed? Breibart argues somehow that in his opinion there was a crime and the flaw is on the part of the Justice Dept that has "refused to investigate".
Except that there Was an investigation which found ACORN did nothing wrong.
While some of the advice and counsel given by ACORN employees and volunteers was clearly inappropriate and unprofessional, we did not find a pattern of intentional, illegal conduct by ACORN staff; in fact, there is no evidence that action, illegal or otherwise, was taken by any ACORN employee on behalf of the videographers. Instead, the videos represent the byproduct of ACORN's longstanding management weaknesses, including a lack of training, a lack of procedures, and a lack of on-site supervision.
The people at ACORN answered questions presented by O'Keefe and his associate. Their answers weren't illegal, but in fact, ACORN staff members actually called the police and filed at report against O'Keefe and Co because what they claimed they were doing or wanted to do - WAS Illegal.
Philadelphia ACORN Housing official: "[W]e called the police and filed this report." In a newly released YouTube video, Katherine Conway Russell, ACORN Housing Corp.'s Philadelphia office director, stated that O'Keefe visited the office "[l]ast July" with "another woman." Russell stated that "[a]fter asking several general questions, [O'Keefe] began to veer off into suspicious territory." Russell said that O'Keefe eventually "asked about bringing girls from El Salvador and getting them papers, et cetera," but that "I told them that there was nothing we could do to help them, that I didn't know anything about what they were asking about." Russell also said that after she contacted another ACORN official and it became clear that O'Keefe "lied to get his appointment," they contacted the police.
There was also a police report filed by ACORN's San Diego Office.
NATIONAL CITY, Calif. (AP) -- Police say an ACORN worker caught on video giving advice about human smuggling to a couple posing as a pimp and a prostitute had reported the incident to police.
National City police said Monday that Juan Carlos Vera contacted his cousin, a police detective, to get advice on what to with information on possible human smuggling.
Vera was secretly filmed on Aug. 18 as part of a young couple's high-profile expose.
Police say he contacted law enforcement two days later. The detective consulted another police official who served on a federal human smuggling task force, who said he needed more details.
The ACORN employee responded several days later and explained that the information he received was not true and he had been duped.
Giving bad advice isn't a crime - although it should be note that everyone who DID give bad advice was Fired - no matter how much Breitbart attempts to spin with Lies such as these via Media Matters.
Breitbart: "There's no place, as ACORN tried to state, that kicked them out based upon the premise that they were doing something nefarious." Following Giles' denial, Hannity turned to Breitbart and said, "Not one? Every place you went, they helped you or were willing to help you, either -- not report you for an underaged prostitution ring, evade taxes as we've -- ." Breitbart responded, "Right. The -- it is interesting. There's no place, as ACORN tried to state, that kicked them out based upon the premise that they were doing something nefarious."
O'Keefe: "None of the facilities kicked us out. That's a lie." During the September 13 edition of Fox News' America's News HQ, senior correspondent Eric Shawn asked O'Keefe, "ACORN says that you went to, what, five other places around the country where they kicked you out. ... [D]id you find ethical, honest ACORN employees in any of the places that you went to that kicked you out and said, 'No, we're not going to do this. We're not going to cooperate. We're not going to have ACORN help you'?" O'Keefe responded that the people at ACORN are "liars" and that he "[a]bsolutely" wanted an apology and later added: "[N]one of the facilities kicked us out. That's a lie."
During the same interview, Giles stated: "[A]bout the whole kicking out, I mean, the women in Baltimore hugged me and -- when I left. And the women in D.C. -- I did follow-up phone calls, and they asked if I could come and meet them for coffee so we could further discuss how to make this possible." Shawn then asked, "[Y]ou are saying that there were some that did refuse? James or Hannah?" Giles responded, "Not -- no."
Yet again they're engaging in a Olympic Semantics here, the Philadelphia ACORN Office refused to help them with thier child prostitution ring plot.
"I told them that there was nothing we could do to help them, that I didn't know anything about what they were asking about."
Since they couldn't get any help or any good footage - they left. It was afterward they discovered the O'Keefe lied to get the appointment and they subsequently called the police.
"Thrown Out" is a harsh word, but effectively that's what happened once the ACORN employees refused to help them anymore and had them depart. It's not like anyone claimed that tossed them out the front door - they made them LEAVE - the fact that they did it was some class should be commended, not condemned.
They may not have been "Kicked Out" of the Washington and New York ACORN offices, but neither did they bring up the subject of their "child prostitution ring".
Washington, D.C., office: Child prostitution not clearly discussed. At no point in the transcript of Giles and O'Keefe's visit to the Washington, D.C., ACORN office does either Giles or O'Keefe clearly state that they are planning to engage in child prostitution. Both Giles (Page 15) and O'Keefe (Page 9) say that the house will be used by "girls" -- who the ACORN employee refers to as "women of the night" -- and at one point, O'Keefe says (Page 13) that "10 El Salvadorians" will be working in the house, but at no point are the ages of the supposed prostitutes mentioned.
New York office: Child prostitution not clearly discussed: In the transcript of Giles and O'Keefe's visit to the New York ACORN office, they discuss underage girls that Giles wants to "protect" and separately discuss "girls" working in the house, but they do not indicate that the two groups are the same. O'Keefe says that Giles "is going to have this business in the house with a bunch of girls coming and doing these things, performing tricks and she is going to give me the money so that I can pay the mortgage" (Page 15) but does not say that those "girls" are underage. Much later, Giles states, "They should throw Sonny in jail, not me, he's the one who got me started. ... I mean he got a whole slew of which is why I also want a house. ... He's got 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" (Page 28). The videos posted on YouTube are nevertheless titled "ACORN NYC Child Prostitution Investigation."
These guys really can't keep their shit straight.
Besides Philadelphia one ACORN employee in Los Angeles also refused to help O'Keefe as soon as he started talking about underage children.
So that's two times the FAIL on the "No one refuse to help" us lie.
The ones who committed a crime, namely Fraud, were O'Keefe and Giles. They also broke the wiretap laws of Maryland and California according to the Congressional Research Service.
A December 22, 2009, report by the Congressional Research Service prepared for the House Judiciary Committee on "several issues" relating to ACORN and its affiliates stated that "[a] search of reports of federal agency inspectors general did not identify instances in which ACORN violated the terms of federal funding in the last five years." Addressing "the recent videotaping of ACORN workers and the distribution of conversations with ACORN workers without consent," the report stated that "the laws of Maryland and California appear to ban private recording of face to face conversations, absent the consent of all the participants."
Media Matter Broehlert also schooled Breitbart on this "Independant Contractor" thing...
They'd already been reported to the police twice, had investigations going against them in two states - but just couldn't QUIT, so now they're looking at doing ten to twenty in Federal Prison.
Brilliant.
Vyan
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