James O'Keefe Arrested

It does not look good for James O'Keefe of the famous ACORN sting. He was caught inside a federal office with two others doing something (we don't know what) with the telephones. The supposedly entered the office "under false pretenses." A copy of the police arrest affidavit is here.

The whole thing is a bit puzzling.

According to the affidavit,

On January 25,2010, individuals entered and attempted to gain entrance to the office and telephone system of United States Senator Mary Landrieu, located in the Hale Boggs Federal Building, Room 1005, 500 Poydras Street, New Orleans, Louisiana 70130 for the purpose of interfering with the office's telephone system. The individuals did so by falsely and fraudulently representing that the were employees of a telephone company.

It does not appear to be a case of breaking and entering. Much like the ACORN sting, they presented themselves as something they were not, that is, telephone company employees.

What did they actually do? They apparently claimed that calls were not getting through to the telephones and requested access to the telephone closet. The affidavit, then states,

Based on the above information, your Affiant believes there is probable cause to believe that FLANAGAN and BASEL by false and fraudulent pretense attempted to enter, and did in fact enter, real property belonging to the United States for the purpose of willfully and maliciously interfering with a telephone system operated and controlled by the United States of America.

"Interfering with a telephone system?" Exactly what does that mean?

Presumably, we will find out. If they were tapping telephones or trying to render them inoperable or sabotaging the system's ability to operate, that sort of activity cannot be justified as a journalistic sting like the ACORN operation.

It will be interesting to learn what this was all about.