James O’Keefe May Be Heading Back To Jail

Fox News Investigative TeamAndrew Breitbart’s pet pimp impersonator, James O’Keefe, was just sentenced last week to three years probation, 100 hours of community service, and a $1,500 fine for having trespassed the offices of a United States senator in Lousiana under false pretenses. He pleaded guilty to reduced misdemeanor charges in order to avoid prosecution for a felony. But this experience has apparently failed to moderate his proclivity for criminality.

O’Keefe’s latest adventure in psuedo-journalism was revealed today on Breitbart’s BigGovernment, as well as ABC’s Good Morning America with George Stephanopoulos. The new effort was aimed at alleged waste and/or corruption at the Census Bureau. O’Keefe, armed with a camera, and a smug disregard for ethics, set off to embark on a career in the federal bureaucracy where he says that…

“What I found were census supervisors systematically encouraging employees to falsify information on their time sheets.”

First of all, it’s kind of funny that O’Keefe has been reduced to investigating incorrect time cards (his own). It’s not as if there aren’t other scandals percolating (I heard something about some oil in the gulf). At least he isn’t railing about Census Bureau concentration camps in Idaho.

O’Keefe only worked for the census for two days of training. He never actually performed any census field work. In the new video he says that a census crew leader told him to use a false time sheet as a template for filling out future time sheets. However, it was not a “false” time sheet. It was a practice time sheet used for training. But O’Keefe characterized the crew leader’s instructions during a training session as a directive to falsify the later forms. Never mind that the crew leader in the video said explicitly to use the practice form as a template. So when the crew leader said to fill the form out the same way every day, he simply meant to follow the instructions, not to input the same hours and other data. That would be obvious to most people, but O’Keefe has a blind determination to mislead, which he continues to do as the video proceeds.

In the portion where O’Keefe “confronts” the crew leader at a Dunkin’s Donuts, he asks whether it will be a problem that he quit working at 3:30 or 4:00. The implication is that his time sheet reflected something different. But we can’t see the time sheet that the crew leader is reviewing, so for all we know it said 3:45. A bigger problem is that if you watch the time code on the video, almost a full minute was edited out between the time O’Keefe asked his question (3:59:04) and the time the crew leader responded (4:00:00). So when the crew leader responded saying “No, that’s not a problem,” he could have been responding to a different question entirely. And given O’Keefe’s history of deceptive editing, the last thing he should be given now is the benefit of a doubt.

But there’s another revelation in this video that ought to attract the attention of the authorities. O’Keefe noted that the time sheets contain a warning at the bottom just above where they are signed that says:

Employee’s Certification – Under penalty of fine and/or imprisonment, I certify that the information on this form is true and correct to the best of my knowledge.

In the video, O’Keefe sought to portray that as applying to his supervisor. But the actual time sheet shows that this is only applicable to the employee. The supervisor has a somewhat lower standard of certification that relies on representations made by the employee:

Supervisor’s Certification – I certify that I have reviewed the entries made and they appear to be reasonable and accurate.

So what we have here is O’Keefe confessing again to a crime. He knowingly signed the time sheet despite his having lied on it about the hours he worked. He knew that it was unlawful to do so, yet he did it anyway. This couldn’t be a more clear cut case. What’s more, there are laws against interfering with the conduct of the census. Since O’Keefe never intended to provide the services to which he agreed upon on employment, he could be liable for additional charges in that regard. And that’s not all. The Washington Post reports that O’Keefe may also have broken laws relating to surreptitiously recording Commerce Department conversations. Stephen Buckner, a Bureau spokesman told the Post that…

“In his video, Mr. O’Keefe, an admitted criminal, does not disclose that he previously worked for the Census Bureau for nearly two months in 2009 without incident, allegation or complaint.

“That employment with us was well before his indictment and prior to his conviction of a federal crime last week. The Census Bureau obviously does not condone any falsifying of or tampering with time sheets by its employees.”

In his appearance on Good Morning America, Stephanopoulos asked O’Keefe if he regretted having broken the law in the affair at the senator’s office in Louisiana. While fudging on the matter of regret, he did concede that he would be more “careful” in the future. But his actions in this new episode show that he is an incorrigible criminal with no intention of respecting either the law or the standards of ethical journalism. And on top of all of that, he is an arrogant SOB who considers himself a victim. In his article at BigGovernment he whines that…

“The government took our camera, so I bought another. The government put us in jail and deleted our tapes, but we got out and we’ll just make more.”

It’s pathetic that O’Keefe needs to be reminded that the government didn’t put him jail. He put himself there by breaking the law. I’m sure Charles Manson has the same position on his incarceration as O’Keefe does, but it doesn’t make sense for either one of them. O’Keefe belongs in jail for his unrepentant criminal behavior. And the terminally choleric Andrew Breitbart ought to have a nearby cell for his role in facilitating O’Keefe’s crimes. And remember, this latest crime was committed while O’Keefe was on probation. So he is not only liable for the new violations of the law, but he could have violated his probation as well.

Finally, it would be a huge mistake for other media outlets to give these charlatans any additional exposure. Breitbart is already bragging about having been on GMA and is touting that appearance as opening the door to more press. The media was fooled before by these phonies. They were duped into thinking that they had “missed” the ACORN story, but when the whole story was revealed, it was clear that Breitbart’s crew had deceptively altered their video, and the only crimes were those committed by O’Keefe and company.

These people are confessed criminals, exposed liars, and they do not deserve to be treated as legitimate producers of news. Which is why they will probably be all over Fox News for the next couple of weeks. O’Keefe and Breitbart are already promising more videos, and O’Keefe says that he is assembling an “army” of citizen journalists. I guess we’ll have to assemble an army of debunkers. And Jon Stewart’s writing staff is going to have their hands full.

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33 thoughts on “James O’Keefe May Be Heading Back To Jail

  1. The title of the post is intentionally misleading.

    O’Keefe was never sentenced to jail, and he pleaded only to a misdemeanor (another fact omitted from the post.) I think O’Keefe was in a holding cell for a few hours after he was arrested, but that’s it. The author wants to give the impression that O’Keefe was sentenced to jail – which is why the title is dishonest.

    • O’Keefe was indeed in jail after his arrest. And he may be going back. If you have a problem with those facts I can’t do anything for you. Any impressions you have are your own responsibility.

      But it’s hard to take your impressions seriously after you accuse me of leaving out O’Keefe’s plea deal when I included it in the very first paragraph.

    • True Brian, for some reason the person who wrote this electronic toilet paper, has some major problems with people trying to show waste and fraud in govt., and big “non-profit corporations”. Let’s debunk some of his garbage, just where do I start, ok let’s start here. “So what we have here is O’Keefe confessing again to a crime”, This guy is talking about the time sheet that states under perjury of law, blah, blah, blah, that O’keefe signed. Just to let you know Mr. Perry Mason, anybody can sign anything at anytime anywhere without it being a crime, regardless of what the form you are signing might say. The only time it becomes illegal is if you turn that form in for some type of monetary gain, or represent it to be true, but the big part here is turn in. (and since I have a life, I’m not gonna research whether O’keefe signed the form, turned it in, and kept the extra money he would illegally receive for falsifying his time sheet), I’m just pointing out your incomplete reporting of this story.
      “What’s more, there are laws against interfering with the conduct of the census”. I have spent more than 20 minutes of my life trying to figure out just what in the hell you meant by this, I don’t know if a census can or have a “conduct”, but if you are implying that Mr. O’keefe violated title 13 under federal law, which is the section of federal law that covers the census, do some more reading guy, you are coming up short on your article, he broke no laws.
      “Since O’Keefe never intended to provide the services to which he agreed upon on employment, he could be liable for additional charges in that regard.”. Are you kidding me guy? Maybe in the social United States of America that you wish to live in that would be illegal, but whether you wish to keep a job, take a job or apply for a job, regardless of your intentions, you break no laws in this country,regardless of what you decide to do, because people like you might not like his intentions.
      “The Washington Post reports that O’Keefe may also have broken laws relating to surreptitiously recording Commerce Department conversations”. Wrong again, re-read the story, o”keefe is guilty of breaking Dept. rules, not laws. One gets you fired, one gets you arrested, big difference there guy.
      ““The government took our camera, so I bought another. The government put us in jail and deleted our tapes, but we got out and we’ll just make more.”
      Guy you should care very deeply if our govt. is doing these things, just because today they are doing this to someone you don’t like, doesn’t mean that won’t be happening to people you do like come tomorrow.
      Go back to your accorn world guy, and leave the big stuff to conservatives.

      P.S. on the comment by Mark, give me a break, I watched Mike Wallace, and I never saw once when they were filming some undercover story, where the guy with the hidden camera yelled at the cook “wait before you pick up that hamburger patty, you dropped in rat turds, and keep cooking it, there’s something you should know, I have a secret camera filming this, and tomorrow Mike Wallace will walk in and ask you why are you cooking patties that you pick up off the floor. As for Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists. Boy if that whole sentence is not a oxymoron nothing is.

      • Wow! I’m not sure if I should even bother to respond to this nonsense, but what the hell.

        1) O’Keefe says in the video that he turned in the time sheet. So by the standard you set he committed a crime.

        2) A census doesn’t “have” a conduct, but it is conducted. Get yourself a dictionary, Einstein.

        3) Interfering with the census by failure to perform duties IS against the law. See Title 13, Chapter 7, Subsection 212 of the US Code. Did anyone ever tell you that your research skills stink?

        4) Surreptitious recoding of conversations is BOTH a violation of the policy of the Commerce Department and the laws of the state of New Jersey.

        5) Leave the big stuff to conservatives? Yeah, right. They did such a great job when they were in control. Our nation was attacked by terrorists. We went to war over imaginary WMDs. They trashed the economy. And the environment. And our civil liberties.

  2. This type of investigative reporting as been around for ages. It’s not anything that hasn’t been done before, when journalism was not dead and reporters sought out the truth, and were bold in their quest for the real story. Bravo to O”Keefe and Breitbart! May they keep on exposing corruption!!

    • This type of journalism has NOT been around for ages. I keep trying to get people who say that to offer examples – to no avail.

      O’Keefe is not Mike Wallace. Wallace never misrepresented himself. He did ambush people, but always introducing himself and his news affiliation honestly. And if you knew anything about journalism, you would be aware of the Food Lion case and you would not make uninformed comments about O’Keefe’s fraud being legitimate reporting. It isn’t.

      Misrepresentation is specifically prohibited by the Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists.

  3. Um, I guess you missed the part where O’Keefe corrected his timecards and informed another Census manager they were incorrect. Thanks for wasting everyones time, Corpse.

    • Um, O’Keefe never corrected his time card and, in fact, said he was still awaiting payment for the amount he fraudulently reported. He did talk to supervisors about the matter, but that was after he already signed a time card he knew was false.

  4. I’ll help you out

    “Another Census supervisor only said he’d adjust my pay after I gave him a letter recanting my hours.”

    Sigh. You guys are starting to loose it over O’Keefe.

  5. I can’t give specifics but I remember watching this kind of reporting, whether it be car repair shops to other industries, it’s been around!

    • The car repair shop investigations were actually Mike Wallace. And he did not lie to entrap people, deceptively edit his footage, or invent crimes that never occurred.

      He worked with real consumers who took their own cars to the shops. Then he confronted the repairmen when they tried to charge people for work that wasn’t necessary.

      Can you see the humongous differences between that and what O’Keefe does? O’Keefe dresses up as a pimp or phone repairman, posts video that is so chopped up it can’t be relied upon, then makes allegations that he can’t support with evidence.

  6. I understand the Ethics issue and the food lion suit, however, the level of corruption and deceit is overwhelming, and must be exposed, and this is a tradeoff I’m comfortable with…

    • Your comfort with unethical behavior says a lot. I’m not willing to abandon my principles to expose “alleged” corruption. That’s like justifying the killing of people you think might have murdered someone. That’s how we end up with senators like David Vitter who espouse family values while patronizing prostitutes.

      If you have no principles, then what are defending when you fight corruption? You’re as bad as they are. Good journalists don’t have to break laws – ethical or criminal.

  7. What Lee? You’re comfortable with deception and deceit being used to expose what you assume is deception and deceit? What level of corruption and deceit did O’Keefe expose at ACORN? Certainly none that the New York A.G. or the California A.G. found in O’Keefe’s tapes. So what is your evidence that ACORN used deception and deceit at any level greater than O’Keefe and his edited tapes and deceitful descriptions of situations not shown? It’s called bias confirmation. You assume guilt on the part of ACORN and accept any evidence no matter how shady, no matter how it’s ultimately shown to be misleading, no matter how much it is ignored by law officials who have seen ALL the evidence.
    You fail to address the fact that O’Keefe’s lies led to Congress denying all federal funds to ACORN, thus effectively shutting this advocacy group for the poor down. So what “tradeoff” are you comfortable with? The, to borrow a phrase from Justice Thomas, “technical lynching” of ACORN through lies by O’Keefe and Breitbart traded for…well, what?
    This latest O’Keefe adventure is so inane that I can’t believe you defend it. Even if there was some wrong doing it reflects, at worst, the inability of one supervisor of part-time employees within a huge agency to properly supervise a time card. Really? That’s a scandal? If O’Keefe had shown some census takers running Stop signs it couldn’t be sillier. Indeed, in the world of journalism no figure in the last ten years is sillier than O’Keefe and his dress up (except not) charades.

    • Running stop signs…That’s a good one.

      I guess you credit O’Keefe with one revelation from his investigation. The Census Bureau hires convicted criminals. Because that’s what O’Keefe is. Now there’s a scandal worthy of investigation.

      [Note: O’Keefe just became a convicted criminal last week so, technically, he was not one when the Bureau hired him. But he was under indictment so the irony still stands]

  8. These men are not conservatives, and they are certainly not aligned with the interests of the Republican party. They are frauds and charlatans, and they have no loyalty to a belief system or political party.

  9. This dolt couldn’t solve a Hardy Boys mystery. Let him take on a big topic, one I wondered about all my school years, and ask why it is that all those little half pints of milk, in governmrnt run schools, had in large letters HOMO milk! He’s just the man for such a big job.

  10. I know so many right-wingers addicted to talk radio and Fox News that it’s no surprise they mistake O’Keefe for an investigative journalist. Compared to ‘no spin’ Bill O’Reilly, he probably merits a Peabody. ;^)

    It was funny – well, pathetic actually – watching hyper-partisan Fox News obsess over O’Keefe’s ‘journalism’ simply because it smeared their political nemesis, ACORN. Fox News knew that his tapes were incomplete, edited, and inaccurate but heavily promoted them anyway. I recall Hannity all excited when he first broke the tape of the woman who admitted killing her husband. Like the hopeless partisan he is, he was desperate to smear ACORN and made a fool of himself when it was revealed the woman was onto O’Keefe and just playing along. He couldn’t be bothered to research it first.

    When Fox News’ slam-dunk evidence laid an egg after prosecutors demanded all the tapes in context and realized O’Keefe’s case was sexed up and no crimes were committed, suddenly Fox News lost interest. No further explanations. No apologies for misleading their viewers. Nope. Fox News’ point isn’t to inform but to promote a right-wing agenda.

    O’Keefe is a convicted scumbag now. But it seems he’s still a useful scumbag for some conservatives more interested in smearing their enemies than journalism.

    Mark’s done a good job exposing his latest tomfoolery but what’s amazing is even if O’Keefe were right what’s he exposing? Altered time cards? Is this government out-of-control waste? Hardly. I assume you’ve worked for a living. Find me a business where people haven’t fudged sick leave, time cards, etc. Next the jackass will find a supervisor who lets him take a Census box of pens.

  11. This is pathetic, guys, seriously.

    The fact is he was told to put in a time sheet, alleging time worked, that he didn’t actually work. All you are doing is shooting the messenger. But the message is about the government not caring a bit about the billions it is wasting.

    His video demonstrates fairly conclusively that people are told to like on their time sheets, and that no one seems to care.

    • You’re not paying attention. no one told to put in a time sheet alleging time worked that he didn’t actually work. The video plainly shows that the instructions were during a training session and were meant to demonstrate HOW to fill in the time sheet, not WHAT to fill in. Do you know what a “template” is?

    • Aaron,

      O’Keefe is a serial liar. As I mentioned before, his ACORN clips which brought down that organization for nothing but petty, political partisanship were completely dishonest. Only when forced by the power of the law and he was forced to cough up every unedited tape did we realize he was a complete fraud.

      O’Keefe is such an over-zealous nut he’s under probation convicted of a break in. And he says he’d do it again knowing it’s illegal so the man has no respect for the law. Trying to believe now he’s concerned about a few hours on a time card when he’s an unrepentant burglar is too much of a stretch. No, the guy’s purpose isn’t justice but political hatchet work, self-promotion (attention addiction), and ego masturbation.

      So now the scumbag with a track record of unrepentant criminality, serial lying, and corrupt editing habits wants us to believe 600,0000 Census workers are cheating on their time cards.

      Lets look at his latest Peabody attempt. The key fact here is he’s attending a 2 day, 8 hour/day course. The time sheet is filled out at the beginning of the day. I’m willing to bet when he was hired he was promised 2 full paid days of training.

      The tape where he confronts the trainer is queerly edited. So he then goes to 2 managers. Put yourself in their shoes. A guy shows up and is asking if he’s in any sort of trouble for perjury. What are you going to do? Yeah, kid, no problem. I’ve got the FBI speed dialed. Or are you going to say we promised you 2 days so what’s the fuss?

      I’ve worked in local, state, and federal government in professional positions. And I don’t mean for 2 days. Try 25 years. Have I every attended training and gotten to go home 30, 45 or whatever minutes early? Sure. Like once every couple of years. Do I work overtime without compensation? Practically every week. And that’s why a resent a pathetic little weasel like O’Keefe. That dishonest little glory hound hasn’t worked an honest day in his life that I can see!

  12. well, certainly the type of journalism this article represents has been around for years.

    call it “dishonest”, or “yellow” or just “blatant propaganda”, it is a classic example of the sort of distortions routinely seen in the MFM… have you applied to the NYT for a position as a staff reporter? you seem to have all the qualities they prize.

    • I noticed that you couldn’t support your “dishonest” charge with a single documented example.

  13. Excellent article Mark!!!

    And while you make perfect sense, consider how willing-to-be-deceived OKeefe’s fan-base really is.

    I mean, I’m still trying to figure out what was the “journalistic” purpose in Okeefe editing out the portions of his posted ACORN tapes that deal with the abusive pimp Sonny, Hannah’s flight from his abuse, and her fear for the fate of her Salvadorean charges.

    I cant get a single straight answer from any BigGov “journalists”, or BReitbart’s mindless followers, as to why those edits were so necessary.

    They wont even acknowledge that those edits even occured… EVEN THOUGH ITS RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM.

    Remember, while OKeefe is a proven liar, his tactics only appear to work because he caters to an audience that WANTS to be lied to… like that song, “Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies…” (LUV Fleetwood Mac!!!)

    Half of these folks doent even know what’s on those very same ACORN tapes which they demand that everyone else see. Its really wierd!

    Anyhow, this last stunt by OKeefe was just pathetic. And while I think GMA should have been more exacting with him, I do appreciate that they did in fact air a portion of the tape that OKeefe had edited out… again!

  14. Racist convicted criminal James O’Keefe is at it again? Shocker. Add another “Hero” to the Conservative Dishonor Roll which features but isn’t limited to Cowardly Chicken Hawks Dick Cheney and Karl Rove, and Felons “Scooter” Libby and G. Gordon Liddy.

    Of course since O’Keefe is a conservative his criminal actions won’t sideline his career (IOKIYAR) and actively stupid violently ignorant punk ass bitch conservatives won’t be able to understand how he was convicted since O’Keefe isn’t black and poor.

  15. Aaron Worthing wrote:”But the message is about the government not caring a bit about the billions it is wasting.” Really? That was the message? So a single supervisor of part time employees in a huge government administrative department MAY HAVE told O’Keefe to fudge, what? an hour on his time sheet and the message is about wasting BILLIONS?

    If that is the message I wonder why O’Keefe only goes after Tea Party gremlins. Why not get a job working for the Defense Department? Or going under cover at the Pentagon? There’s you some billions of wasted dollars.

    This little masquerade did one thing: smeared a Census Bureau supervisor, just as his ACORN “investigation” merely smeared a couple of employees. And it had no message apart from saying, “I’m a hero. I’m going to go after all the guys that FOX NEWS and Tea Partiers don’t trust. So make a big deal about me.” He’s a joke and with each misadventure he’s going to be a bigger and bigger joke. And then FOX FANS and Tea Baggers can complain about how the Main Stream Media ignores his brilliant “journalism”.

  16. Great article Mark! Thank god for the posts from those rightwing dullerds, I mean critics. I laugh when I hear the mouthbreathers try to defend an ethically challenged journalist wannabee like O’Queefe.
    What next?
    Undercover covert Walmart employee, James O’Queefe, documents the pattern of abuse with Walmart employees who are taking 10 minute breaks when they are only allowed 8 minute breaks!
    Catch all this, and Obama’s oil spill destruction of the Gulf region, at 9 O’clock on the “Sean Hannity show!”

    And Mark, you forgot to add #6 to your list–“And boom goes the dynomite!”

  17. Mark; thanks man, job well done! I’d say, let’s send that little Tweety to jail and then let me see how it ends its ‘project’, through national television, you can make it a reality show. Give the little bastard ‘a teaspoon of your own tea’!

  18. Wow! What cool, sexy videos this pimply-faced little creep makes! I sure do envy that guy and his high-flying lifestyle — and making a cool $40 by cheating the government! That’s serious money, James!

    The Census Bureau employees are wasting 20 percent of their time on the job? What an outrageous lie to tell about those three supervisors he victimized, no doubt honest, hardworking people. But one thing’s for sure — any job O’Keefe does, he’s wasting a lot more than 20 percent of his time.

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