Watchdog Group Urges Maryland to Prosecute ACORN Detractors

Submitted by VelvetRevolution.us

Last week, Kevin Zeese, an attorney for VelvetRevolution.us, a national watchddog organization dedicated to clean, accountable and transparent government, sent a letter to both Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler and Maryland State's Attorney Patricia Coats Jessamy requesting criminal charges be brought against James O'Keefe, Hannah Giles and Andrew Breitbart for violating Maryland's Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Act.

A copy of the letter is at http://www.velvetrevolution.us/images/GANSLER-COATS_OKEEFE.pdf.

In short, the letter asserts that Breitbart, O'Keefe and Giles secretly conspired, wiretapped and videotaped employees of the Baltimore ACORN office without their knowledge or consent, and published those videos with the intent to cause harm to the employees and ACORN. Maryland's law is very clear in requiring two party consent for any videotaping. The letter cites official reports from two attorneys general, the GAO and the House Judiciary Committee which all noted that O'Keefe et al broke Maryland's privacy laws and edited the tapes to make it appear that ACORN did something wrong when it did not.

O'Keefe has pled guilty to federal crimes in relation to tampering with the phones of Senator Mary Landrieu's Louisiana office last January, and has since been convicted and sentenced for that criminal activity. He and Giles have been sued by an ACORN employee from California for violating his privacy in a case almost identical to the Maryland case. Just yesterday, Brietbart was implicated in another edited video scandal which falsely accused Department of Agriculture official Shirley Sherrod of racism.

"O'Keefe, Breitbart and Giles have clearly engaged in criminal activity with the intent to harm. Their conduct in Maryland is part of a broad scam, often involving out-and-out crimes carried on across the country for political purposes," said VR co-founder and investigative journalist Brad Friedman. "They engage in crimes, create fake scandals and then accuse others of criminal activity. We have asked Maryland law enforcement officials to put a stop to this reprehensible and illegal conduct once and for all."