James O'Keefe - possibly the world's worst sleazebag and former Fox News Power Player of the Week - has agreed to fork over $100,000 to a former ACORN employee wrongly recorded and then falsely portrayed by O'Keefe and his partner-in-video-crime, Hannah Giles, as an enabler of underage prostitution and human smuggling.
You may recall the "undercover video" political stunt that misleadingly gave the iimpression that then-ACORN employee Juan Carlos Vera helped "pimp" and "ho" O'Keefe and Giles smuggle underage prostitutes into the U.S. What the Fox News-hyped video didn't show is that Vera reported the scheme to the police.
Vera was subsequently fired from his job and sued both O'Keefe and Giles. Among other grounds, it's a crime in Vera's state of California to record someone without their permission. Although Giles reportedly settled last summer, the lawsuit against O'Keefe perked along until now. Wonkette, which broke the news in a "sexclusive," notes that the size of the settlement speaks volumes about O'Keefe's culpability and/or how damaging the suit is to whatever is left of his credibility:
Still, as Vera’s attorney Gene Iredale suggested to us in a telephone interview, O’Keefe’s willingness to pay this exorbitant sum is, by itself, a tacit admission of guilt. The sum is $35,000 more than James received from Andrew Breitbart for his “life rights” based on the top-shelf (derp-derp) quality of the ACORN videos in the first place. So, a limited amount of justice has been served.
It is also illuminating to know that O’Keefe and his handlers have determined that it was worth at least $100,000 to avoid publicly losing a court case, and thus further tarnishing the James O’Keefe “folk hero” fundraising brand with a guilty verdict directly related to sloppy journalism. If you do the math, this diversion of funds could have paid for two Project Veritas “investigations” on the scale of their seemingly never-ending Voter ID project last year.
As they say, karma's a bitch. But probably not on Fox News which endlessly promoted the discredited videos as well as Giles' defense fund. If you've heard anything about this on Fox - and don't forget Megyn Kelly all but demanded a Pulitzer Prize for Hannah Giles, even after O'Keefe had been arrested for allegedly trying to tamper with phones in U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu's office - let me know in the comments section.
For reference, Maddow's excellent dissection of the fraud is below.
That judgement and the misdemeanor is on his record. It will be difficult for the boy to apply for future loans, or find employment.
Conservative mouthpieces have distanced themselves from this boy. When Andy died, he took this boy with him. When was the last time you saw this boy on television with his stupid videos?
We call him a boy because he is not man enough to take responsible for his actions.
ACORN might be gone, but I have a feeling that everyone who played a role is going to be sorry in court. Even Fox News’ lawyers can’t save them from fallout for their role.
“You would think his friends at Fox News would have told him, no don’t do that, it’s embarrassing and you make yourself look silly.”
If they had realized it, they probably would have told him. What person with a brain would call O’Keefe a friend?
And for some more crazy sh!t involving O’Keefe, Breitbart (and others including a mention of FOX’s voter “fraud” crusader, John Fund, who asked O’Keefe to investigate something he was interested in), check this report out. It’s pretty freakin’ convoluted – http://thephoenix.com/Boston/news/152325-trials-of-nadia-naffe/
I still can’t believe how ridiculous he looked when he came on Fox & Friends dressed as a cartoon version of a 70’s pimp. You would think his friends at Fox News would have told him, no don’t that, it’s embarrassing and you make yourself look silly.
