Brad Friedman doubles down (by this point, it’s like he octuples down or something) on the notion that James O’Keefe never posed as a pimp at ACORN. And he adds a new bonus lie: Hannah Giles (he claims) admitted that the entire concept of O’Keefe as a pimp was grafted onto the videos after the fact.

Friedman’s view is: repeat a lie often enough and it will become the truth.

Do I just stand by and watch, or do I wearily mobilize to fight for the truth once again?

Well, you know me. (Sigh.) So here we go again.

For the sake of those with short attention spans and/or who have read similar posts before, let me first focus on Friedman’s newest lie before I move to the repetition of the old ones. Remember: Friedman’s thesis is that O’Keefe never even pretended to be a pimp at ACORN. He claims this in his title: “No, NYT, O’Keefe Didn’t ‘Pose as a Pimp’ Either.” Watch agog as he claims that Hannah Giles actually conceded this very point to Dave Weigel:

[I]n mid-February of this year, after we’d called out O’Keefe as a liar for misrepresenting himself, Giles admitted to Washington Independent reporter Dave Weigel that the “pimp” concept was added-on with footage that was shot later and edited in. The “gaudy” costume seen in the videos was meant to convey “the whoring out of the American people,” she told him Weigel [sic].

“We never claimed that he went in with a pimp costume,” Giles admitted, “that was b-roll. It was purely b-roll. He was a pimp, I was a prostitute, and we were walking in front of government buildings to show how the government was whoring out the American people.”

In other words, as Giles admitted, and as O’Keefe’s own unauthenticated text-transcripts show, the entire “pimp” concept was added on as an afterthought, and edited in later.

You follow what he is saying, right? Friedman is telling his gullible readers that O’Keefe never even pretended to be a pimp. He was always nothing but the nice boyfriend trying to save Hannah from the pimp. What’s new today is his claim that the entire concept of O’Keefe even being a pimp at all was made up entirely after the fact — and Giles admitted this to Weigel!!!

Of course, as you have already guessed, Giles said no such thing. Instead, she told Weigel that they never claimed O’Keefe was dressed as a pimp:

I asked Giles about a criticism that’s often been leveled against them — that they hyped up the video by wearing outrageous clothes in promotional materials and the videos’ introductions that they didn’t wear in the actual stings.

“We never claimed that he went in with a pimp costume,” said Giles. “That was b-roll. It was purely b-roll. He was a pimp, I was a prostitute, and we were walking in front of government buildings to show how the government was whoring out the American people.”

I suspect Weigel, who is lefty but pretty honest, would be surprised that he is being cited by Friedman for the concept that Giles admitted the entire pimp concept was created and inserted after the fact. I may write him about this, actually.

Now let’s move from the new lie to the old, familar one: that O’Keefe never posed as a pimp at ACORN.

Our friend daleyrocks put it nicely in comments here, and his articulation of Friedman’s dishonest methodology is worth quoting here:

[Friedman] and [Media Matters writer Eric] Boehlert have concocted an absurd and fabulist rewriting of actual events documented by audio and text records which most people, including the NY Times, do not find credible. It relies on cherry picking portions of transcripts and ignoring other portions, convoluted interpretations of commonly understood words and good old fashioned bald-faced lies.

Yeah, that’s about it. Here is how Friedman articulates this tired lie today:

But the Times correction still made the point to include the false notion that, while O’Keefe didn’t dress as a pimp in ACORN offices, he stilled [sic] “represented himself” as one, by “posing” as a pimp.

Well, no, as we’ve shown time and again, he didn’t do that either. He posed as the law school student (or sometimes a banker or politician) boyfriend to Hannah Giles who was dressed similarly to a prostitute. During the secretly-taped interviews, they both told the low-level ACORN and ACORN Housing workers they were trying to save her from an abusive pimp who had attempted to stalk and kill her.

The italicized words are Friedman’s own — designed to fool you into ignoring the fact that O’Keefe was setting up a house of child prostitution, from which he intended to profit.

As usual, Friedman tells you only half the story, and then confidently assures you that the other half never even happened.

Yes, Brad, O’Keefe posed as Giles’s boyfriend, who was trying to save her from an abusive pimp. That is indeed one part of the story.

But O’Keefe also said he also wanted to set up a house for Giles and underage girls to turn tricks in the house and give the proceeds to O’Keefe for his Congressional campaign.

Let’s go through the transcripts one by one — first quoting Friedman’s half-truth, and then rounding it out with the part he is trying to hide. We’ll go city by city, just as he does.

Friedman says:

Here are just a few more examples of O’Keefe “posing as a pimp”, as the New York Times, the “paper of record”, would have you believe, as taken from O’Keefe’s own unauthenticated text transcripts…

New York transcript…

Volda (loan counselor): how can I help you today
O’Keefe: have a seat
O’Keefe: well we have a unique situation and my uh this is my girlfriend, Eden, and I apologize about her attire but uhm uhm but Eden is in a unique line of work and umm… (page 3)

O’Keefe: and we have been…I work for Wells Fargo actually and we’ve been basically denied the right to appeal for housing. I have tried to talk to some of my co-workers and they do not want to help me apply for housing. (page 3)

O’Keefe: Yeah, yep, I work at a bank. (page 8)

O’Keefe: Well, the reason why we are rushing is because she was working for this pimp and he was very abusive. (page 17)

Giles: “He has been really aggressive toward me ever since I met him because I wanted to leave because it is scary being subjected to a huge man who has control over your life. And he [O’Keefe] is kind so… ” (page 17)

Here’s the part Friedman doesn’t tell you:

James: Yea well she is gonna 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 that is how we want to work it potentially.

Volda (loan counselor): but your name is going to be on the mortgage your name is going to be
on the deed

James: but no one has to know where the money is coming from

They discuss using a third party as a passthrough, to hold the mortgage to keep O’Keefe distanced from the house, and O’Keefe says he still might want the money for his political campaign after the mortgage is paid:

James: what if I when I run for campaign in a couple of years and this third party is gonna give me the money to pay for the house. Pay for the mortgages. Can he continue giving me the money after I am done paying for the house you know cause she

Volda (loan counselor): But you don’t need it

James: yea but she is going to be bringing the money in so if I run for political office maybe that’s a good idea for continuing to give me the money while I am running for campaign so I can raise money giving money to this third party even after I am done paying the mortgage

So O’Keefe talked about setting up a house for Giles and some girls to turn tricks and give him the money, which he would eventually use to finance his political campaign.

Moving on to Friedman’s next out-of-context passage:

Baltimore transcript…

O’Keefe: Well I am doing pretty well for myself but I am coming to talk to you about my girlfriend, my girl Kenya here, we have kind of a unique life situation. (page 2)

Kenya/Giles: Okay, uh, he is moving into town. I am not from here. An um…he wants me… He is going to be going to Johns Hopkins for graduate school. Graduate school, right?
Shira/ACORN worker: Congratulations.
O’Keefe: Yep, law. (page 3)

O’Keefe: The other thing we have to deal with is this guy she was working for, he is very abusive. And this guy has been giving us a lot of problems.
Kenya/Giles: ever since I left. (page 14)

Now for the parts of the Baltimore transcript that Friedman doesn’t tell you about:

Tonja: so the type of business okay … the type of business of service you provide let me make sure there is a code for it okay

O’Keefe: A code for prostitution?

Tonja: Well, yeah I have to have a name and a code number.

and this:

Tonja: they under sixteen so you don’t worry about that, but on the other part of the form you can use them as a dependents because they live in your house they are under 16 and they are living in your house. Well you live in a boat but because you are taking care of them so you can use them as a dependent

O’Keefe: What if they are going to be making money because they are performing tricks too

Tonja: but if they making money and they are underage then you shouldn’t be letting anybody know anyway

and

O’Keefe: we want to use a lot of the money that we are getting

Shira: you don’t want to use all of it

O’Keefe: No I am saying we want to use a lot of the cash for my campaign

Again, O’Keefe talked about setting up a house for Giles and some girls to turn tricks and give him the money, which he would eventually use to finance his political campaign.

Now Friedman cites Washington, D.C.:

Washington, D.C. transcript…

O’Keefe: So I, I’m running for, I go to Georgetown law school.
ACORN worker: Uh huh.
O’Keefe: And I’m running for a local election and we’ve gone to a lot of mortgage brokers… (page 4)

O’Keefe: Well, my ah, my partner is a ah, she’s in a unique line of business and I don’t know if you allow
Acorn 1: Unique line of business? What are you saying?
O’Keefe: Housing
Acorn 1: If you don’t tell us we can’t help you.
O’Keefe: My girlfriend is a prostitute. (pages 4,5)

Giles: I’m kind of afraid to make any ’cause ever since I met him [O’Keefe] I left a bunch of people and one guy in particular who was abusive and very controlling and, um, ever since I left he’s followed me and there’s problems and I feel if there’s more paper he’ll somehow get hold of that and I might end up dead and then I won’t be around. (page 11)

O’Keefe: See this is the problem because I’ve had my political meetings and she’s my girlfriend
and I’m trying to set her up with a place so she doesn’t have to beholden to some pimp. You know what I-trying, trying to give her a new life. (page 12)

Let’s examine the D.C. transcript in a more honest fashion.

At ACORN D.C., like the other places already discussed, O’Keefe and Giles talk about setting up a house for Giles and several El Salvadorian girls who will be working for him. Giles says she will take the money and give it to O’Keefe, who says he is running for a local election. The ACORN worker tells O’Keefe to distance himself from the house of women of the night that Giles will be running because he is in political stuff and the revelation will be bad for him if people learn about the house of prostitution. Here are some quotes from the transcript which (like all ACORN transcripts) is supported by unedited audio:

James: So, I can be the one who ah, I have documentation right? So, I can, I can be the one basically put up the house for it and she can perform tricks in the house.

Acorn 3: Yep.

James: Okay, and well all those girls too? All those, there’s like 10 girls? There’s 10 El Salvadorians.

. . . .

Acorn 4: If you but the home, you have no knowledge of what’s goin on in that home. He’s just [garble] the landlord.
I. I t, say that again.

Acorn 3: You have no knowledge of whats goin on you just the landlord.

Acorn 4: You have no knowledge of what’s goin on, I’m just keeping it real – your just the landlord.

James: I’m just the landlord.

Acorn 4: You’re just the landlord.

James: But, but, but…

Acorn 3: We know she’s your girl friend, but we’re talking about your career. How far you trying to go?

James: I’m using the money that she’s getting, you know what I mean?

Acorn 3: Okay. But you don’t know where its coming from.

Hannah: It’s cash.

James: I, I, I personally know where its coming from.

Acorn 3: Right, but when the police ask you – you don’t know where its coming from – that’s what we’re trying to tell you

James: Alright.

Acorn 3: We’re looking out for you.

. . . .

Hannah: And I want him to be successful and why I’m working so hard and bringing these girls in so when he does run for office he has unlimited funds.

And it’s no wonder Friedman, who denies O’Keefe ever posed as a pimp, skips right over San Bernardino:

O’Keefe: . . . we wanna set up sort of like a business to do this type of thing and

Theresa (ACORN): A prostitution business?

O’Keefe: That’s right.

. . .

Hannah (Eden): um I’m kinda familiar with that in Miami, but I also the guy that I’m supposed to be working for here just got a shipment or 12 El Salvadorian girls.

Theresa (Acorn): Oh, really?

Hannah (Eden): They’re between the ages of 12 years old and 15, and if I can, which I think I because I do have some sort of relationship with them.

Theresa (Acorn): Mmm hmm

Hannah (Eden): in the brief time I’ve come in contact. Would like to take them away from him . . . and use them for me, for myself and also to keep so they don’t have to be subjected to a man . . . who is abusive

. . . .

James: So basically we want . . . a house to put them in and we have been trying to go through the other authorities but they have been unhelpful with us because of, you know . . . they just you know they don’t wanna deal with these sex sex girls coming in performing sex they think we don’t wanna have anything to do with that.

. . . .

O’Keefe: But, one of the things I was one of the things we also wanna do um one of my goals you asked you asked do you know how you wanna do this, I think one of the goals is not only can Eden protect some of these 13, 14, 15 year-old girls

Theresa (ACORN) Yeah.

O’Keefe: coming over from El Salvador. In addition to protecting them and getting their feet on the ground so that they can you know perform the tricks and you know learn the how LA prostitution scene is I was also wanting to um use some of the this is very lucrative and potentially we can use a lot of the money we’re getting from the underaged girls from El Salvador and use some of the money for campaign one day

. . . .

O’Keefe: We’re bringing these girls from overseas.

Hannah (Eden) Well, they’re here.

O’Keefe: But, we are gonna take a part of the profit and I intend to use the profit

Theresa (ACORN): Right.

O’Keefe: From the tricks the girls perform

Theresa (ACORN): Right.

O’Keefe: To fund my political campaign.

Theresa (ACORN): Right.

Brad Friedman is one of the most shameless liars ever to walk the face of the Earth.

By the way, I will be discussing this all with Larry O’Connor on the Stage Right show on Blog Talk Radio on Friday. We have already invited Friedman on, to get his ass handed to him again. He wisely chose to wuss out. After last time, he has figured out that he can’t pull his dishonest shtick on people who know the facts.

BAWK BAWK BAWK. If there is anything worse than a dishonest guy, it’s one who is chicken.