4/13/2013

25 Responses to “Man Who Allegedly Secretly Recorded Mitch McConnell Already Facing Unrelated Trespassing Charges”

1. JAMES O’KEEFE!!!!!!!!!!1!1!!!!!

   Patterico (9c670f) — 4/13/2013 @ 8:06 pm

   
   

2. romney got taped too without his consentings

   it’s kind of a rite of passage

   mitch might have to do his over though cause this one was so boring

   happyfeet (8ce051) — 4/13/2013 @ 8:12 pm

   
   

3. These aren’t the droids, I mean they are, nevermind;

   http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/293735-democrat-changes-story-about-conversations-with-progress-kentucky-leaders

   narciso (3fec35) — 4/13/2013 @ 8:14 pm

   
   

4. Actually the truth is even stranger then any fiction;

   http://predicthistunpredictpast.blogspot.com/2013/04/progress-kentuckys-sean-reilly-was.html

   narciso (3fec35) — 4/13/2013 @ 8:24 pm

   
   

5. According to Conway, Progress Kentucky’s Sean Riley and Curtis Morrison were in the hallway of McConnell’s campaign headquarters after an event ended, when they overheard a conversation they considered offensive, and decided to record it.

   I’m not familiar with Kentucky law but, unless they were in a location where they weren’t authorized to be, how is this an illegal or improper recording?

   Or are you suggesting the pending trespassing charges are an indication they may have been trespassing?

   DRJ (a83b8b) — 4/13/2013 @ 8:32 pm

   
   

6. Aha. It’s getting more and more clear why KY democrats are pushing away from this dealio as fast and as far as they can. Too bad for smarmy David Corn that he did not fact check, and that this is turning out to be a pile of caca. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

   elissa (14f9d2) — 4/13/2013 @ 8:37 pm

   
   

7. I’m told it’s a one-party state, DRJ, so unless one of the participants to the conversation consented, it’s illegal.

   Patterico (9c670f) — 4/13/2013 @ 8:37 pm

   
   

8. Why is everything they present a fraud;

   http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2013/04/12/investigation-why-did-david-corn-run-with-a-false-mcconnell-tape-transcript/

   narciso (3fec35) — 4/13/2013 @ 8:40 pm

   
   

9. “Kentucky, like most states, is a one-party state.”

   Patterico (9c670f) — 4/13/2013 @ 8:45 pm

   
   

10. Through the release of the tape, David Corn publicly raped the campaign of Puffy Face after she had dropped out from not even having announced she was running.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/13/2013 @ 9:36 pm

    
    

11. Without more information, it’s hard to evaluate “3rd degree criminal trespass.” It could be anything from a dispute with a neighbor over property lines or easements to being caught after hours in an office building housing political opponents (but in the actual office would be more seriously charged, I would expect).

    But this episode has shed some light on the slimy behavior of the New Totalitarians, including their propaganda organs like David Corn.

    Estragon (3bc1a7) — 4/13/2013 @ 10:28 pm

    
    

12. “But this episode has shed some light on the slimy behavior of the New Totalitarians, including their propaganda organs like David Corn.”
    
    SOROSOCTOPUS!!!!!

    daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/13/2013 @ 11:04 pm

    
    

13. Thanks, Patterico. So it wasn’t illegal for them to listen, only to record?

    DRJ (a83b8b) — 4/14/2013 @ 3:37 am

    
    

14. I think the fact that the McConnell campaign read the book she wrote about herself, and this somehow constituted a gold mine and a smear is the most remarkable part of this.

    Oh, and Prouty was a hero David and Goliath style for his unapproved recordings. Apparently the little guy is only important sometimes, as ProggyKY is bein abandoned by all.

    JD (b63a52) — 4/14/2013 @ 6:44 am

    
    

15. Progress Kentucky is nuttier than that guy in Tel Aviv shouting that Jews do not control the Israeli government. The last time around they were accusing McConnell’s wife of being Chinese. I have no doubt that Kentucky Democrats do not want them around anymore than they would want Ashley Juggs on the Democrat lael.

    nk (d4662f) — 4/14/2013 @ 7:13 am

    
    

16. *label*

    nk (d4662f) — 4/14/2013 @ 7:14 am

    
    

17. No, they accused her of being a double agent for China, that’s a little different.

    narciso (3fec35) — 4/14/2013 @ 7:16 am

    
    

18. And you think so, huh, well the outlet that started trig denialism, is still active, four years after it was revealed to be a Soros front, it even appears in the memeorandum queue for one reason or another.

    narciso (3fec35) — 4/14/2013 @ 7:18 am

    
    

19. they accused her of being a double agent for China because she was Chinese. They thought they had found a chink in McConnell’s armor.

    nk (d4662f) — 4/14/2013 @ 7:20 am

    
    

20. Point being, they will use any lie, distortion, omission, whereas we can’t even use the truth against them.

    narciso (3fec35) — 4/14/2013 @ 7:35 am

    
    

21. 20. …whereas we can’t even use the truth against them.

    Comment by narciso (3fec35) — 4/14/2013 @ 7:35 am

    Out of context. It’s always out of context.

    Steve57 (b238b6) — 4/14/2013 @ 8:29 am

    
    

22. More electoral crime by Democrats. Its getting to be beyond parody.

    SPQR (768505) — 4/14/2013 @ 10:10 am

    
    

23. What’s good for James O’Keefe is good for them.

    Somebody probably came forward because there are
    other people involved he/she was trying to protect.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 4/14/2013 @ 1:39 pm

    
    

24. “What’s good for James O’Keefe is good for them.”

    Sammy – Except they didn’t even have the balls to do what O’Keefe did.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/14/2013 @ 1:41 pm

    
    

25. James O’Keefe was a participant in the conversations, making them, in most states, legal.

    James O’Keefe wrote something about this:

    James O’Keefe in Defense of Taping Mitch McConnell, and Everyone Else / Daily Beast Apr 15, 2013 4:45 AM EDT

    Now he’s talking about legal pitfalls:

    ….My punishment—and I’m hardly the first journalist to be put through the legal wringer for aggressively pursuing the truth—changed my behavior. I’m hesitant to go into federal buildings, for example. I haven’t been arrested again for a reason.

    But it also forced me to take my work to a new level. I may or may not have tapes of a federal employee committing fraud. I’ve spent the last few days with lawyers dissecting 18 U.S.C. § 1001, prohibiting anyone from making “materially false,” fictitious, or fraudulent statements to the federal government. Whether an undercover reporter fibbing about a scenario is making a “materially false” statement is any lawyer’s guess. There is virtually no case law on this point, and no analysis of the two cases where the statue is discussed. Anybody who tells a harmless fib to a federal-government employee potentially risks everything; we are not talking about a slap on the wrist, we are talking about a quarter-million dollar fine, a felony conviction, and the destruction of one’s reputation in the media.

    Therefore, the federal government is shielded from the type of reporting Mother Jones, NBC’s To Catch a Predator, and ABC’s Primetime have all won awards for.

    Similarly opaque is misdemeanor crime 18 U.S.C. 1036—“entry by false pretense.” This morning I spent hours filing travel requests to leave the state of New Jersey three years after pleading guilty to a class-B misdemeanor, using “false pretenses” while sitting on a couch in Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office. My crime? I said I was “waiting for somebody to arrive” when in fact I was not. I was in plain clothes, and I showed my driver’s license at the entrance to Landrieu’s office. All this was filmed, but because my tape was confiscated and destroyed, it was my word against overzealous U.S. attorneys who charged me with a felony, which led to a media firestorm and inaccurate allegations of tampering with phones and worse. (The U.S. attorneys, Jim Letten and Janice Mann, recently resigned in disgrace for the way their overzealous behavior adversely affected defendants who received their prosecutorial wrath in subsequent cases unrelated to mine.) The Washington Post printed a front-page retraction after letting its glee about my potential imprisonment get in the way of reporting facts. Only one blogger reported the fact that my videotape was destroyed, and to this day I continue to rack up defamation-lawsuit settlements when reporters say I “tampered with phones.”

    Compare this treatment to that of the late Aaron Swartz…Are some journalists more equal under the eyes of the law than others?…Then there are the two-party consent statutes themselves, which protect and indemnify the guilty and are prevalent in the most politically corrupt states like Illinois, Maryland, and California. If a journalist had wanted to audio-record late-term abortionist Kermit Gosnell committing crimes against humanity in Philadelphia without his consent, that journalist would risk prosecution for Pennsylvania’s draconian felony wiretapping laws….While the two young people who allegedly recorded McConnell, Shawn Reilly and Curtis Morrison, may have overstepped the line this time, conservatives need to understand that the potential punishment they face is incommensurate with the crime under the present law….

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 4/15/2013 @ 9:38 am