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ACORN 2009 undercover videos controversy

October 24, 2023

In 2009, workers at offices of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a collection of autonomous community based organizations that advocated for low and moderate income families, were secretly recorded by journalists Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][excessive citations] The videos purported to show low-level ACORN employees in several cities providing advice to Giles and O'Keefe on how to avoid taxes and detection by the authorities with regard to their plans to engage in tax evasion, human smuggling and child prostitution.[8]

James O'Keefe, who, along with Hannah Giles, made videos about ACORN
Main article: History of ACORN in the United States

The videos were published on Andrew Breitbart's website BigGovernment from September through November 2009. They generated extensive, negative publicity for ACORN, and led to the United States Census Bureau and the IRS ending their contracts with ACORN, the U.S. Congress suspending its funding,[9] and ACORN losing most of its private funding. This was despite several independent investigations that by December 2009 appeared to reveal that no criminal activity by ACORN staff had taken place.[7][10][11][12][13][14][excessive citations]

ACORN filed for Chapter 7 liquidation on November 2, 2010, effectively closing the organization.[15][16][17][18][19][excessive citations]

Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe Edit

Hannah Giles is an American conservative activist who achieved national attention alongside James O'Keefe as a featured player in videos they had secretly filmed in encounters at offices belonging to ACORN. At the time, Giles was studying journalism at Florida International University.[20] Giles and O'Keefe spent $1,300 to accomplish what The Washington Post reporters called a "Mission to Fell ACORN".[21]

O'Keefe, an activist-filmmaker and self-described "progressive radical" (media coverage describes him as a conservative),[citation needed] worked for Morton Blackwell at the Leadership Institute.[22][23] [24] He has made additional secret videos since then which were found to have been heavily edited to misrepresent his subjects, or present them in the worst light.[25][26]

Hidden camera recordings and video releases Edit

In July and August 2009, Giles and O'Keefe visited ACORN offices in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Brooklyn, San Bernardino, San Diego, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami. Giles dressed as a prostitute, while O'Keefe wore white khakis with a blue dress shirt and/or tie and claimed to be her boyfriend.[27] Giles and O'Keefe recorded the encounters using hidden cameras[17] and pretended to be seeking advice on how to run an illegal business[28] that included the use of underage girls in the sex trade.

September 2009 Edit

Videos from the visits to ACORN offices in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Brooklyn, San Bernardino, and San Diego were released between September 10 and September 17, 2009, and were used to launch Andrew Breitbart's BigGovernment website.[29][30][31]

In the videos, O'Keefe included lead-in segments in which he wore a fur coat, top hat, sunglasses, and wielded a cane, giving viewers and the media the impression that he had dressed that way when visiting the ACORN offices.[27] His critics cite this as one of the ways he distorted the videos, since he actually dressed professionally during his ACORN visits, though he never revealed himself on camera in the ACORN offices.[27]

The Baltimore employees were fired by ACORN after the video was released.[32][33]

Tresa Kaelke, a California employee on the videos, stated she believed the activists were joking and made a variety of absurd or joking statements to them.[34][35] She said they were "somewhat entertaining, but they weren't even good actors."[36] On the other hand her office supervisor, Christina Spach, said Kaelke "pretended to cooperate with O'Keefe and Giles because she feared for her safety." Kaelke responded to the pair's requests for help setting up a child-prostitution ring on the video by claiming to be an ex-prostitute and exclaiming, "Heidi Fleiss is my hero!"[37] The California Attorney General's investigation of Kaelke determined that "none of her claims" on the video were true, that "she was playing along with what she perceived as a joke", and there was "no evidence she had ever engaged in prostitution."[10] According to CNN, the filmmakers released a transcript of their discussion with Kaelke that included a comment left out of the originally released tape in which Kaelke said that ACORN would have nothing to do with their prostitution business.[38] Kaelke was fired by ACORN after the videos were released.

In the San Diego office, edited video showed ACORN employee Juan Carlos Vera telling O'Keefe he had "contacts" in "Tijuana" to help get underage girls across the border.[39] But, after the discussion with O'Keefe, Vera reported O'Keefe's fabricated plan for human smuggling to police.[40][41] Vera was fired for what ACORN called "unacceptable conduct". Vera had said he tried to help the fake prostitute because she said that she needed to escape her controlling pimp.[42] On July 8, 2010, after the AG's Report confirmed that he had contacted the police to try to thwart the couple's smuggling plan, Vera filed a civil suit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California against O'Keefe and Giles for recording him without his permission, which was a violation of California law.[43] In July 2012, Giles settled the case paying Vera $50,000,[44] and in March 2013, O'Keefe settled, paying $100,000.[45]

ACORN response Edit

In response to release of the first videos, ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis said on Fox News on September 20, 2009, "[i]n a way, this was good for us, so what it did was show up to us what weaknesses we have, and we have moved swiftly ... in order to correct that." She said that after viewing the tapes, she had fired all the employees featured and had begun a comprehensive external investigation.[46] As ACORN learned more from its employees of what had taken place, it called the videos "false" and "defamatory".[32][33] A spokesman accused O'Keefe of dubbing the audio on the videos.[47] On September 23, 2009, ACORN filed suit in a Baltimore court against the filmmakers,[48][49] citing "extreme emotional distress" of the ACORN workers and violation of two-party consent recording laws.[50] It later allowed the suit to lapse.[51]

October 2009 Edit

On October 21, O'Keefe and Giles released video footage of their visit to the Philadelphia office of ACORN at a National Press Club conference. They claimed it was to show they had received help there, after an ACORN spokesman had said that the pair had been asked to leave the Philadelphia office.[52] The Washington Post "obtained a July 24 police report that showed police were called when O'Keefe and Giles attempted their sting at ACORN's Philadelphia offices—and that the couple were escorted out of those offices." Susan Kinzie of The Washington Post noted that "the heavily edited footage includes audio of the two conservatives but none of the ACORN Housing Corp. worker's responses to their questions."[52] Junette Marcano, a board member of Philadelphia ACORN, said, "This is a targeted assault to disenfranchise our members because ... the right-wing agenda is to stop us from empowering people of low and moderate incomes. When you make the poor powerful, the powerful feel threatened."[52]

Carol Leonnig, a The Washington Post staff writer who attended the press conference, said in an interview that day on Fox News that, in explaining why the audio portion did not include the worker's responses, O'Keefe said, "on the one hand, the pair are concerned about the legal ramifications."[53] O'Keefe claimed secondly "that the tape battery died."[53] Commenting on the Philadelphia video, Leonnig said "when you go to this office, and you see this tape, I don't think he's got the goods to say that ACORN lied."[53] Both Giles and O'Keefe declined to answer questions after the release of the October video.[52]

October press conference release
ACORN Office Location Video
release
date		 Transcript
release
date		 Date video
taken		 Number of
videos /
total time		 Transcript
Philadelphia[54] 2009-10-21[54] Not available 2009-07-24[54] 1 / Unknown Not released

Aftermath for ACORN Edit

On March 19, 2010, The New York Times reported that ACORN was on the verge of filing for bankruptcy; 15 of the group's 30 state chapters had disbanded over the past six months, and other chapters (including the largest, in New York and California) had renamed themselves and severed all ties to the national organization.[55] Two unnamed ACORN officials told the Times that the following weekend, a teleconference was planned to discuss a bankruptcy filing; "private donations from foundations to ACORN [had] all but evaporated." The federal government had ended contracts with the group related to organizing counts in urban areas for the Census and work for the IRS.[55] "[L]ong before the activist videos delivered what may become the final blow, the organization was dogged for years by financial problems and accusations of fraud."[55] Former co-chairwoman of ACORN's Maryland chapter Sonja Merchant-Jones said: "That 20-minute video ruined 40 years of good work. But if the organization had confronted its own internal problems, it might not have been taken down so easily."[55]

On March 22, 2010, National ACORN spokesman Kevin Whelan says the organization's board decided to close remaining state affiliates and field offices by April 1 because of falling revenues.[56] On April 20, the ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis reported that ACORN was "still alive. We're limping along. We're on life support."[57] Lewis said that ACORN's annual budget had been reduced from $25 million to $4 million, and that its staff of 350 to 600 people had been reduced to four.[57] Lewis explained the controversy had left a stain on ACORN, "sort of like a scarlet letter." It had forced the group to spend money to respond to "one investigation after another."[57]

Response by government and state authorities Edit

President Barack Obama stated the video content was "certainly inappropriate and deserves to be investigated."[58][59] ACORN's partnership in the 2010 United States Census was terminated on September 11, 2009.[60] The United States Senate voted to exclude ACORN from federal funding on September 14,[17] and the House of Representatives voted 345-75 to eliminate federal funding to ACORN on September 17.[9][61] John Boehner (R-Ohio), House minority leader at the time, introduced HR 3571 the "Defund ACORN Act" on September 15,[62] and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California) moved to incorporate that bill as an amendment to the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009 (HR 3221).[63] Both resolutions were later nullified in a federal court ruling by Judge Nina Gershon that the measures were an unconstitutional bill of attainder.[18][64] On August 13, 2010, however, a federal appeals court reversed that decision, and upheld the Congressional resolutions that cut off federal funding for ACORN.[19]

On September 23, the Internal Revenue Service removed ACORN from its volunteer tax-assistance program.[65] On September 24, the U.S. Treasury Department's Inspector General announced it would initiate a broader probe into "the government's oversight of tax-exempt organizations like ACORN when they engage in political activities."[66]

Investigations of ACORN and the videos Edit

Independent external investigation by Proskauer Rose Edit

On September 16, 2009, ACORN suspended advising new clients and initiated an independent review process, headed by Scott Harshbarger, an attorney from the Proskauer Rose firm and a former Massachusetts Attorney General.[67][68] On September 16, Bertha Lewis, ACORN's CEO, froze admission to all of ACORN's service programs and instituted a review committee to implement organizational reforms.[69][70] The independent external investigation found that while some of the counsel given by employees and volunteers was "unprofessional and inappropriate", the videos that had been released appeared to have been edited, "in some cases substantially", and ACORN employees had taken no illegal actions.[71]

Report by the Congressional Research Service Edit

On December 22, 2009, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) released a report on ACORN activities, commissioned by the House Judiciary Committee. It stated that ACORN had not been found to violate any federal regulations in the past five years. The report's other findings included that there were no instances of voter fraud by people who were allegedly registered to vote improperly by ACORN or its employees, and no instances where ACORN violated terms of federal funding in the last 5 years. The CRS found that O'Keefe and Giles may have violated Maryland and California laws banning the recording of face-to-face conversations without consent of both parties.[72][73]

Investigation by New York attorney general Edit

The New York Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo, began an investigation on September 15, 2009, to ensure that state grants given to ACORN were properly spent.[74][75] The New York City Council suspended all ACORN grants while the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office conducted an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the videos.[76] On March 1, 2010, the Brooklyn District Attorney's office determined that the videos were "heavily edited" to give a misleading impression,[5] and concluded that there was no criminal wrongdoing by the ACORN Brooklyn staff filmed in the videos.[6] A law enforcement source said, "They edited the tape to meet their agenda."[7][77]

Investigation by California attorney general Edit

On September 25, 2009, in response to Governor Schwarzenegger's request to investigate the incidents, the California Attorney General's office opened an investigation "into the controversy surrounding videos that purportedly show members of community organizing group ACORN giving advice on how to open a brothel."[78]

On April 1, 2010, Attorney General Jerry Brown announced the office's findings, based on its review of new unedited videotapes recorded in the California offices of ACORN, as well as other evidence.[12] The AG had granted O'Keefe and Giles immunity from prosecution in exchange for the raw videotapes. The report noted that the terms of the exchange did not exempt O'Keefe or Giles from being sued separately by the ACORN members filmed in the videos.[10] Citing the 1967 Invasion of Privacy Act, Attorney General Office's report stated, "an application of these principles to the facts presented here strongly suggests that O'Keefe and Giles violated state privacy laws and provides fair warning to them and others that this type of activity can be prosecuted in California."[10]

The Attorney General Office criticized O'Keefe for not acting as a journalist trying to objectively report a story from the facts, noting instead that O'Keefe stated he "was out to make a point and to damage ACORN."[10] The report said:

The video releases were heavily edited to feature only the worst or most inappropriate statements of the various ACORN employees and to omit some of the most salient statements by O'Keefe and Giles. Each of the ACORN employees recorded in California was a low level employee whose job was to help the needy individuals who walked in the door seeking assistance. Giles and O'Keefe lied to engender compassion, but then edited their statements from the released videos.[10]

For instance, one much-publicized recording had shown O'Keefe and Giles at the San Diego office. They show a worker purportedly seeking information from a contact in Mexico to help them smuggle underage girls from Mexico into the United States to work as prostitutes. The video did not show that the worker's "contact" in Mexico was a police official. The employee collected as much specific information from Giles and O'Keefe as possible during their visit. The worker then contacted Mexican police to warn them of the plot.[79] The AG Office's report stated, "ACORN was not the criminal enterprise described by O'Keefe in his 'Chaos for Glory' statement – it did not receive billions in federal funds and did not control elections. ACORN is, however, disorganized and its operations were far from transparent, leaving it vulnerable to allegations of illegal activity and misuse of funds."[10] The report also noted that despite O'Keefe's appearing in the released videos in "stereotypical 1970s pimp garb", in his actual taped sessions with ACORN workers, he was dressed in a shirt and tie, presented himself as a law student, and said he planned to use the prostitution proceeds to run for Congress, and never claimed he was a pimp.[10]

The report of the Attorney General Office concluded, "Even if O'Keefe and Giles had truly intended to break the law, there is no evidence that any of the ACORN employees had the intent to aid and abet such criminal conduct or agreed to join in that illegal conduct." While faulting a few of the recorded ACORN members for "terrible judgment and highly inappropriate behavior",[10] the investigation report also concluded that "ACORN could determine that the conduct of its employees in California was inappropriate, but that is an employment matter, which does not rise to the level of a law enforcement or governmental concern". The report determined that the employees did not commit prosecutable crimes in California. Regarding this contrast between the publicity related to the videos and what actually transpired, Attorney General Brown stated, "The evidence illustrates that things are not always as partisan zealots portray them through highly selective editing of reality. Sometimes a fuller truth is found on the cutting room floor."[12]

Investigation by the U.S. Government Accountability Office Edit

On June 14, 2010, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its findings on ACORN, by then disbanded. It said that there was no evidence that the group, or any of its related organizations, mishandled any of the $40 million in federal money that they had received in recent years.[14][80]

Media controversy Edit

On September 15, Joshua Rhett Miller of Fox News accused the mainstream media of purposefully ignoring the story, and said that it was favoring the political left.[29][81][82][83] Andrew Breitbart wrote in an article in The Washington Times that he had counseled Giles and O'Keefe to "offer Fox News the full footage of each video before each was released."[84] Breitbart said he developed a strategy to counter such presumed liberal media bias by courting the Fox News Corporation: "We had to devise a plan that would force the [other news] media to see the evidence before they had enough time to destroy these two idealistic 20-something truth seekers."[84] Giles was interviewed exclusively by Fox commentator Glenn Beck on the day of the first video's release.

CBS began to cover the story on September 11,[85] the day after the story aired on Fox News.[86] Breitbart and reporters of Fox News stayed on message, complaining that the "mainstream media" did not respond promptly or cover the story in sufficient depth.[81][82] On September 11, 2009, Glenn Beck was reported to have said, "FOX has had 133 reports on it, CNN, 90, MSNBC, 10. How's that possible? Hey, ABC, how's it working out for you with two?"[87]

Fox News said that, as late as September 15, the ABC anchor Charlie Gibson was unfamiliar with the story.[88] It did not report that ABC's Jake Tapper had been covering the issue since September 11.[89][90] In a September 15 interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News, Breitbart said that O'Keefe and Giles "have been impugned in the media."[91] Hannity said they had been "excoriated".[91]

Clark Hoyt, the New York Times public editor at the time, reviewed the raw footage and concluded that, regarding the statements by ACORN workers, “the most damning words match the transcripts and the audio, and do not seem out of context.”[92]

Criticisms of the undercover videos Edit

In September 2009, before the investigations revealed the selective and heavy editing of the videos, Alexandra Fenwick of the Columbia Journalism Review accused the video ensemble of being a politically motivated piece that lacked context and did not present accurate information. She characterized the work as raw information instead of journalism. She said some elements of the ACORN videos seemed "shadows of journalism's muckraking past" and were commendable.[93] The videos were criticized by MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell, who suggested the use of hidden cameras was a form of entrapment.[citation needed]

The Washington Post staff writers Darryl Fears and Carol D. Leonnig wrote:

Giles and O'Keefe have been criticized for accuracy problems. Their videos include the oft-repeated conservative claim that ACORN is expected to get up to $8.5 billion in government funds. But that's a bold exaggeration, as it includes $3 billion in stimulus funds set aside for revitalization efforts nationwide, and $5.5 billion in federal community development grants.

The more than $8 billion number was based on the false assumption that ACORN would apply for and win every project and grant in the country, and in fact ACORN did not apply for any of the stimulus funds.[94] Leonnig also observed:

the videos, in some cases, left out what I would call some exculpatory material ... for example, in one, a San Berna[r]dino employee at ACORN explains that there is no way ACORN would support what the couple were proposing, and she asks if they are putting her on, candid-camera style.[95]

During a September 14 television appearance on Fox, O'Keefe appeared dressed in a fur coat, sunglasses, and holding a cane. The host announced: "[O'Keefe] is dressed exactly in the same outfit that he wore to these ACORN offices up and down the eastern seaboard." He asked, "[I]s that what you think a pimp looks like?" O'Keefe answered yes. Within weeks, political journalist Mike Stark revealed that O'Keefe did not wear such clothing to the ACORN offices, but rather he wore subdued clothing and a tie, and in one instance posed as a candidate for Congress.[96] Stark said, "If they really wanted the truth out there, why do they need to edit these tapes in the first place? Why aren't the unedited videos already in the public domain?"[96]

For some - including The Daily Show presenter Jon Stewart, previously convinced by O'Keefe and Giles' videos[97] - O'Keefe's involvement in the attempted tapping of Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu's office phones in early 2010 cast doubt on the accusations against ACORN, with Robert Schlesinger, for example, asking, "If he [O'Keefe] is willing to break the law, wouldn't he be willing to shade the truth in the ways the ACORN supporters have accused?".[98]

The Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes cleared ACORN employees in the local office of criminal wrongdoing on March 1, 2010, after a five-month investigation. The Daily News quoted a law enforcement source saying that "They edited the tape to meet their agenda".[75] The ACORN lawyer Arthur Schwartz commented that ACORN was "gratified that the DA has concluded something we knew all along." He said that O'Keefe and Giles had "used subterfuge to convince Congress and the media to vilify an organization that didn't deserve it."[99]

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External links Edit

  • ; Proskauer Rose; December 7, 2009
  • , CRS; December 22, 2009
  • (PDF). State of California, Attorney General's Office. April 1, 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 12, 2011. Retrieved April 3, 2010.
  • , raw and edited recordings provided by James O'Keefe to the California Attorney General's Office
  • "Judge Instructs Fed Agencies to Resume ACORN Funding", Democracy Now! Website, 12 March 2010

October 24, 2023
acorn, 2009, undercover, videos, controversy, 2009, workers, offices, association, community, organizations, reform, acorn, collection, autonomous, community, based, organizations, that, advocated, moderate, income, families, were, secretly, recorded, journali. In 2009 workers at offices of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now ACORN a collection of autonomous community based organizations that advocated for low and moderate income families were secretly recorded by journalists Hannah Giles and James O Keefe 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 excessive citations The videos purported to show low level ACORN employees in several cities providing advice to Giles and O Keefe on how to avoid taxes and detection by the authorities with regard to their plans to engage in tax evasion human smuggling and child prostitution 8 James O Keefe who along with Hannah Giles made videos about ACORNMain article History of ACORN in the United States The videos were published on Andrew Breitbart s website BigGovernment from September through November 2009 They generated extensive negative publicity for ACORN and led to the United States Census Bureau and the IRS ending their contracts with ACORN the U S Congress suspending its funding 9 and ACORN losing most of its private funding This was despite several independent investigations that by December 2009 appeared to reveal that no criminal activity by ACORN staff had taken place 7 10 11 12 13 14 excessive citations ACORN filed for Chapter 7 liquidation on November 2 2010 effectively closing the organization 15 16 17 18 19 excessive citations Contents 1 Hannah Giles and James O Keefe 2 Hidden camera recordings and video releases 2 1 September 2009 3 ACORN response 3 1 October 2009 4 Aftermath for ACORN 5 Response by government and state authorities 6 Investigations of ACORN and the videos 6 1 Independent external investigation by Proskauer Rose 6 2 Report by the Congressional Research Service 6 3 Investigation by New York attorney general 6 4 Investigation by California attorney general 6 5 Investigation by the U S Government Accountability Office 7 Media controversy 8 Criticisms of the undercover videos 9 References 10 External linksHannah Giles and James O Keefe EditHannah Giles is an American conservative activist who achieved national attention alongside James O Keefe as a featured player in videos they had secretly filmed in encounters at offices belonging to ACORN At the time Giles was studying journalism at Florida International University 20 Giles and O Keefe spent 1 300 to accomplish what The Washington Post reporters called a Mission to Fell ACORN 21 O Keefe an activist filmmaker and self described progressive radical media coverage describes him as a conservative citation needed worked for Morton Blackwell at the Leadership Institute 22 23 24 He has made additional secret videos since then which were found to have been heavily edited to misrepresent his subjects or present them in the worst light 25 26 Hidden camera recordings and video releases EditIn July and August 2009 Giles and O Keefe visited ACORN offices in Baltimore Washington D C Brooklyn San Bernardino San Diego Philadelphia Los Angeles and Miami Giles dressed as a prostitute while O Keefe wore white khakis with a blue dress shirt and or tie and claimed to be her boyfriend 27 Giles and O Keefe recorded the encounters using hidden cameras 17 and pretended to be seeking advice on how to run an illegal business 28 that included the use of underage girls in the sex trade September 2009 Edit Videos from the visits to ACORN offices in Baltimore Washington D C Brooklyn San Bernardino and San Diego were released between September 10 and September 17 2009 and were used to launch Andrew Breitbart s BigGovernment website 29 30 31 In the videos O Keefe included lead in segments in which he wore a fur coat top hat sunglasses and wielded a cane giving viewers and the media the impression that he had dressed that way when visiting the ACORN offices 27 His critics cite this as one of the ways he distorted the videos since he actually dressed professionally during his ACORN visits though he never revealed himself on camera in the ACORN offices 27 The Baltimore employees were fired by ACORN after the video was released 32 33 Tresa Kaelke a California employee on the videos stated she believed the activists were joking and made a variety of absurd or joking statements to them 34 35 She said they were somewhat entertaining but they weren t even good actors 36 On the other hand her office supervisor Christina Spach said Kaelke pretended to cooperate with O Keefe and Giles because she feared for her safety Kaelke responded to the pair s requests for help setting up a child prostitution ring on the video by claiming to be an ex prostitute and exclaiming Heidi Fleiss is my hero 37 The California Attorney General s investigation of Kaelke determined that none of her claims on the video were true that she was playing along with what she perceived as a joke and there was no evidence she had ever engaged in prostitution 10 According to CNN the filmmakers released a transcript of their discussion with Kaelke that included a comment left out of the originally released tape in which Kaelke said that ACORN would have nothing to do with their prostitution business 38 Kaelke was fired by ACORN after the videos were released In the San Diego office edited video showed ACORN employee Juan Carlos Vera telling O Keefe he had contacts in Tijuana to help get underage girls across the border 39 But after the discussion with O Keefe Vera reported O Keefe s fabricated plan for human smuggling to police 40 41 Vera was fired for what ACORN called unacceptable conduct Vera had said he tried to help the fake prostitute because she said that she needed to escape her controlling pimp 42 On July 8 2010 after the AG s Report confirmed that he had contacted the police to try to thwart the couple s smuggling plan Vera filed a civil suit in U S District Court for the Southern District of California against O Keefe and Giles for recording him without his permission which was a violation of California law 43 In July 2012 Giles settled the case paying Vera 50 000 44 and in March 2013 O Keefe settled paying 100 000 45 ACORN response EditIn response to release of the first videos ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis said on Fox News on September 20 2009 i n a way this was good for us so what it did was show up to us what weaknesses we have and we have moved swiftly in order to correct that She said that after viewing the tapes she had fired all the employees featured and had begun a comprehensive external investigation 46 As ACORN learned more from its employees of what had taken place it called the videos false and defamatory 32 33 A spokesman accused O Keefe of dubbing the audio on the videos 47 On September 23 2009 ACORN filed suit in a Baltimore court against the filmmakers 48 49 citing extreme emotional distress of the ACORN workers and violation of two party consent recording laws 50 It later allowed the suit to lapse 51 October 2009 Edit On October 21 O Keefe and Giles released video footage of their visit to the Philadelphia office of ACORN at a National Press Club conference They claimed it was to show they had received help there after an ACORN spokesman had said that the pair had been asked to leave the Philadelphia office 52 The Washington Post obtained a July 24 police report that showed police were called when O Keefe and Giles attempted their sting at ACORN s Philadelphia offices and that the couple were escorted out of those offices Susan Kinzie of The Washington Post noted that the heavily edited footage includes audio of the two conservatives but none of the ACORN Housing Corp worker s responses to their questions 52 Junette Marcano a board member of Philadelphia ACORN said This is a targeted assault to disenfranchise our members because the right wing agenda is to stop us from empowering people of low and moderate incomes When you make the poor powerful the powerful feel threatened 52 Carol Leonnig a The Washington Post staff writer who attended the press conference said in an interview that day on Fox News that in explaining why the audio portion did not include the worker s responses O Keefe said on the one hand the pair are concerned about the legal ramifications 53 O Keefe claimed secondly that the tape battery died 53 Commenting on the Philadelphia video Leonnig said when you go to this office and you see this tape I don t think he s got the goods to say that ACORN lied 53 Both Giles and O Keefe declined to answer questions after the release of the October video 52 October press conference release ACORN Office Location Video release date Transcript release date Date video taken Number of videos total time TranscriptPhiladelphia 54 2009 10 21 54 Not available 2009 07 24 54 1 Unknown Not releasedAftermath for ACORN EditOn March 19 2010 The New York Times reported that ACORN was on the verge of filing for bankruptcy 15 of the group s 30 state chapters had disbanded over the past six months and other chapters including the largest in New York and California had renamed themselves and severed all ties to the national organization 55 Two unnamed ACORN officials told the Times that the following weekend a teleconference was planned to discuss a bankruptcy filing private donations from foundations to ACORN had all but evaporated The federal government had ended contracts with the group related to organizing counts in urban areas for the Census and work for the IRS 55 L ong before the activist videos delivered what may become the final blow the organization was dogged for years by financial problems and accusations of fraud 55 Former co chairwoman of ACORN s Maryland chapter Sonja Merchant Jones said That 20 minute video ruined 40 years of good work But if the organization had confronted its own internal problems it might not have been taken down so easily 55 On March 22 2010 National ACORN spokesman Kevin Whelan says the organization s board decided to close remaining state affiliates and field offices by April 1 because of falling revenues 56 On April 20 the ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis reported that ACORN was still alive We re limping along We re on life support 57 Lewis said that ACORN s annual budget had been reduced from 25 million to 4 million and that its staff of 350 to 600 people had been reduced to four 57 Lewis explained the controversy had left a stain on ACORN sort of like a scarlet letter It had forced the group to spend money to respond to one investigation after another 57 Response by government and state authorities EditPresident Barack Obama stated the video content was certainly inappropriate and deserves to be investigated 58 59 ACORN s partnership in the 2010 United States Census was terminated on September 11 2009 60 The United States Senate voted to exclude ACORN from federal funding on September 14 17 and the House of Representatives voted 345 75 to eliminate federal funding to ACORN on September 17 9 61 John Boehner R Ohio House minority leader at the time introduced HR 3571 the Defund ACORN Act on September 15 62 and Rep Darrell Issa R California moved to incorporate that bill as an amendment to the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009 HR 3221 63 Both resolutions were later nullified in a federal court ruling by Judge Nina Gershon that the measures were an unconstitutional bill of attainder 18 64 On August 13 2010 however a federal appeals court reversed that decision and upheld the Congressional resolutions that cut off federal funding for ACORN 19 On September 23 the Internal Revenue Service removed ACORN from its volunteer tax assistance program 65 On September 24 the U S Treasury Department s Inspector General announced it would initiate a broader probe into the government s oversight of tax exempt organizations like ACORN when they engage in political activities 66 Investigations of ACORN and the videos EditIndependent external investigation by Proskauer Rose Edit On September 16 2009 ACORN suspended advising new clients and initiated an independent review process headed by Scott Harshbarger an attorney from the Proskauer Rose firm and a former Massachusetts Attorney General 67 68 On September 16 Bertha Lewis ACORN s CEO froze admission to all of ACORN s service programs and instituted a review committee to implement organizational reforms 69 70 The independent external investigation found that while some of the counsel given by employees and volunteers was unprofessional and inappropriate the videos that had been released appeared to have been edited in some cases substantially and ACORN employees had taken no illegal actions 71 Report by the Congressional Research Service Edit On December 22 2009 the Congressional Research Service CRS released a report on ACORN activities commissioned by the House Judiciary Committee It stated that ACORN had not been found to violate any federal regulations in the past five years The report s other findings included that there were no instances of voter fraud by people who were allegedly registered to vote improperly by ACORN or its employees and no instances where ACORN violated terms of federal funding in the last 5 years The CRS found that O Keefe and Giles may have violated Maryland and California laws banning the recording of face to face conversations without consent of both parties 72 73 Investigation by New York attorney general Edit The New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo began an investigation on September 15 2009 to ensure that state grants given to ACORN were properly spent 74 75 The New York City Council suspended all ACORN grants while the Brooklyn District Attorney s Office conducted an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the videos 76 On March 1 2010 the Brooklyn District Attorney s office determined that the videos were heavily edited to give a misleading impression 5 and concluded that there was no criminal wrongdoing by the ACORN Brooklyn staff filmed in the videos 6 A law enforcement source said They edited the tape to meet their agenda 7 77 Investigation by California attorney general Edit On September 25 2009 in response to Governor Schwarzenegger s request to investigate the incidents the California Attorney General s office opened an investigation into the controversy surrounding videos that purportedly show members of community organizing group ACORN giving advice on how to open a brothel 78 On April 1 2010 Attorney General Jerry Brown announced the office s findings based on its review of new unedited videotapes recorded in the California offices of ACORN as well as other evidence 12 The AG had granted O Keefe and Giles immunity from prosecution in exchange for the raw videotapes The report noted that the terms of the exchange did not exempt O Keefe or Giles from being sued separately by the ACORN members filmed in the videos 10 Citing the 1967 Invasion of Privacy Act Attorney General Office s report stated an application of these principles to the facts presented here strongly suggests that O Keefe and Giles violated state privacy laws and provides fair warning to them and others that this type of activity can be prosecuted in California 10 The Attorney General Office criticized O Keefe for not acting as a journalist trying to objectively report a story from the facts noting instead that O Keefe stated he was out to make a point and to damage ACORN 10 The report said The video releases were heavily edited to feature only the worst or most inappropriate statements of the various ACORN employees and to omit some of the most salient statements by O Keefe and Giles Each of the ACORN employees recorded in California was a low level employee whose job was to help the needy individuals who walked in the door seeking assistance Giles and O Keefe lied to engender compassion but then edited their statements from the released videos 10 For instance one much publicized recording had shown O Keefe and Giles at the San Diego office They show a worker purportedly seeking information from a contact in Mexico to help them smuggle underage girls from Mexico into the United States to work as prostitutes The video did not show that the worker s contact in Mexico was a police official The employee collected as much specific information from Giles and O Keefe as possible during their visit The worker then contacted Mexican police to warn them of the plot 79 The AG Office s report stated ACORN was not the criminal enterprise described by O Keefe in his Chaos for Glory statement it did not receive billions in federal funds and did not control elections ACORN is however disorganized and its operations were far from transparent leaving it vulnerable to allegations of illegal activity and misuse of funds 10 The report also noted that despite O Keefe s appearing in the released videos in stereotypical 1970s pimp garb in his actual taped sessions with ACORN workers he was dressed in a shirt and tie presented himself as a law student and said he planned to use the prostitution proceeds to run for Congress and never claimed he was a pimp 10 The report of the Attorney General Office concluded Even if O Keefe and Giles had truly intended to break the law there is no evidence that any of the ACORN employees had the intent to aid and abet such criminal conduct or agreed to join in that illegal conduct While faulting a few of the recorded ACORN members for terrible judgment and highly inappropriate behavior 10 the investigation report also concluded that ACORN could determine that the conduct of its employees in California was inappropriate but that is an employment matter which does not rise to the level of a law enforcement or governmental concern The report determined that the employees did not commit prosecutable crimes in California Regarding this contrast between the publicity related to the videos and what actually transpired Attorney General Brown stated The evidence illustrates that things are not always as partisan zealots portray them through highly selective editing of reality Sometimes a fuller truth is found on the cutting room floor 12 Investigation by the U S Government Accountability Office Edit On June 14 2010 the U S Government Accountability Office GAO released its findings on ACORN by then disbanded It said that there was no evidence that the group or any of its related organizations mishandled any of the 40 million in federal money that they had received in recent years 14 80 Media controversy EditOn September 15 Joshua Rhett Miller of Fox News accused the mainstream media of purposefully ignoring the story and said that it was favoring the political left 29 81 82 83 Andrew Breitbart wrote in an article in The Washington Times that he had counseled Giles and O Keefe to offer Fox News the full footage of each video before each was released 84 Breitbart said he developed a strategy to counter such presumed liberal media bias by courting the Fox News Corporation We had to devise a plan that would force the other news media to see the evidence before they had enough time to destroy these two idealistic 20 something truth seekers 84 Giles was interviewed exclusively by Fox commentator Glenn Beck on the day of the first video s release CBS began to cover the story on September 11 85 the day after the story aired on Fox News 86 Breitbart and reporters of Fox News stayed on message complaining that the mainstream media did not respond promptly or cover the story in sufficient depth 81 82 On September 11 2009 Glenn Beck was reported to have said FOX has had 133 reports on it CNN 90 MSNBC 10 How s that possible Hey ABC how s it working out for you with two 87 Fox News said that as late as September 15 the ABC anchor Charlie Gibson was unfamiliar with the story 88 It did not report that ABC s Jake Tapper had been covering the issue since September 11 89 90 In a September 15 interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News Breitbart said that O Keefe and Giles have been impugned in the media 91 Hannity said they had been excoriated 91 Clark Hoyt the New York Times public editor at the time reviewed the raw footage and concluded that regarding the statements by ACORN workers the most damning words match the transcripts and the audio and do not seem out of context 92 Criticisms of the undercover videos EditIn September 2009 before the investigations revealed the selective and heavy editing of the videos Alexandra Fenwick of the Columbia Journalism Review accused the video ensemble of being a politically motivated piece that lacked context and did not present accurate information She characterized the work as raw information instead of journalism She said some elements of the ACORN videos seemed shadows of journalism s muckraking past and were commendable 93 The videos were criticized by MSNBC s Norah O Donnell who suggested the use of hidden cameras was a form of entrapment citation needed The Washington Post staff writers Darryl Fears and Carol D Leonnig wrote Giles and O Keefe have been criticized for accuracy problems Their videos include the oft repeated conservative claim that ACORN is expected to get up to 8 5 billion in government funds But that s a bold exaggeration as it includes 3 billion in stimulus funds set aside for revitalization efforts nationwide and 5 5 billion in federal community development grants The more than 8 billion number was based on the false assumption that ACORN would apply for and win every project and grant in the country and in fact ACORN did not apply for any of the stimulus funds 94 Leonnig also observed the videos in some cases left out what I would call some exculpatory material for example in one a San Berna r dino employee at ACORN explains that there is no way ACORN would support what the couple were proposing and she asks if they are putting her on candid camera style 95 During a September 14 television appearance on Fox O Keefe appeared dressed in a fur coat sunglasses and holding a cane The host announced O Keefe is dressed exactly in the same outfit that he wore to these ACORN offices up and down the eastern seaboard He asked I s that what you think a pimp looks like O Keefe answered yes Within weeks political journalist Mike Stark revealed that O Keefe did not wear such clothing to the ACORN offices but rather he wore subdued clothing and a tie and in one instance posed as a candidate for Congress 96 Stark said If they really wanted the truth out there why do they need to edit these tapes in the first place Why aren t the unedited videos already in the public domain 96 For some including The Daily Show presenter Jon Stewart previously convinced by O Keefe and Giles videos 97 O Keefe s involvement in the attempted tapping of Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu s office phones in early 2010 cast doubt on the accusations against ACORN with Robert Schlesinger for example asking If he O Keefe is willing to break the law wouldn t he be willing to shade the truth in the ways the ACORN supporters have accused 98 The Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes cleared ACORN employees in the local office of criminal wrongdoing on March 1 2010 after a five month investigation The Daily News quoted a law enforcement source saying that They edited the tape to meet their agenda 75 The ACORN lawyer Arthur Schwartz commented that ACORN was gratified that the DA has concluded something we knew all along He said that O Keefe and Giles had used subterfuge to convince Congress and the media to vilify an organization that didn t deserve it 99 References Edit An Independent Governance Assessment of ACORN Archived 2010 09 08 at the Wayback Machine December 7 2009 ACORN Workers Cleared Of Illegality By Outside Probe ACORN and the Ethics of Leadership Atlantic Monthly December 8 2009 ACORN Investigation Results Archived December 13 2009 at the Wayback Machine The Nonprofit Quarterly a b Damaging Brooklyn ACORN Sting Video Ruled Heavily Edited No Charges to Be Filed New York Magazine March 2 2010 a b Newman Andrew March 1 2010 Advice to Fake Pimp Was No Crime Prosecutor Says The New York Times Archived from the original on March 25 2010 Retrieved March 7 2010 a b c Madde Mike March 1 2010 Brooklyn prosecutors clear local ACORN office Salon com Retrieved March 7 2010 Shane Scott September 19 2009 A Political Gadfly Lampoons the Left via YouTube The New York Times Retrieved September 26 2009 a b House Votes to Strip Funding for ACORN Fox News September 17 2009 Archived from the original on September 22 2009 Retrieved September 17 2009 a b c d e f g h i Report of the Attorney General on the Activities of Acorn PDF April 1 2010 Archived from the original PDF on June 12 2011 Retrieved April 3 2010 California AG Determines ACORN Broke No Criminal Laws Archived 2010 11 12 at the Wayback Machine Fox News April 1 2010 a b c Brown Releases Report Detailing a Litany of Problems with ACORN But No Criminality California Office of Attorney General April 1 2010 Archived from the original on April 3 2010 Retrieved April 3 2010 ACORN Vindicated of Wrongdoing by the Congressional Watchdog Office by John Atlas The Huffington Post June 15 2010 a b Preliminary report clears ACORN on funds CNN June 15 2010 ACORN filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy Los Angeles Times November 2 2010 ACORN disbanding because of money woes scandal Associated Press permanent dead link a b c Taylor Andrew September 14 2009 Senate votes to deny funds to ACORN The Seattle Times Associated Press Archived from the original on June 4 2011 Retrieved September 20 2009 a b Lorber Janie December 11 2009 House Ban on Acorn Grants Is Ruled Unconstitutional The New York Times p A12 Retrieved February 1 2010 a b Hays Tom Associated Press New York Federal Appeals Court rules against ACORN carried at Dayton Daily News August 13 2010 Citizen Journalists Path to Celebrity Paved With Ups Downs by Erika Lovely Politico 11 30 2009 retrieved 12 02 2009 Fears Darryl Leonnig Carol D September 18 2009 Duo in ACORN Videos Say Effort Was Independent The Washington Post Retrieved July 28 2011 James O Keefe Overview The New York Times January 26 2010 Retrieved January 29 2010 Elliott Debbie February 4 2010 Debate Over Activists Actions In Senator s Office NPR Retrieved February 4 2010 Pimp in ACORN video shares story Los Angeles Times January 29 2010 Retrieved January 29 2010 NPR O Keefe Inappropriately Edited Video Exec s Words Still Egregious NPR Mark Memmott March 14 2011 Elements Of NPR Gotcha Video Taken Out Of Context NPR David Folkenflik March 14 2011 a b c Mock Brentin January 27 2010 O Keefe Neither Pimp nor Journalist The Lens Retrieved February 18 2010 Fessler Pam September 17 2009 ACORN Grapples With Fallout Of Damaging Videos NPR Retrieved September 20 2009 a b Hoyt Clark September 26 2009 Tuning In Too Late The New York Times Archived from the original on May 13 2011 Retrieved September 28 2009 Why Big Government Could Make Andrew Breitbart the Right s Huffington The ACORN Videos Did NPR Ignore Them a b ACORN Fires 2 After Hidden Camera Footage Aired The New York Times Associated Press September 10 2009 Retrieved September 10 2009 dead link a b Justin Fenton September 11 2009 Video prompts ACORN firings The Baltimore Sun Retrieved September 11 2009 permanent dead link Blowback in the ACORN Wars ABC News September 16 2009 Archived from the original on September 18 2009 Retrieved September 16 2009 Police ACORN Employee s Murder Confession Not Factual Politics Daily September 16 2009 Retrieved September 16 2009 Fox News September 16 2009 Fourth Videotape Reveals ACORN Advising Pimp Prostitute in California Obama and ACORN September 16 2010 The Wall Street Journal James Taranto TRANSCRIPTS CNN September 17 2009 Lou Dobbs Tonight September 22 2009 Fox ACORN Worker fired over video sting Archived September 25 2009 at the Wayback Machine Maddow Raw footage reveals O Keefe lied about ACORN tapes Archived April 11 2010 at the Wayback Machine Rawstory April 7 2010 September 22 2009 Fox News ACORN Worker in Video Reported Duo to Police 10 News San Diego News September 17 2009 ACORN Worker Fired After Appearance In Undercover Video Daniel Tencer July 10 2010 Former ACORN employee sues O Keefe and Giles The Raw Story Retrieved March 12 2012 permanent dead link Friedman Brad March 12 2013 O Keefe partner pays 50K to fired ACORN worker Retrieved July 7 2019 Perry Tony Conservative activist pays 100 000 to former ACORN worker Retrieved July 7 2019 Bertha Lewis and Rep Darrell Issa on FNS Fox News Sunday September 20 2009 ACORN staff taped with woman posing as prostitute Associated Press September 15 2009 Archived from the original on September 24 2009 Retrieved September 15 2009 GOP seizes on ACORN funding Yahoo News September 16 2009 Retrieved September 16 2009 Falcone Michael September 14 2009 ACORN mulls suit against Fox News Politico Retrieved September 14 2009 Mike Schuh September 24 2009 APNewsBreak ACORN Sues Filmmakers Associated Press Archived from the original on December 16 2009 ACORN v O Keefe Docket March 11 2010 via Scribd Docket note disposed lack of service a b c d Susan Kinzie Duo release another video of their meeting with ACORN worker latest footage has audio of two conservatives but not of the staff member The Washington Post October 22 2009 a b c Interview of Carol Leonnig by Greta Van Susteren On the Record with Greta Van Susteren October 21 2009 a b c Filmmakers Show Video of ACORN Sting in Philadelphia Fox News October 21 2009 a b c d Urbina Ian March 19 2010 Acorn on Brink of Bankruptcy Officials Say The New York Times Archived from the original on March 23 2010 Retrieved March 20 2010 Smith Ben March 22 2010 ACORN Folds Politico Archived from the original on March 25 2010 Retrieved March 22 2010 a b c Larry Neumeister April 20 2010 ACORN CEO outside court We re on life support Associated Press Pritchard Justin September 23 2009 How the ACORN pimp and hooker videos came to be The Seattle Times Associated Press Archived from the original on June 22 2011 Retrieved September 25 2009 Stephanopoulos George September 20 2009 This Week With George Stephanopoulos Washington ABC News Retrieved September 20 2009 Sherman Jake September 12 2009 Census Bureau Cuts Its Ties With Acorn The Wall Street Journal pp A4 Archived from the original on September 15 2009 Retrieved September 20 2009 Roll call 718 U S House of Representatives September 17 2009 H R 3571 2009 Congressional Record Vol 155 Page H9699 Thrush Glenn September 25 2009 CRS ACORN ban may be unconstitutional Politico Retrieved October 25 2009 Wheaton Sarah September 24 2009 Acorn Sues Over Video as I R S Severs Ties The New York Times Archived from the original on June 17 2011 Retrieved April 23 2010 Oversight of Tax Exempt Groups Like ACORN Examined Archived February 22 2012 at the Wayback Machine WBOC News 2009 09 24 Sharon Theimer Embattled ACORN orders independent investigation Associated Press Archived from the original on September 24 2009 Retrieved September 17 2009 Rutenberg Jim September 23 2009 Acorn Hires Former State Law Enforcer The New York Times Retrieved April 23 2010 ACORN Suspends Key Services Amid Probe WRC TV September 16 2009 Retrieved September 20 2009 ACORN Announces Reforms After Pimp Prostitute Videos Fox News foxnews com September 16 2009 Retrieved September 20 2009 An Independent Governance Assessment of ACORN Archived 2010 09 08 at the Wayback Machine Proskauer December 7 2009 CRS report ACORN didn t break law Politico December 23 2009 Conyers Releases CRS Report on ACORN Archived 2010 11 03 at the Wayback Machine House Judiciary Committee December 22 2009 Scott Brendan Goldenberg Sally September 16 2009 Probe into ACORN s brothel affair New York Post Retrieved September 16 2009 a b Scott Shifrel March 1 2010 B klyn ACORN cleared over giving illegal advice on how to hide money from prostitution New York Daily News Retrieved March 5 2010 Jonathan D Salant and Justin Blum September 18 2009 Congress Votes to Cut U S Acorn Funds After Video Bloomberg Kings County District Attorney Charles J Hynes Makes Statement Regarding Investigation Into ACORN Archived 2011 08 11 at the Wayback Machine Kings County District Attorney March 1 2010 AG opens probe into ACORN video flap Archived 2010 11 25 at the Wayback Machine The Sacramento Bee October 1 2009 Maddow Rachel April 6 2010 Raw ACORN tapes tell a very different story NBC News Retrieved April 16 2010 ACORN Vindicated of Wrongdoing by the Congressional Watchdog Office The Huffington Post a b News Outlets Largely Ignoring ACORN Scandal Critics Say Fox News September 15 2009 a b Scandal Jeopardizes ACORN Funding AOL News September 16 2009 ACORN Officials Videotaped Telling Pimp Prostitute How to Lie to IRS Fox News Archived from the original on September 13 2009 Retrieved September 24 2009 a b Andrew Breitbart September 21 2009 The politicized art behind the ACORN plan The Washington Times ACORN Under Fire Over Hidden Camera Tape CBS News September 11 2009 ACORN workers caught on tape allegedly advising on prostitution CNN September 11 2009 Archived from the original on June 2 2010 Retrieved April 23 2010 The Seeds of a Story Archived 2009 09 28 at the Wayback Machine On the Media September 19 2009 ABC s Gibson ACORN Scandal a Mystery to Me Fox News September 15 2009 Census Severs Relationship with ACORN ABC News September 11 2009 Jake Tapper on ACORN Probe ABC News September 16 2010 a b Where Is Mainstream Media on Undercover ACORN Videos Fox News September 15 2009 Alberta Tim May 4 2018 James O Keefe Can t Get No Respect Politico Washington D C Capitol News Company Archived from the original on January 28 2020 Retrieved January 28 2020 Fenwick Alexandra September 18 2009 ACORN s Family Tree Was the Baltimore video journalism Columbia Journalism Review Retrieved September 18 2009 Fears Darryl Leonnig Carol D September 18 2009 The 1 300 Mission to Fell ACORN Duo in Sting Video Say Their Effort Was Independent The Washington Post Retrieved September 18 2009 Leonnig Carol D September 23 2009 Latest Developments in ACORN Story The Washington Post Retrieved September 23 2009 a b Stark Mike October 22 2009 All You Need to Know About the ACORN Scandal and Who Is Behind It The Huffington Post Archived from the original on October 26 2009 Retrieved October 22 2009 Atlas John 2010 Seeds of Change The Story of ACORN America s Most Controversial Antipoverty Community Organizing Group Nashville TN Vanderbilt University Press ISBN 978 0 8265 1705 0 Schlesinger Robert January 26 2010 James O Keefe Arrested Undercutting ACORN Allegations U S News amp World Report Retrieved March 21 2020 McDonough Molly March 2 2010 NY Prosecutor Clears ACORN Workers in Pimp and Hooker Incident ABA Journal Retrieved March 2 2010 External links EditAn Independent Governance Assessment of ACORN Proskauer Rose December 7 2009 Congressional Research Service Report on ACORN CRS December 22 2009 Report of the Attorney General on the Activities of Acorn in California PDF State of California Attorney General s Office April 1 2010 Archived from the original PDF on June 12 2011 Retrieved April 3 2010 Video and Audio recordings of ACORN offices raw and edited recordings provided by James O Keefe to the California Attorney General s Office Judge Instructs Fed Agencies to Resume ACORN Funding Democracy Now Website 12 March 2010 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title ACORN 2009 undercover videos controversy amp oldid 1175324695, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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