Videos: ACORN advising on tax evasion for pimps and prostitutes?
posted at 11:36 am on September 10, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
ACORN offered an undercover investigator for BigGovernment extensive advice on how to evade federal taxes. Not just tax evasion, but also welfare fraud and advice on how to cover a conspiracy to traffic in underage hookers, as the conversation continued to develop. Fox News has a headline blast on this story:
Officials with the controversial community organizing group ACORN were secretly videotaped offering to assist two individuals posing as a pimp and a prostitute, encouraging them to lie to the Internal Revenue Service and providing guidance on how to claim underage girls from South America as dependents.
The videotape was made public Thursday on BigGovernment.com, a political blog launched by Andrew Breitbart as a companion site to his BigHollywood.breitbart.com blog.
In the videotape, made on July 24, James O’Keefe, a 25-year-old independent filmmaker, posed as a pimp with a 20-year-old woman named “Kenya” who posed as a prostitute while visiting ACORN’s office in Baltimore. The couple told ACORN staffers they wanted to secure housing where the woman could continue to maintain a prostitution business.
ACORN denies everything:
A spokesman for ACORN, Scott Levenson, when asked to comment on the videotape, said: “The portrayal is false and defamatory and an attempt at gotcha journalism. This film crew tried to pull this sham at other offices and failed. ACORN wants to see the full video before commenting further.”
That’s a little contradictory. ACORN calls it false without having seen the video and says that the film crew tried this before and failed. Well, apparently they succeeded on this occasion. The video and the transcripts make this very clear:
Complete ACORN Baltimore Prostitution Investigation Transcript –
How do these ACORN community organizers express their concern for the downtrodden Salvadorean teens impressed into prostitution by this would-be madam and prospective politician? “They don’t even exist.” “Call them ‘exchange students’.” “Train them to keep their mouths shut.” Neither of the two bat an eyelash at human trafficking while advising them to evade taxes and prosecution for their crimes.
Despicable.










Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Comment pages: 1 2 3 4 Next »
Where is the outrage with taxpayer funding?
Starlink on September 10, 2009 at 11:38 AM
And they “gotcha.”
mankai on September 10, 2009 at 11:39 AM
Hah. The Hookers name is “Kenya”. That’s rich!
loudmouth883 on September 10, 2009 at 11:40 AM
4 billion dollars of our money for this…
javamartini on September 10, 2009 at 11:41 AM
Beck is bringing this out tonight and is discussing it on his radio program today. Only the beginning folks. Stay tuned.
lyfsatrip on September 10, 2009 at 11:42 AM
I don’t know what to be the most outraged about.
sammypants on September 10, 2009 at 11:42 AM
FNC: Please, please, please book this turd on Beck (or better yet, Megan Kelly) so they can tear him a new rectal exit.
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on September 10, 2009 at 11:42 AM
Lets see…..
Now wasn’t Oramadan a community organizer.
OK now I understand the lies and the ignorance.
bluegrass on September 10, 2009 at 11:43 AM
Ha! Amazing.
‘Are you going to believe what you saw or what we’re going to tell you?’
anuts on September 10, 2009 at 11:43 AM
They’re just going to do the same thing as with the Florida cases going on. ‘These are just a few bad apples and not really representative of our fine organization’…
Yeah, I know they turned in their own in the Florida thing…
They need to catch the higher ups doing this kind of crap or get some of the junior thugs to turn on them.
Bastards!!
Oh wait, I meant to say Federally funded Bastards…
BigWyo on September 10, 2009 at 11:44 AM
No problem, it is certain that Eric Holder’s Justice department will be right on this case! No, really, I mean he’s on it right now! Just like the voter intimidation case in Philly and the numerous PP offices that tell teenage girls how to lie to protect their boyfriends from rape charges. I mean, Holder is all over this, right?
jwolf on September 10, 2009 at 11:44 AM
Simply unbelievable. Absolutely disgusting. The disregard those ACORN workers showed for 13 underage girls engaging in prostitution is mind-boggling. Inhuman and without soul.
CarolynM on September 10, 2009 at 11:44 AM
I am so angry I have no idea what to do.
Daddy-O on September 10, 2009 at 11:45 AM
I thought this was about ACORN not O’s speech from last night…
UnderstandingisPower on September 10, 2009 at 11:45 AM
You’re on fire this morning Ed!!!! Bravo…
Keemo on September 10, 2009 at 11:45 AM
Paging Dr. Fitzgerald…
Jorge Bonilla on September 10, 2009 at 11:45 AM
The way liberals look at it, underage prostitutes are no big deal as long as they can use it to gain/keep power.
Prostitution, money laundering, destroying private enterprise and replacing it with inferior government that makes people dependent…..it is all good as long as liberals benefit with more power.
GardenGnome on September 10, 2009 at 11:45 AM
Oh yea!!!
4shoes on September 10, 2009 at 11:45 AM
Scott Levenson is scum of the earth. I’m surprised at this comment because he usually says “they were rogue employees” and ACORN just didn’t know, but they are gone now”.
This is the dude Glenn Beck tossed off his show a couple months ago.
ScumBag!
Knucklehead on September 10, 2009 at 11:47 AM
Finally, something ACORN is actually qualified to do.
Tommy_G on September 10, 2009 at 11:47 AM
The word that connects the two is PIMP
bluegrass on September 10, 2009 at 11:47 AM
Look for Holder to treat this as serious and vigilant as the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation case.
anuts on September 10, 2009 at 11:47 AM
I cant wait to see Beck tonight! This is despicable..that group needs to go NOW~!
becki51758 on September 10, 2009 at 11:47 AM
Glenn Beck has NO bigger fan. I think that guy rocks.
However, I don’t see how this is as big a story as he says it is.
He says this is bigger than Watergate.
He says this is the biggest story in US History since the Civil War.
I’m not seeing it.
What am i missing?
Thune on September 10, 2009 at 11:47 AM
acorn dont fall far from the tree!
blatantblue on September 10, 2009 at 11:48 AM
Wait until CBS, NBC, CNN, and the rest get a hold of this…just wait, and wait, and wait…
right2bright on September 10, 2009 at 11:48 AM
Thug thizzle.
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on September 10, 2009 at 11:48 AM
Just reading the name Scott Levenson makes me slightly nauseous. Has there ever been a creepier spokesman for any national organization?
juliesa on September 10, 2009 at 11:48 AM
First the faux anger about Rep. Wilson’s outburst and now this.
You guys are putting me in a bad mood…
Blaise on September 10, 2009 at 11:48 AM
The Chicago way:
Ain’t nobody saw nothing!
Laura in Maryland on September 10, 2009 at 11:48 AM
acorn dont fall far from the tree!
blatantblue on September 10, 2009 at 11:48 AM
And they are eaten by squirrels!
bluegrass on September 10, 2009 at 11:48 AM
Our hard earned tax dollars at work. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE.
rjoco1 on September 10, 2009 at 11:48 AM
You will have better luck getting that $15 million from the Nigerian prince than seeing this story on the Midstream Media.
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on September 10, 2009 at 11:49 AM
Our hard earned tax dollars at work. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE.
rjoco1 on September 10, 2009 at 11:48 AM
TARP money……………………………
bluegrass on September 10, 2009 at 11:49 AM
Let’s see how much of this scenario Liberals are in favor of.
Illegal Aliens – Check
Healthcare for Illegal Aliens – Check
Tax Evasion – Check
Anyone else want to play along??
PappaMac on September 10, 2009 at 11:49 AM
Hehe…
Birds of a feather, my friend. Or is it something about not falling far from the tree?
anuts on September 10, 2009 at 11:50 AM
These ANIMALS are being paid BILLIONS in government funding and will be going door to door for the census????!!!
These ANIMALS are helping the statutory RAPE of little girls!!?? They DON’T exist!!
Lord please destroy ACORN and the Democratic Party who owns them
Jeff from WI on September 10, 2009 at 11:50 AM
Maybe the tax invasion, federal monies going to support prostitution AND human trafficking. Its still disgusting!
becki51758 on September 10, 2009 at 11:50 AM
Whadja expect? These are Democrat activists.
Akzed on September 10, 2009 at 11:50 AM
Just watched part of the video, all I can say is, the Onion would be proud, it’s unreal.
4shoes on September 10, 2009 at 11:50 AM
13 underaged El Salvadoran girls?
Um, this needs to run NONSTOP on Telemundo and Univision.
artist on September 10, 2009 at 11:51 AM
Balmer: “The city that Breeds”
Home of the “Stop Snitching” videos
Past number one hits: syphallis, heroin, murder rates
Hey PIGLOSI, wouldn’t your old man be proud?!?!?!
Laura in Maryland on September 10, 2009 at 11:51 AM
Your tax dollars at work, people.
Beck’s right about this. Forget about health care, this gang is fleecing us RIGHT NOW. They are getting BILLIONS of dollars for “housing counseling” and “affordable housing development.” And Barney Frank wants to get them billions more.
How many bad subprime loans do you think went into the system and blew it up because ACORN “counselors” helped people lie about their “businesses”? How much tax revenue has been lost because ACORN told people not to report illicit income?
rockmom on September 10, 2009 at 11:51 AM
Nothing more needs to be said to describe this… You nailed it Carolyn. This what happens when we allow these people to remove anything spiritual from the public place. I can’t imagine what this world would look like if spiritual principles were to be removed… Probably much like this video.
Keemo on September 10, 2009 at 11:51 AM
The hits keep on coming. This looks like Number One with a bullet for the next week. It makes ya wonder what will turn up the week after. Will they find goats in a back office of ACORN accompanied by a fiery denial?
“THESE are not the goats I knew at ACORN!”
Tantor on September 10, 2009 at 11:52 AM
What the HELL does the Attorney General of the United States have to say about this??!!!
Prosecute under RICO laws!!!
Jeff from WI on September 10, 2009 at 11:53 AM
Beck’s right about this. Forget about health care
……….
What?
No.
artist on September 10, 2009 at 11:53 AM
Where’s the Justice Department on this???
Jeff from WI on September 10, 2009 at 11:53 AM
Looks like that lady offering the tax evasion services got her schooling from Congressman Charles Rangel.
fbcmusicman on September 10, 2009 at 11:53 AM
What the HELL does the Attorney General of the United States have to say about this??!!!
……..
Holder: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
artist on September 10, 2009 at 11:53 AM
ACORN’s front people and organizers are all white. They use the poor black people as props to agitate and get the government funding. It’s a nice little racist racket they are running.
rockmom on September 10, 2009 at 11:54 AM
I predict that among the billions of dollars the Obama administration will give in subsidies to ACORN and PP will be money to pay for some top of the line video surveillance detection equipment. Reasoning: if they’re not caught, it never happened.
jwolf on September 10, 2009 at 11:54 AM
Jeffy my boy, please refer to my prior post:
Ain’t nobody saw nothing!
Laura in Maryland on September 10, 2009 at 11:54 AM
The media was able to create a president, but they can’t protect everybody. The new media is going to tear down everything around him, all the leftist all the corruption. He is going to be alone without alliues and exposed by the type of associations he really has. Giving the naion a picture of ACORN as a endemically corrupt organazation will hurt the Community Organizer in Chief.
Theworldisnotenough on September 10, 2009 at 11:54 AM
ACORN, a favorite organization of the same people that brought you “Obamacare” . . . think about it.
rplat on September 10, 2009 at 11:54 AM
I think Andrew Brietbart is pissed.
Theworldisnotenough on September 10, 2009 at 11:54 AM
So he’s going after ACORN.
That’s a target we need to go after!
Chaz706 on September 10, 2009 at 11:55 AM
Maybe ACORN has been hiring some of the UN International Peacekeeping troops. They don’t blink at this kind of stuff either.
RBMN on September 10, 2009 at 11:55 AM
Unfreakingbelievable!!
JohnGalt23 on September 10, 2009 at 11:55 AM
These people will be knocking on your door come census time.
Theworldisnotenough on September 10, 2009 at 11:55 AM
This.
tetriskid on September 10, 2009 at 11:55 AM
BUT… Liberals are the ones who care about and protect the poor and downtrodden. So this story can’t possibly be true.
Daggett on September 10, 2009 at 11:55 AM
Too busy trying to prosecute Bush and the CIA.
Knucklehead on September 10, 2009 at 11:55 AM
Of all the low life, diseased, rotten, disgusting, deviant, pieces of human feces, these two should get be HUNG!
Jeff from WI on September 10, 2009 at 11:55 AM
…giving Obama an unofficial colonoscopy in search of Lemmiwinks.
Laura in Maryland on September 10, 2009 at 11:56 AM
Exactly! Low Life Justice Department better get off their dead keisters
Jeff from WI on September 10, 2009 at 11:56 AM
The thing that struck me about this is the surreal quality of the videotape. I mean, do these ACORN workers not have an ounce of native intelligence? I must be from another planet because if someone came into my office and said “I’m a pimp bringing 13 underage girls for prostitution” I would be calling the police right then….
catlady on September 10, 2009 at 11:57 AM
Beck got Yosi Sergant of the NEA thrown under the bus. The administration just fired him.
That’s two down.
juliesa on September 10, 2009 at 11:57 AM
As an expatriot Balmerian and Merlinder your List of Shame saddens me. I’m going to go slpash some wudder on my face in the zink.
Akzed on September 10, 2009 at 11:57 AM
Laura in Maryland on September 10, 2009 at 11:56 AM
LOL!! I snorted my Diet Mt Dew on that one!
catlady on September 10, 2009 at 11:57 AM
lemmi what?…LOL
Jeff from WI on September 10, 2009 at 11:57 AM
I’m fed up with the unquestioned funding of this criminal enterprise.
Why are we being asked to support an organization that does everything it can to undermine the American way of life?
BuckeyeSam on September 10, 2009 at 11:58 AM
LOL! That’s the first thing I noticed. These guys have a wonderful sense of humor. The pimp’s name should have been ‘Frank Marshall Davis’.
joejm65 on September 10, 2009 at 11:58 AM
its hard out there for a pimp…..good thing ACRON is there to help
alexraye on September 10, 2009 at 11:58 AM
Are you being serious?
Tommy_G on September 10, 2009 at 11:58 AM
Hey everyone! Great news!
ACORN is the IRS’ fastest growing Volunteer Income Tax Assistance partner. ACORN tax centers have expanded their presence from four cities in 2004 to 83 in 2009.
CarolynM on September 10, 2009 at 11:59 AM
And with the all the gotchas of voter registration fraud in multiple states.
Some federal DA with some guts ought to file a Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organization suit against ACORN. But then Eric Holder would quash it.
rbj on September 10, 2009 at 11:59 AM
Is this who Beck was talking about that was big and people mail do jail time?
scalleywag on September 10, 2009 at 11:59 AM
Why do I feel a sense of deja vu all over again?
Oh, that’s right. Think “Lila Rose at Planned Parenthood”.
The Monster on September 10, 2009 at 11:59 AM
It’s all just too mind numbing. It really is hard to believe where our country has gone.
should you be outraged more at the robbery the feds committed by throwing away enough money to fill the entire grand canyon with hundred dollar bills or the blatant burning of the constitution as the goverment continues to march down a road the majority of Americans do not want to go?
Elections have consequences and some times those consequences are totalitarian marxism and converting the worlds lone superpower to a bannana republic.
Goodeye_Closed on September 10, 2009 at 11:59 AM
Just to correct a bit:
These were two independent individuals who got picked up by the BigGovernment and Breitbart site. They do not work for the “BigGovernment” site.
Thanks
Zippy_Slug on September 10, 2009 at 11:59 AM
Unbelievable.
shick on September 10, 2009 at 11:59 AM
Beck is going after the NEA and ACORN. He just got the NEA guy fired.
juliesa on September 10, 2009 at 12:01 PM
Looks like a lot of charges could be filed. Accomplice to human trafficking, prostitution, tax evasion, illegal harboring aliens, and fraud. Lets see Holder cover this up.
fourdeucer on September 10, 2009 at 12:01 PM
ACORN sure finds the winners to work in their offices.
Bishop on September 10, 2009 at 12:01 PM
First and last, it’s all about pulling something–anything, even human trafficking for crying out loud–over on The Man.
BuckeyeSam on September 10, 2009 at 12:02 PM
Crickets…
Wade on September 10, 2009 at 12:02 PM
You know, all during the campaign in ’08, I prayed HARD that God would expose the truth about O and all the evil people surrounding him. I kept getting the message, “Wait. Be patient. Things are not as they seem.” When O won, I couldn’t see how that could ever be a good thing, but what I’m seeing now is that God was right in telling me to be patient and watch. In every corner… with the thugs at the SEIU beating up people at the townhalls, Congress critters hiding and lying (thinking we can’t read or something), O standing up there peddling more lies, Van Jones, ACORN, the media…
The cockroaches are out and the lights are coming on.
Best of all, people are now starting to pay attention and see these people for what they are… EVIL. Which ironically is what I was praying for all along. O, me of little faith, why did I doubt?
UnderstandingisPower on September 10, 2009 at 12:02 PM
What will be unbelievable is that this will not trigger any investigation by DOJ of ACORN as a whole. Individual states are going to have to start cleaning out these vermin, or possibly local governments. That will be hard to to, given ACORN’s deep pockets and connections, but right now it is the only way.
catlady on September 10, 2009 at 12:03 PM
yea, it really is hard to believe how wrong things have gone.
i see these videos on TV, of all these teens beating the mother-loving f*ck out of one another. 12, 13, 14 year olds doing it.
guys doing it for money
girls doing sexual favors for guys in freaking middle school, wearing BJ’s as a badge of honor
its sad. go to college and people are having sex on a couch at a frat house in front of 20 something people
guys are getting chicks beyond wasted and taking advantage of them
i look at my generation and i get sick to my stomach, honestly
blatantblue on September 10, 2009 at 12:03 PM
I suppose ACORN is going to have to use some of the taxpayer billions they have and will continue to get to fight these allegations.
myrenovations on September 10, 2009 at 12:04 PM
i mean, not to say the “good old days” were that good
there was an awful lot of moral depravity then, but it was more private.
people display their moral degradation with pride in public.
blatantblue on September 10, 2009 at 12:04 PM
Do you like this? Wait until ACORN does the census. That’ll really amuse you.
ncborn on September 10, 2009 at 12:04 PM
Performing Arts? I love it!
This video is really embarrassing.
misslizzi on September 10, 2009 at 12:04 PM
They’re reassuring all their wh0re houses in Baltimore and DC that they won’t be affected by this.
Daggett on September 10, 2009 at 12:04 PM
They ain’t gonna be happy until we haul out the proverbial pitchforks and torches! DX
Orange Doorhinge on September 10, 2009 at 12:05 PM
You guys are so MEAN! ACORN was only trying to HELP!
I especially liked how the tax specialist went out of her way to come up with creative solutions to this entrepreneurial couple’s specific tax issues. I mean, as the President says, we need to help small businesses get off the ground, lower their tax burdens, and so on. Indeed, I look forward to the return visit, post passage of ObamaCare, when the health care specialist gets those girls the health care they NEED!
Hieronymus on September 10, 2009 at 12:05 PM
After the GOP defeats Hell Care, they should move on to killing ACORN.
Killing it dead.
blatantblue on September 10, 2009 at 12:05 PM
Precedent Pretty Pants suckled at the teet of ACORN. That’s who raised him. ACORN is Obama and Obama is ACORN.
Key West Reader on September 10, 2009 at 12:06 PM
What’s that smell in the air?
Oh yah, cordite.
OkieDoc on September 10, 2009 at 12:06 PM
Comment pages: 1 2 3 4 Next »