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ACORN Report Finds No Illegal Conduct

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ACORN employees caught in those undercover videos advising a couple posing as a pimp and a prostitute on how to break the law acted unprofessionally and inappropriately, but did nothing illegal, a report commissioned by ACORN and conducted by an independent investigator has found.

The report, by former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, recommends nine steps for ACORN to take in order to regain public trust in the wake of the scandal, including that it return to its "core competency - community organizing and citizen engagement empowerment, with related services."

On the key question of potential illegal conduct, it finds:

While some of the advice and counsel given by ACORN employees and volunteers was clearly inappropriate and unprofessional, we did not find a pattern of intentional, illegal conduct by ACORN staff; in fact, there is no evidence that action, illegal or otherwise, was taken by any ACORN employee on behalf of the videographers.

Harshbarger also notes that the videos were sometimes less than perfect representations of the events they depict. He writes:

The videos that have been released appear to have been edited, in some cases substantially, including the insertion of a substitute voiceover for significant portions of Mr. O'Keefe's and Ms. Giles's comments, which makes it difficult to determine the questions to which ACORN employees are responding. A comparison of the publicly available transcripts to the released videos confirms that large portions of the original video have been omitted from the released versions.

In the wake of the scandal, Congress voted to cut off all federal funds from ACORN. In response, the group is suing the US government, arguing that the measure is a bill of attainder, and therefore unconstitutional.

Robert Borosage, of the progressive Campaign for America's Future, responded to the report's findings by declaring that "an organization that has done remarkable work organizing and empowering the poorest Americans was targeted and slurred by a right-wing hit team, then persecuted by legislators who should have known better."

You can read the full report here (pdf).

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39 comments

Recommend Recommend (13)

December 7, 2009 3:12 PM   

Gee, it's too bad it isn't the media's job to determine whether public accusations have any objective merit. I mean, doing something like that would require journalistic motivation and integrity.

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December 7, 2009 3:34 PM   

Acorn internal review exonerates Acorn - this is news?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

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December 7, 2009 3:47 PM    in reply to Campesino

Nice job with the reading comprehension. The article says it was an independent investigation. Where did you see that it was an "internal review"?

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December 7, 2009 4:10 PM    in reply to Clavis

Fox News chyron.

(Snarky and not true comment -- I think.)

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December 7, 2009 4:12 PM    in reply to Clavis

Nice job with the reading comprehension. The article says it was an independent investigation. Where did you see that it was an "internal review"?

=============================================================

My comprehension is fine - you didn't bother to look at the report. The first paragraph says Proskauer was retained (that means paid) by Acorn to conduct an "independent" investigation. What did you think they'd get?

Actually back in September when Harshbarger was named it was referred to as an internal investigation

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32970698/

ACORN names internal investigator

Democrat Scott Harshbarger, a lawyer whose specialties include corporate governance, will conduct the internal investigation. ACORN said the review would be "aggressive, thorough and far-reaching."

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December 7, 2009 5:08 PM    in reply to Campesino

Classic projection.
Grow up, kiddo.

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December 7, 2009 5:35 PM    in reply to cinesimon

Classic projection.
Grow up, kiddo.

============================================================

Typical - you don't have any facts on your side to argue so you go straight to fake psychology

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December 8, 2009 9:19 AM    in reply to Campesino

Typical and pathetic. You claim "facts" that are made up in your head. Learn to do some critical analysis instead of just claiming "facts" that have no basis in reality. Internal investigations happen all the time in various organizations. Public and private. Their conclusions are not foregone conclusions. You are just too cowardly to admit you are biased.
BTW, never serve on a jury.

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December 8, 2009 11:08 PM    in reply to dswx

Typical and pathetic. You claim "facts" that are made up in your head. Learn to do some critical analysis instead of just claiming "facts" that have no basis in reality. Internal investigations happen all the time in various organizations. Public and private. Their conclusions are not foregone conclusions. You are just too cowardly to admit you are biased.
BTW, never serve on a jury.

===================================================================

How stupidly naive. I'm sure in a hypothical case if John Ashcroft was hired to conduct an investigation of the Heritage Foundation and found nothing wrong you'd be perfectly in agreement, wouldn't you.

You don't hire a Democratic former state attorney general to audit a liberal organization and expect it to have any credibility. If they'd hired an apolitical figure they possibly could have gotten some traction. They threw their money away.

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December 9, 2009 2:34 AM    in reply to Campesino

You pathetic troll. Go away until you have something real to say. Why aren't you addressing any of the substance of the findings? Why no mention of the obvious entrapment involved? Why no mention of the hilariously fraudulent "editing" the ACORN critics did with their video?

Too many neurons required for that, I know. You righties can't be bothered with such things.

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December 8, 2009 12:08 PM    in reply to Campesino

well, aside from ripping off an almost direct quote from Rep. Issa, not something a thinking person should do, where the H3LL is your evidence that the investigation was biased? Because it was internal, it had to be inherently biased? Really? I mean, that was St. Issa's reasoning... faulty though it was. It also made him a hypocrite. Congress investigates itself and you don't hear Issa wailing about bias there do you? Oh, I see, the Democrats are involved... ergo.... GMAB!

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December 8, 2009 4:52 PM    in reply to Campesino

I want to know when the Pimp and Whore undercover fraud team is going to start visiting Halliburton Corporate offices and find out where the BILLIONS AND BILLIONS of dollars in no bid contract money from the Iraq War has ended up.

You want some fraud you conservative bitches can chew on go for the BIG GAME!

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December 8, 2009 8:17 PM    in reply to Campesino

Thanks for clearing that up -- now I can officially ignore every Republican exoneration from the Bush White House and the GOP congress as a white wash. Whew! Makes my life a lot easier.

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December 8, 2009 6:32 PM    in reply to Campesino

It's always simple logic with conservative trolls. Like this guy, basically saying "If you can't trust the messenger, you can't trust the message." Ignore everything else. I'm sure "Smoke em out" could apply here or "Dead or alive", or my favorite Bushism "Well (to Gore in 2000) murder is a hate crime, what is more hateful than murder?" Everybody now : "WHAT A DUMBASS"

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December 8, 2009 11:05 PM    in reply to Campesino

huh, you need to go back and reread this. it clearly says the former mass. attorney general

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December 7, 2009 4:06 PM   

" . . .legislators who should have known better." Please they are Republican legislators, obstruction tops knowing every time.

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December 8, 2009 10:40 AM    in reply to Powkat

Dems voted with them, or funding would not have been cut off. Remember that.

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bb

user-pic

December 8, 2009 1:37 AM   

I read the entire PDF. I don't expect that there will be any word of this report on the shows that trashed this organization, despite their claims of being "fair and balanced" and their claim to be a news network. We know who they are. They don't practice journalism, and failed to investigate.

Lawyergate...Bush/Rove firing Republican attorneys because those attorneys would not prosecute ACORN=because there was no evidence that ACORN had done anything wrong. ACORN is there to protect the rights of the ones without legal staff; protect the rights of those who shower after work, the blue collar, the elderly. Those on the right are threatened by this group. Why? Voter registration. The right would prefer that the poor don't vote, (especially since those numbers are growing) because the right wants to legislate for the rich, corporate interests.
It's called class warfare.

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December 8, 2009 9:42 AM   

The creation of "NEWS" by FOXNoise and the Right has become an epidemic. From Hannity's nightly mash-up of right-wing red meat to actual broadcasts and publication by, you know, the "NEWS" divisions, they have no qualms whatsoever in letting the ideologues into the editing suite and the news pages to chop, assemble, voice-over, take out of context, and redact the facts.

And you know what? To FOXNation, it makes absolutely no difference. Know why? Those edits were done to PROTECT the narrative that they have already embraced, and hold dear to their twisted, ugly hearts.

1. The Gummint sucks
2. Lib-Progressives suck.
3. Obama sucks.
4. Nancy Pelosi sucks
5. Harry Reid sucks.
6. ANYTHING and ANYBODY associated with ANY PART of the above sucks big-time, by extension.


And, by corollary,
7. FOX and HateRadio and the WSJ and the Wash Times and Drudge and POLITICO are the only source of "fair and balanced" news you won't get anywhere else.

ERGO,

ANY narrative or fact that counters any part of the above must be destroyed.

Simple. Question is, what can we do about it?

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December 8, 2009 10:06 AM   

Please elevate your coverage of this, TPM. The cable news networks will bury the story.

Freaking liars.

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December 8, 2009 11:07 PM    in reply to AlphaLiberal

fox news has. i visted their website and there is not one single story about this.

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December 8, 2009 10:07 AM   

I really hope ACORN sues these people for defamation and takes everything they own or ever will own. This type of malicious mendacity needs to be punished severely.

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December 8, 2009 10:35 AM    in reply to AlphaLiberal

I'm an engineer, so my knowledge of the law is...well...terrible. However, that's the first thing I thought of when I read this. Isn't this slander? Hasn't ACORN and it's reputation been wronged here?

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December 8, 2009 10:51 AM    in reply to AlphaLiberal

Second this. They will hopefully subpoena the unedited video.

One question I had reading the report, and noted in the TPM story, is that the videos as released were edited with voiceovers such that it is impossible to know what the ACORN and ACORN Housing staff were responding to. This opens the possibility that they didn't do ANYTHING wrong at all.

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December 8, 2009 11:13 PM    in reply to Kenneth Thomas

This opens the possibility that they didn't do ANYTHING wrong at all.
==================================================

Well, since Acorn quickly fired them all, what do you think?

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December 9, 2009 2:58 AM    in reply to Campesino

I think that you're a troll with nothing valuable to say.

I also think that it's blindingly obvious that ACORN was forced to fire them, regardless of the truth or seriousness of the allegations involved, just because of the public outcry and embarrassment involved.

Anyone who can read at a 5th-grade level can see this. Why can't you? Oh, I forgot...you don't want to see it.

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December 8, 2009 10:46 AM   

Didn't Dan Rather lose his job over something similar to this?

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December 8, 2009 12:17 PM    in reply to expat46

No. He lost his job by portraying a typed copy of a handwritten note as the original.

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December 8, 2009 4:48 PM    in reply to superking

NO. Dan Rather lost his job because he dared to question the fact that George Bush was AWOL from the war in Vietnam and AWOL from his cushy hiding place in the Texas National Guard. I despise all the chickenhawks and warmongers who promote wars and then step back and let other people fight and die in them.

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LFC

user-pic

December 8, 2009 10:53 AM   

The videos that have been released appear to have been edited, in some cases substantially, including the insertion of a substitute voiceover for significant portions of Mr. O'Keefe's and Ms. Giles's comments, which makes it difficult to determine the questions to which ACORN employees are responding. A comparison of the publicly available transcripts to the released videos confirms that large portions of the original video have been omitted from the released versions.

Doctored audio and video. What a shock. It was bad enough that they conveniently left out the fact that multiple offices turned them away, and several called the police on them.

Breitbart is thrashing, now saying that ACORN's books should have been investigated. Why? Wasn't it an investigation about whether or not the organization, as an organization, was involved in giving advise on how to circumvent the law?

And, or course, he has not apologized for the doctored videos he promoted so hard. Typical.

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December 8, 2009 12:24 PM    in reply to LFC

But it made such a good storeee! And our media whores love a good storee! (As long as it doesn't require any actual, you know, journalism.)

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December 8, 2009 12:27 PM    in reply to Morbo

It'll be interesting to see if the self-appointed media whore sheriff, Howie the Ho Kurtz, picks up how once again the lazy media assholes got taken.

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December 8, 2009 12:58 PM   

Tight larynxed, pre-edited Rethugs worried about 'liberals being shoved down their throats' should take a tip from the roomy throats of corporate media...

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December 8, 2009 1:03 PM   

Christmas is creepy
Fred Figgelhorn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPVNvJoljD0

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December 8, 2009 5:13 PM   

I watched the first 22 seconds of the Figgelhorn video -- it doesn't seem germane; indeed, it seems like a promotion, which is a violation of the terms of use.

I felt this story should have had some response from the videographer.

Also, it's not clear how ACORN's investigator could have seen that the audio was lain over when this was not reported widely when it was first being promoted. I suspected the video was carefully edited, but that audio was replaced? What's my media filter for if not to tell me exactly that sort of thing?

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December 8, 2009 5:34 PM   

So you're telling me the right-wing smear artists behind the ACORN hit job misrepresented and even doctored the evidence in a fraudulent attempt to deceive both the corporate media and the American people?

Well color me surprised.

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December 8, 2009 7:05 PM   

OK. It was an internal investigation. Maybe it was biased. However, the allegation that voice overs were used should be pretty easy to verify by experts, shouldn't it? If voice overs were used, isn't that evidence of a conspiracy to defame ACORN? ACORN was certainly harmed by the video. Is this a crime? Any attorneys listening?

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December 8, 2009 9:56 PM   

How about that Cluster-Pox....HA!! Take that ana jam it in your pipe and smoke it....See ya beckster-the-sweater and Billo-the-Clown... HAR..HAR..HAR....Shows you morons can't get ANYTHING right !!!

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December 9, 2009 2:02 AM   

I am so happy that ACORN has been exonerated. I hope they go back to registering tons of Democrats.

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