Landrieu phone-tampering defendant Joseph Basel isn’t letting a little thing like felony charges hang over his head and prevent him from achieving professional goals.
With a week until he’s due in federal court in New Orleans for a Feb. 12 hearing, Basel has been spotted at the national tea party convention in Nashville by the Washington Independent’s Dave Weigel.
Weigel reports that Basel is at the convention as a credential reporter though he says that he’s “here for myself.”
Basel was ordered by the judge in the Landrieu case to stay in his home state of Minnesota. He is allowed to travel only with the permission of his pretrial supervision officer, according to the conditions of his release on $10,000 bond.
Reached by TPMmuckraker today, Basel’s pretrial supervision officer said she could not disclose whether he got approval for the travel.
It’s not entirely clear what Basel has been doing — including whether he’s been working as a journalist — since he graduated in 2008 from the University of Minnesota-Morris, where he also founded a conservative newspaper on a grant from the Leadership Institute.
His Facebook page reportedly listed him as a fan of the Tea Party Patriots. He reportedly caused controversy on his college campus for distributing posters that read, “End Racism & Sexism Now: Kill all White Males.”
Late Update: Basel tells Weigel that he has permission to travel outside Minnesota.