James O’Keefe, the young conservative activist who secretly recorded meetings with ACORN and was convicted in May of entering Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office under false pretenses, allegedly tried to “punk” CNN reporter Abbie Boudreau by luring her on to a boat and seducing her.
CNN reports on the scheme today, a few days before airing a documentary on O’Keefe and other young conservatives called “Right on the Edge.” The incident happened in August, when Boudreau was working on the documentary.
[TPM SLIDESHOW: Ambush ‘Filmmaker’ James O’Keefe: From The ACORN Sting To Failed CNN Punking]
According to CNN, Boudreau was trying to get O’Keefe to let her and a camera crew tape a video shoot O’Keefe and some of his friends were doing. He told her he wanted to meet her alone, in person, beforehand.
When she arrived at his house in Maryland, she was approached by Izzy Santa, the executive director of Project Veritas, O’Keefe’s investigative journalism project. Santa told Boudreau that O’Keefe actually wanted to meet with the reporter on his boat, which he had set up into a “pleasure palace,” where he would try to seduce her in front of hidden cameras.
Boudreau left.
CNN then obtained emails and a 13-page document outlining the plan. The plan, which Santa confirmed was real, had a list of “props,” including a “condom jar,” “dildos,” sexy music (like Alicia Keys, as Marvin Gaye was dubbed “too cliche”) and a camera on a tripod, which the filmmakers dubbed “an obvious sex tape machine.”
There’s also a script O’Keefe was supposed to read on camera before meeting with Boudreau.
“I’ve decided to have a little fun,” reads the script. “Instead of giving her a serious interview, I’m going to punk CNN. Abbie has been trying to seduce me to use me, in order to spin a lie about me. So, I’m going to seduce her, on camera, to use her for a video. This bubble-headed-bleach-blonde who comes on at five will get a taste of her own medicine, she’ll get seduced on camera and you’ll get to see the awkwardness and the aftermath.”
The document also predicts potential fallout from the plan.
“If they [CNN] go on the attack, you should point out the hypocrisy in CNN using the inherent sexuality of these women to sell viewers and for ratings, passing up more esteemed and respectable journalists who aren’t bubble-headed bleach blondes and keep the focus on CNN.”
O’Keefe denied to CNN that he would have gone through with the plan, saying, “That is not my work product. When it was sent to me, I immediately found certain elements highly objectionable and inappropriate, and did not consider them for one minute following it.”
The document was apparently written by Ben Wetmore, another activist who hired O’Keefe a few years ago and offered his place as a crash pad for O’Keefe and three others when they illegally entered Landrieu’s office dressed as phone repairmen.
Boudreau wrote about the episode on her CNN blog.
“Apparently, I represent all of the things this group hates about the mainstream media,” she wrote. “They feel because of the way I look that I do not matter, and that my reporting is a joke. They don’t know anything about my work ethic - my history - my dedication and commitment - and my love for reporting. They just saw my blonde hair. And the ironic thing is that I’m really a brunette.”
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