Dancing Around Tapping

Raw Story is reporting on James OKeefe's likely breach of a gag-order due to his "tweet" regarding an alleged statement that government officials are not going to pursue "wiretapping" charges against the conservative prankster.

Aside from that, there are some serious questions that this story brings up that conservative media figures are roundly ignoring.

In the "post 9/11" world that we live in ( and conservatives are all to eager to remind us of that ) one would think that a prank or infiltration with intent upon a government official's office would constitute serious legal repercussions.

While OKeefe thinks that he can crow loudly that the "wiretapping" charges may be dropped, he's already in a serious mess. Regardless of whether or not any devices were found on him or his band of merry men, this still constitutes a felony that is punishable by up to 10yrs in prison with a hefty fine.

Now that those involved, both intimately and peripherally ( such as Andrew Breitbart ) have had time to formulate a strategy and possibly make some sort of plea deal with prosecutors, one has to question how serious law enforcement officials are taking this.

It's almost too difficult to not delve into that "what if" realm that conservatives are so fond of. By that, I mean, "what if these men planned on doing something else"? The point is, this isn't Planned Parenthood or an ACORN office, this is a Federal building. Not only that, but the storyline for this just doesn’t make much sense at all.

Allegedly, OKeefe and his partners were attempting to tamper with the phones in some fashion in order to see how the office personnel would react when incoming calls weren't able to be taken. How would they be able to determine whether or not an incoming call was being made without having some device that would detect the incoming signal? Granted, they may not have been able to listen in, but they would have altered the office communications in such a manner that they would have information regarding a call that the office wouldn't.

This case will continue to grow stranger as time passes and more, credible, information comes to bear.