Video makers release tape of Philly ACORN visit

WASHINGTON — Two conservative activists released a new undercover video targeting the community organizing group ACORN today, an attempt to reignite a simmering political controversy surrounding the Democratic-leaning organization.

The new videotape shows filmmakers Hannah Giles and James O’Keefe, posing as a prostitute and her boyfriend, soliciting advice about a possible housing loan from workers in the Philadelphia office of ACORN Housing Corp.

Previous videos showed the same pair, also posing as a prostitute and her boyfriend, visiting ACORN offices in other cities.

The Philadelphia visit is significant because of a dispute over statements ACORN has made defending what took place when Giles and O’Keefe visited the Philadelphia office last summer.

Supporters of O’Keefe and Giles said ACORN has lied about whether the two were thrown out of the Philadelphia office, how much time they spent there and whether they explicitly told ACORN workers that Giles was a prostitute.

At a Washington news conference, O’Keefe went through an edited version of what he said was a 32-minute visit to the Philadelphia office.

“At no point were we kicked out, at no time were we asked to leave,” O’Keefe says on the tape of the Philadelphia visit.

Neil Herrmann, ACORN’s lead organizer in Philadelphia, was quoted in news accounts last month as saying that an employee at the office had asked O’Keefe and Giles to leave. On the edited tape released today, the couple were not asked to leave.

ACORN spokesman Brian Kettenring said in an e-mailed statement: “We’ve always been clear about Philadelphia. We got them out of the office as quickly as possible, and filed a police report on them within minutes.”

Kettenring said that ACORN’s political enemies are trying to keep the controversy alive.

“In this era of journalism-lite, plenty media are willing to oblige,” said Kettenring.

In the video, the voice of the ACORN employee was muted. Later in the day, O’Keefe called on ACORN to state publicly that it has no objection to the public release of any its employees’ oral statements on the tape.

ACORN has repeatedly asked that O’Keefe release all of the tapes he possesses unedited.

Some of the previously released videos show ACORN employees giving O’Keefe and Giles advice on how to disguise the source of their income to get housing aid.

At the news conference, Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, spoke out on behalf of O’Keefe and Giles, saying that ACORN is a corrupt criminal enterprise and that he has been trying for four or five years to get Congress to stop funding it.