ACORN suspends new intakes, orders immediate training and audit
ACORN announced Wednesday that the group is suspending its intake of new clients. The announcement came one day after the release of a video that showed a worker in its San Bernardino office speaking to undercover bloggers asking for help in launching a prostitution business.
The video was the fourth in a series posted on BigGovernment.com by bloggers James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles. Earlier videos showed O'Keefe and Giles obtain prostitution tips from ACORN staffers in Baltimore, Washington D.C. and Brooklyn.
The Baltimore video featured an ACORN tax consultant offer tips on how O'Keefe and Giles could cheat on their taxes while running a brothel staffed by underage Salvadoran prostitutes.
"As a result of the indefensible action of a handful of employees, I am, in consultation with ACORN's Executive Committee, immediately ordering a halt to any new intakes into ACORN's service programs until completion of an independent review," ACORN chief executive Bertha Lewis said in a press release.
ACORN also announced that the group is ordering immediate training for front-line employees and that an auditor or reviewer is to be hired by Friday.
The edited San Bernardino footage released Tuesday shows ACORN worker Tresa Kaelke appear to take interest in a scheme proposed by O'Keefe. O'Keefe claimed to be a law student wanting to funnel underage prostitutes' earnings into future political endeavors.
What appears to be raw footage posted on Fox News' Web site shows Kaelke tell the pair that ACORN cannot be involved in such a scheme and at one point says that if she knew better, she would believe O'Keefe's and Giles' overtures to be a "total setup."
ACORN is a liberal-leaning activist group that offers tax filing help, loan assistance and help to people facing foreclosures. The group's name is an acronym for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.
Bloggers O'Keefe and Giles have not responded to requests for comment on their work.
3 Comments
Leave a comment
About SB Now Blog
Andrew Edwards. E-mail Andrew here.
I am disappointed in ACORN. That lady was not afraid. She appeared as though she was having fun, aggressively pushing her advice on how to not get caught. The guy's advice to set it up as a charity is infuriating.
My question is who are these young "reporters" working for? Who is paying them to fly coast to coast to do all this? Why aren't the tapes shown in their entirely? Why aren't other tapes shown where they were asked to leave? ACORN just gave them a taste of their own medicine by going on with the ridiculous story. O'Keefe may have his 15 minute of fame along with ACORN but neither of them will be taken seriously later on.
The full video and the story on how the funding for the sting can all be found on the following link: http://hotair.com/archives/2009/09/15/fox-news-posts-full-unedited-video-of-sting-on-acorn-san-bernardino/