US Attorney Quits James O’Keefe Case

The US Attorney in charge of prosecuting James O’Keefe for illegally entering the Federal building in what appeared to be an attempt to tamper with phone lines has suddenly recused himself from the case. Could it be because he held O’Keefe in jail without access to an attorney for 28 hours while he leaked the arrest details to the press?

From BigJournalism here:

James O’Keefe, accused of trying to tamper with the phones of Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, was “framed” by the media and the U.S. attorney’s office, Andrew Breitbart, publisher of BigGovernment.com, told Fox News Monday.

The same day Breitbart, claimed the conservative filmmaker “sat in jail for 28 hours without access to an attorney” while the prosecutor made his case to the media, the U.S. attorney involved stepped down.

Jim Letten, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana, recused himself from the case.

The Department of Justice announced the change in a news release Monday night, but did not say why Letten wanted off the case.

“James O’Keefe sat in jail for 28 hours without access to an attorney, while the U.S. attorney leaked the information about his arrest, helping the media frame it as ‘Watergate Junior,’” Breitbart said.

Do democrats do shady stuff in the Big Easy? You betcha. But I don’t know if the attorney quit because of wrongdoing. Usually recusals are because of conflicts of interest. Another arrestee, Robert Flanagon is the son of another prosecutor in Louisiana, so perhaps that’s a conflict. Or, as a real far-fetched theory, perhaps one of the arrestees is a witness to another crime that is being handled by the office? But its looking more likely that O’Keefe will not have to do hard time in New Orleans.