James O'Keefe

Who is James O'Keefe?

James E. O'Keefe III is an American conservative activist who has produced secretly recorded undercover audio and video encounters with public figures and workers in a variety of organizations, purportedly showing abusive or alleged illegal behavior by representatives of those organizations. He gained national attention for his release of video recordings of workers at ACORN offices in 2009, his arrest in early 2010 at the office of Senator Mary Landrieu in a failed attempt to record staff conversations, and release of videos of NPR executives in 2011. California prosecutors found that O'Keefe selectively and heavily edited the ACORN raw footage. Despite his tactics James O'Keefe's productions have been described by Weekly Standard editor Fred Barnes as a “political hit job and a quite clever and successful one at that.”

After founding an independent conservative student paper in college, O'Keefe began to use available, inexpensive technology to make videos. Some of O'Keefe's projects have influenced Congressional votes.