The James O’Keefe Protection Racket

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Matt Osborne

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Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney John Patrick Frey, aka @Patterico, is being sued by Nadia Naffe, former confidante of James O’Keefe. Ken White, the blogging lawyer at Popehat, is a proud member of Frey’s pro bono defense team:

Today I write to offer pleadings for anyone interested in the case, and a pleasing update regarding its status. As long as litigation continues, I’ll refrain for both prudential and stylistic reasons from arguing our case here, other than to say we continue to believe the case is an abusive and meritless attempt to retaliate against protected speech. As a result, I won’t be explaining the motions or legal theories, or helping you decipher legalese. You’re on your own. Sorry. (Emphasis mine)

I think I can cut past the legalese. What Popehat calls “protected speech” is behavior that Naffe calls “witness intimidation.” Frey posted unredacted documents (.PDF) revealing Naffe’s personal and medical information, then treated Twitter as his courtroom to cross-examine her (.PDF).

As a consequence of these acts by Frey, her credit has been ruined and her identity stolen to buy prescription drugs. Naffe receives crank telephone calls and constant smearing in conservative social media circles. And just think: any potential employer who Googles her name will find all of this out in less than a second.

In the parlance of hackers and internet obsessives, Frey subjected Naffe to a thorough “doxing.” He did this after Naffe alleged that James O’Keefe tried to drug and sexually assault her — just like that weird stunt O’Keefe tried to pull with CNN’s Abbie Boudreau, but extra creepy — and also alleged that O’Keefe may have violated his federal probation by wiretapping Congresswoman Maxine Waters‘ office.

She planned to take the evidence of O’Keefe’s activities to the Los Angeles County District Attorney before Frey preemptively attacked her reputation. That is a pattern of behavior with this Deputy DA, who seems to function as the enforcement arm for the Breitbart empire. Nadia Naffe is not the first, nor will she be the last person Frey attacks on behalf of James O’Keefe. See his posts here, here, here and here for only a few examples out of many, not to mention his unabashed glee at O’Keefe’s antics.

Reports say that Naffe faces an uphill battle with an unfriendly judge (thus the “pleasing update” from Popehat). Naffe’s attorney, Jay Liederman, has been given leave to amend the complaint to satisfy specific requirements. Among these is that the court should see evidence of Frey using the imprimatur of his office to harass Naffe and others.

Assuming it meets the criteria set forth by the judge, Liederman ought to include the full text of Frey’s IM chats with Anonymous self-proclaimed “spokesman” Barrett Brown (.PDF). After all, it’s not every day a city prosecutor turns to a hacker-spokesman wanted by the FBI for help. Frey wanted Brown to help him discredit Naffe’s attorney and the suit against him, even though he knew Liederman was defending Anons pro bono. There is nothing about this that isn’t an abuse of power.

Whatever the outcome of this legal action is, a bar complaint has been filed enumerating the different ways Mr. Frey has harassed, bullied, intimidated and otherwise behaved unethically toward Ms. Naffe. So when Ken White cites “prudential and stylistic reasons” for not getting into the legal weeds, remember what he means by “protected speech:” he is not helping Patterico defend himself against abuse, but helping Frey escape consequences for his abuse of Naffe.

About Matt Osborne

Veteran blogging the culture wars from Alabama. Video journalist, mash-up artist, aspiring novelist, and metalhead. Expect bunnies, geekery, dark humor, and snarky empirical analysis to annoy idealists of all stripes. You can follow me on Twitter, but be ready 'cause it might get loud.
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  • http://twitter.com/BreitbartUnmask BreitbartUnmasked

    Another fine article Matt. Popehat was also one of the guys who sent out his popehat signal to defend Aaron Walker in Walker’s frivolous years long crusade against BK. It is interesting to note that Popehat was nowhere to be found when it came time to defend free speech when BU was sued by these idiotic wankers. So his bias towards Frey, Walker, et al seems to be very evident here. Let us also make it very clear that Frey, Walker et al are by their very connection to one another supporters of Islamophobia. Frey, because he had Walker as a co-admin on his site who founded Everyone Draw Mohammed, and now JD Allen, who is now running co-admin duties on Patterico.com. JD Allen of course is the notorious co-founder of Walker’s Everyone Draw Mohammed blog.

    I think it is interesting that every time Frey or Walker get involved in spurious activity that Popehat is there to defend them. But when others who are VICTIMS of their malfeasance, Popehat is too busy to even look at their cases, or in the case of BU, never once stood up and said BU had a right to speak too when it was under a cloud by these RWNJ’s attacks.

    So in a way according to Popehat, it is OK for Frey et al to run roughshod over people and trampling their rights in the process, and then get free pro bono top shelf legal help to defend it, but when others who are victimized by these very same people, popehat has a nowhere to be found sign on his popeshat signal.

    Amazing yes?

  • http://www.osborneink.com OsborneInk

    Isn’t that just template conservablogging? There is no moral center, just a certitude that they are right and anyone who debunks them is an evil Brett Kimberlin monster from the pit of hell.

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