California Attorney General Jerry Brown has launched an investigation into ACORN, the organization accused of giving fake pimps and prostitutes advice on the best way to open a brothel and smuggle prostitutes into the country.
But here's the twist: Brown's office is not just looking at wrongdoing by ACORN, according to the Los Angeles Times. The investigation will look at the hidden-camera videos recorded by undercover activists -- the fake pimp and prostitute -- at three ACORN offices, but it will also delve into how these tapes were obtained. In California, it is illegal to record someone without their permission.
"We’re going to look at the tapes, we’re going to follow the facts without fear or favor, and we’re going to see where it takes us,” Scott Gerber, a Brown spokesman, told The Times.
In the tapes, activists James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles get advice from ACORN employees -- including employees in San Diego and San Bernardino -- on human smuggling and running a prostitution business.
For Brown, this investigation may be as much about politics as justice.
Brown just announced a bid to run for California governor in 2010, and ACORN is a potential political grenade.
To the Glenn Beck Right, ACORN is pretty much the devil, and any action taken against ACORN could make Brown a hero. But in liberal California, voters may be suspicious of the tapes, which ACORN claims were edited and taken out of context.
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How Brown navigates that political minefield could affect his hopes to reclaim the Governor's mansion.
