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    ACORN Workers Caught Helping Sex-Traffic Posers

    Posted:
    09/11/09

    ACORN office workers in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., have been caught on hidden video camera advising a couple posing as a prostitute and pimp on how to hide their crimes. On Friday, the video of the Washington, D.C., sting was released by the creator, an independent filmmaker. ACORN, a national non-profit that helps the poor get housing, fired the two Baltimore office employees on Thursday.

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    In both videos, the ACORN staffers advise the supposed pimp and prostitute on how to evade taxes, cover up trafficking of child sex slaves from El Salvador and hide the prostitution from authorities.

    At the Baltimore ACORN Housing office, filmmaker James O'Keefe, who posed as the pimp, and Hannah Giles, who posed as the prostitute, asked for help buying a house to use as a brothel. The ACORN employee told Giles on the video to list Giles' occupation on tax forms as "performance artist."

    A videotape provided to FOXNews.com on Friday of the Washington office sting shows an ACORN staffer telling O'Keefe that Giles does not have to mention on the home-loan application "that she's doing prostitution . . . she doesn't have to."

    After the video of the Washington ACORN office surfaced Friday, ACORN officials told FOX News that it would need to look at the full tape and transcript before commenting.

    O'Keefe asks directly on the tape, "I can be the one who puts up the house for her, and she can perform tricks in the house?" "Yep," answers the ACORN employee.

    Another ACORN staff member then jumps in to advise him: "You buy the home, you have no knowledge of what is going on inside the home -- you're just the landlord."

    The ACORN staffer is heard suggesting that O'Keefe purchase the house, use it as a brothel, but hide his connection to it by only collecting the money from the prostitutes and underage sex workers. "When the police ask you, [tell them] you don't know where (the money is) coming from. We are looking out for you," says the ACORN employee on the video.



    O'Keefe and Giles then take the most over-the-top position, claiming that she is a prostitute and running the child sex ring in order to make money for O'Keefe to run for political office. The ACORN worker gives them advice on how to protect O'Keefe's political career from association with his supposed prostitute girlfriend and the source of his political fundraising money.

    The video was the brainchild of activist O'Keefe. He posted on the Web site Big Government that the purpose of the experiment was to take "advantage of ACORN's regard for thug criminality by posing the most ridiculous criminal scenario we could think of and seeing if they would comply – which they did without hesitation."

    ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) is a liberal activist group that advocates for the poor. Last year, the group came under fire when it conducted a massive voter registration effort and its employees were accused of submitting false registration forms with names such as "Mickey Mouse." ACORN has said only a handful of employees submitted false registration forms and did so in a bid to boost their pay.


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    Emily Miller

    Emily Miller, a public affairs consultant in Washington, DC has over 15 years experience in politics and media... more

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