Citing at least a dozen incidents, Andrew Breitbart insists that Occupy members shirked a responsibility to report alleged rapes they learned of to police. Breitbart however, has made no effort to report on or comment on disturbing allegations in a criminal complaint by one of his own bloggers, Nadia Naffe.
Ms. Naffe, a relative unknown, contends she was repeatedly urged to spend the night in a barn as she lost muscle control while drinking with Andrew Breitbart’s star reporter, James O’Keefe.
To hear it from Andrew Breitbart, the proportion of alleged assaults at Occupy sites signals a true “culture of rape” where OWS members keep silent to protect the image of the movement. What then of Breitbart’s choice not to talk about O’Keefe and the serious harassment allegations within his own camp? Breitbart’s silence shows no desire to get to the truth and demand justice.
Per analysis by Chris Harris of northjersey.com, either someone at O’Keefe’s “barn” slipped Naffe a “mickey” – or else Naffe is making it up. Either way, this is inconvenient for Breitbart, who launched O’Keefe’s career with a series of sting videos informing a Congressional vote to defund ACORN which was later ruled unconstitutional.
Breitbart has whitewashed the entire incident, even after Ms. Naffe hauled O’Keefe into a probable cause hearing, filing a criminal complaint of harassment which included her testimony that ”[i]t was his intent to persuade me to spend the night in the barn”. In court, Naffe hesitated to state plainly O’Keefe drugged her, but an eyewitness to the hearing says Naffe describing her mysterious inability to walk under her own power and then passing out left this impression.
According to Naffe, she was asked by O’Keefe to take part in an undercover video plot. They met at the Newark train station Oct. 2. O’Keefe stopped to purchase alcohol before bringing Naffe to his “barn” in Westwood, NJ.
A dispute arose as Naffe backed out of the video scheme, but she claims O’Keefe refused to drive her to a train station, becoming verbally abusive and “relentless”, insisting she crash out in his parent’s barn instead. When she threatened to call police, she says O’Keefe and a friend drove her to Penn Station in NYC. This could have violated O’Keefe’s reported probation terms – he needs proper permissions to leave the state.
Naffe says her condition had deteriorated until she couldn’t manage to get into the car herself – she then passed out completely. After traveling by train from NYC on to Boston where she attends Harvard, Naffe discovered her underwear and other items were missing from her luggage. Then, she says she was contacted by O’Keefe with offers of money, followed by harassing messages.
On Nov. 17, Politico reported Naffe was one of several O’Keefe collaborators “in-fighting”, noting she said she’d been treated “disrespectfully”. The same day, Naffe claims O’Keefe posted a video describing her as “filthy, dirty” and a “tramp”, but just as abruptly removed the video.
By Nov. 21, Naffe authored a criminal complaint but in a Westwood Municipal courtroom on Dec. 21, it was dismissed by Judge Alan Karch on a jurisdictional ruling which found there was insufficient evidence to show O’Keefe’s alleged harassment originated in Westwood.
The Westwood Municipal court only holds sessions on the first, third, and fourth Wednesdays of each month at 3:30 p.m. This hometown judge could have been saving money and headaches – O’Keefe has cost jurisdictions around the US hundreds of thousands in investigative and prosecutorial costs and manpower, addressing criminal and civil cases in which O’Keefe has a team of heavyweight DC lawyers helping his defense, from the Center for Individual Rights and the toney law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP with financial support by Richard Mellon Scaife and the Koch brothers’ billionaire donor network.
It’s not clear what Ms. Naffe’s next step may be, but Judge Karch himself suggested she could take it to civil court. O’Keefe has previously settled out of court with an associate in exchange for her silence after she alleged O’Keefe planned a “prank” seduction including sex toys, pornography and handcuffs of another attractive female reporter who’d also come over to discuss business. But in this case, O’Keefe seems to have considerable advantages over Naffe – fans on Breitbart’s blog tell Naffe supporters to “give it the hell up already”.
Breitbart Admits Staging Rant for Attention
Mediaite reports here that Breitbart did admit his unhinged rant calling OWS demonstrators ‘rapists’ and ‘freaks’ was a publicity stunt designed to get people talking about the rapes at Occupy sites. When asked why he was deliberately smearing the entire movement as pro-rape, representing it as a central issue, he went coy and intimated it was a tit-for-tat move in revenge for the left calling Tea Party members racists out of proportion — only a few of their signs actually showed Obama with a bone through his nose.
When Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks asked Breitbart to defend his infamous Shirley Sherrod article sensationalizing “black racism”, Breitbart notes he included Sherrod’s redemptive statements in lesser noticed portions of his article, showing he knows how to intentionally touch off a firestorm, safely burying his CYAs for later justification after garnering maximum attention.
Breitbart has already been called out for selectively exploiting the rape issue, advocating for the alleged victims in the cases of Julian Assange and Democrat David Wu and in OWS but not within his ranks and not much ink in defense of victims of systematic rape and cover-ups in the military, unreported rapes of undocumented immigrants, detainees raped and sexually humiliated in black sites or kids raped by Catholic priests. Breitbart’s call for pro-active steps in discouraging sexual assault ring hollow.
But whitewashing this serious a charge between two of his contributors gives James O’Keefe a distinct advantage, implying Naffe’s perspective doesn’t merit comment and doesn’t matter. Breitbart keeps the controversy out of the news in order to protect the image of his operation – exactly what he accused Occupy of.
Breitbart also wants to preserve the donations from anonymous multimillionaires that fund his propaganda mill. It’s one thing for Breitbart to admit he is a publicity-seeking charlatan in the heat of partisan media wars, but if he is protecting someone who could have drugged someone, it’s another story.
Tea Party Senators Vote to Fund Rape?
It’s important to note that several US Senators were outspoken in defunding ACORN, banning them from government contracts or receiving “one more penny” of taxpayer funding because they considered them criminal enterprises. It was O’Keefe’s videos that portrayed ACORN as lawless, purporting to show a thought-crime by a low-level employee who seemed agreeable when O’Keefe suggested setting up underage brothels.
Assumed approval of O’Keefe’s statutory rape plot by workers would be inadmissible in any court because of basic entrapment statutes, but good enough for Republican Senators after Breitbart broke this enormous national story.
Yet Breitbart failed to report when several of these same Senators voted to encourage rape. Tea Party favorites Tom Coburn, Jim DeMint, David Vitter and 27 other Republicans opposed an amendment to preserve rights of women raped by US contractors to take their rapists to court even if they weren’t raped on US soil. In this video, Vitter turns his back on a rape victim questioning this moral value.
The 2010 vote followed an alleged gang rape by Halliburton employees who were indemnified by language in contracts that mandated secret arbitration. The amendment banned taypayer dollars for anyone seeking legal immunity from rape. The amendment passed with the support of several female Republican Senators, protecting the rights of rape victims.
The amendment in full, emphasis mine:
Sec. 8104. (a) None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used for any existing or new Federal contract if the contractor or a subcontractor at any tier requires that an employee or independent contractor, as a condition of employment, sign a contract that mandates that the employee or independent contractor performing work under the contract or subcontract resolve through arbitration any claim under title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or any tort related to or arising out of sexual assault or harassment, including assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, false imprisonment, or negligent hiring, supervision, or retention.
(b) The prohibition in subsection (a) does not apply with respect to employment contracts that may not be enforced in a court of the United States.
Cross-posted from OpedNews.com
Updated – 3/1 – Important revelations to this story here.




17 Comments

“either slipped Naffe a “mickey” – or else Naffe is making it up”
It may or may not matter to you, but legally that’s a pretty significant difference, you know? You say, “Naffe hesitated to state plainly O’Keefe drugged her”, but you also say there was a criminal complaint? What was it (link, please)?
Maybe “the case was dropped because the judge in the sleepy bedroom community was simply lazy”.
Or maybe Newark really isn’t within the jurisdiction of the Westwood Municipal court: did you bother to check? Since Westwood is in Bergen County and Newark is in Essex County I tend to suspect the “lazy” one here isn’t the judge…
Breitbart is a flaming piece of shit. Everyone knows this.
Conversely, tarring and feathering someone over poor behavior of a subordinate is kind of weak. The criminal complaint went through the process and was dropped. The odds are good the staffer tried to roofie the woman and the issue just “went away”. The reasons for that are unclear. But, again, Breitbart is not his subordinate.
The point being made by this post is surely important if we take the allegations as true.
But, even though we do all know that Breitbart and his sites make a theme of making stuff up and are not to be believed, and it would not be hard to believe this, when referring to his allegations of rape at OWS, I believe it is equally important to emphasize that every single one of those OWS allegations has been utterly debunked.
Any time it’s mentioned, the fact that every charge is patently false should be mentioned as well. The way this is written, one might infer, knowing nothing about the allegations, that those are true.
Let’s try to write more carefully at myfdl, folks. Credibility depends on it. Remember, what may be obvious to the writer, because it’s in his/her head, may not be obvious to the reader. The writer has to put it on the page.
Breitbart and O’Keefe have worked together for years. It’s only when O’Keefe gets caught being stupid that Breitbart starts pretending he doesn’t really know O’Keefe all that well.
Thanks for pointing this out. The diarist does provide a Mediaite link calling Breitbart’s claims into question, but this Daily Kos diary is actually a better debunking.
In fact, making false accusations against people or groups, even as you and/or your close associates are actually guilty of the things which you accuse others of doing, is another example of conservative and Republican projectionism, not to mention contempt for the truth and those who care about the truth.
There’s a reason FOX News’ motto is “Fair and Balanced” and not “Truthful”.
Okay, who here couldn’t see this coming after O’Keefe had tried to lure female CNN reporter Abbie Boudreau onto his boat stocked with sex toys and fuzzy pink handcuffs:
Are Breitbart bloggers forbidden from writing about the O’Keefe “prank”?
September 30, 2010 7:44 am ET filed under Blog
Conservatives respond to alleged O’Keefe seduction “prank”
September 29, 2010 5:49 pm ET filed under Research
The Lies of James O’Keefe
September 29, 2010 4:08 pm ET filed under Research
Would a “crazy” person videotape himself with a “condom jar”?
September 29, 2010 2:16 pm ET filed under Blog
He “deserve[s] a Pulitzer”: Right-wing media previously showered O’Keefe with praise
September 29, 2010 1:05 pm ET filed under Research
James O’Keefe isn’t a punk. He’s worse.
September 29, 2010 12:30 pm ET filed under Blog
CNN’s Boudreau: Alleged O’Keefe plot involved planting false story at CNN and giving Fox a “heads up”
September 29, 2010 12:27 pm ET filed under MMtv
“A blindfold, fuzzy handcuffs”: CNN’s Boudreau details alleged O’Keefe plan to “seduce me on this boat”
September 29, 2010 12:16 pm ET filed under MMtv
CNN details media darling James O’Keefe’s latest bizarre stunt
September 29, 2010 10:25 am ET filed under Blog
Apparently all of your “cites” are – The page you were looking for was not found. Maybe you should do a little double checking?
Interestingly, re: the Kos diary, one can safely say that the Occupy movement attracted an undue number of sexual deviants. Not a good thing.
Try again, liar — here are two of the links you’re afraid to view:
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201009290018
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201009290020
But you’re a Republican — all you know are lies.
What exactly is your problem?
All your cites are FDL, none are to Media Matters. And you’re calling me a liar? All because you’re too lazy to see if your cites still work?
As for Media Matters…
Heh.
Maybe you should do a little fact checking yourself. The list of sexual assaults that Breitbart gave as proof of sexual deviants in the Occupy movement were not true. According to police reports, most of these assaults were carried out by people who were not part of the Occupy movement, and most of them were by, but not at were the Occupy protesters were. In a few of the cases, according to police, Occupy protesters were the victims of sexual assaults by people who were not connected with the Occupy movement.
Breitbart is just a bold faced liar and scumbag.
To ironymeter, the complaint was not made public, the only info available came through the reporter from northjersey.com who attended the hearing.
Re the dismissal of the case, you determined that the alleged sexual harassment began in Newark? Just because he picked her up at the Newark train station? This does not mean that’s where harassment began.
I tend to think the judge was interested in keeping things nice, neat and quiet in Westwood – I know the town. Law enforcement and small town judiciaries have a long, long history of “encouraging” those with criminal complaints to settle them civilly or out-of-court because they put a financial and scheduling burden on the locality. In this case, you also have the consideration that O’Keefe has millionaire backing and multiple white-shoe lawyers defending him in a measly $75k lawsuit, making it obvious the right-wing “golden boy” has top cover because of his politics.
To all, I appreciate input. The question is – as a supposed advocate for victims of alleged rape, Breitbart charges OWS with keeping the incidents quiet to protect their image. Specifically, Breitbart is using his media empire to try OWS in the court of public opinion, not the legal system.
But harassment was also alleged within his ranks and the media silence could be intimidating the plaintiff where fair coverage could steel her resolve.
In the bigger picture, Breitbart’s famed sting videos led to Congress defunding the totality of ACORN, but it was later ruled the videos were deceptively edited and had framed low-level workers as accomplices in made-up ‘statutory rape’ claims that originated with O’Keefe.
To be consistent, those saying Breitbart should not be held responsible for the actions of O’Keefe must agree that ACORN should not have suffered defunding due to the actions of three or four employees, right?
see reply below
In other words, you can’t disprove a single thing here, you’re just trying to distract the way you were apparently taught at workshops like this (emphases and bracketed emendations mine):
the Occupy movement attracted sexual deviants because there were a lot of people assembled there, including trusting young women.
There are sexual deviants in every population, including the GOP, conservatives, the clergy and every other group there are people in.
Exactly.
This guy is an advertisement for… euthanasia.. that’s a joke.
I can’t stand this piece of crap… no good sob, on the wrong side of all things, but even so, maybe I am on the wrong side…. ????
Well if you someday come to a epiphany that all the stuff you thought was, it ain’t, no and the folks you thought were your freinds, sorry… Jeffthroow… wrong agen!
(Spelling anomolies are for effect… vernacular expression under rules of… “Writer’s liscence stipulations” etc. etc.
Apparently geoshmoe is still on the bender he was on last night when he said the most appallingly hateful things to a valued member.
Spelling anomalies make writing impossible to read or comprehend.
Clean up your act, shmoe, or find somewhere else to troll.