Is Right-Wing Media Hustler Trying to "Blackmail" Obama's Attorney General over ACORN Videos?

Filmmakers James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles have released new tapes of their anti-ACORN sting operation which appear to show an ACORN employee cheerfully counseling them on how to run a prostitution ring with underage girls and launder the proceeds into a campaign for Congress.

The two appeared with Fox News' Sean Hannity on Thursday, along with conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart, who distributed their earlier sting tapes at his BigGovernment.com website. All three are targets of an ACORN lawsuit in Maryland alleging "illegal videotaping."

In an entry headed "Andrew Breitbart Trying To Blackmail The Obama Administration," the site Newshounds notes, "Judging from the very edited video Breitbart presented last night, one suspects that the real reason it was withheld was because it did little to effectively incriminate ACORN. Breitbart, on the other hand, incriminated himself even worse. Near the end of the segment, he told Hannity that he had more videos and 'not just ACORN' that he threatened to release during the 2010 election cycle unless the Department of Justice opened a federal investigation into ACORN."

Breitbart appeared to be particularly furious about an investigation by the office of California Attorney General Jerry Brown, which was opened in response to a request from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger but which Breitbart sees as tied to Brown's own interest in running for governor. He complained that neither Congress nor Attorney General Eric Holder has shown any interest in launching a full investigation of ACORN, accused the Democrats of "hypocrisy," and threatened to use still unreleased tapes as ammunition against Democratic candidates.

"Congress didn't come in to investigate them," Breitbart said somewhat incoherently, "obviously not the Attorney General's office, and they've now realized, 'Let's get back into business,' because they've realized that the dust settled and they were not being investigated. It was Hannah and James and me who were being investigated. That's why we've been forced to offer this latest tape."

Breitbart's charges are likely to find a receptive audience among Republicans, a majority of whom -- according to one poll -- already believe that ACORN stole the 2008 presidential election for Barack Obama.

In a breathtaking attempt to use the O'Keefe-Giles tapes to put pressure on the Obama administration, Breitbart announced, "Not only are there more tapes, it's not just ACORN. And this message is to Attorney General Holder. ... We're going to hold out until the next election cycle -- or else, if you want to do a clean investigation, we will give you the rest of what we have, we will comply with you, we will give you the documentation we have from countless ACORN whistleblowers who want to come forward but are fearful of this organization and the retribution -- that they fear that this is a dangerous organization."

"So if you will get into an investigation," Breitbart concluded, "we will give you the tapes, and if you don't give us the tapes [sic], we will revisit these tapes come election time."

According to Newshounds, "Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines 'blackmail' as 'extortion or coercion by threats especially of public exposure or criminal prosecution.'" That would appear to cover Breitbart's explicit threat directed to Attorney General Holder.