Hannah Giles
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Hannah Giles is a 20 year old college student who became interested in what she describes as "exposing social injustice and abuse of power" when she attended a conference in Washington, D.C. in 2007. She is currently studying journalism at Florida International University and is a columnist for BigGovernment.com.[1][2] In 2009, she collaborated with James O'Keefe in a series of undercover videotapes that found several people, some apparently ACORN employees reacting with statements which appear to indicate a willingness to perpetuate the illegal activities of O'Keefe and Giles. It is uncertain whether the employees and others were genuinely supportive of the illicit activities proposed by the conspirators; or, as some have claimed, the employees were simply "playing along with an obvious joke" at multiple ACORN offices. O'Keefe and Giles tried and failed to get such responses at other offices.[3][4] Ms. Giles has been lauded by conservative commentators for what they characterized as a series of investigative encounters with staff at the "prominent" community organization.[5] Giles conceived of, and with her partner O'Keefe, implemented an investigation that had an appearance of revealing unethical behavior at ACORN offices in five locations: Baltimore, Washington, DC, Brooklyn, San Bernardino and San Diego.[6][7]
Giles conceived of this scheme during a summer jog. While being interviewed by Sean Hannity of FoxNews, she said:
It's amazing what girls think about when they are jogging. And that was just something that popped into my head. I had never seen an ACORN office, I really didn't even know that they existed and I jogged into the wrong part of town, saw some homeless people and street ladies and I put two and two together when I turned around to get back into a safe neighborhood.
And it's like — what if these people went into ACORN — a prostitute and what would come from that? No bills, no nothing — would they get a house? Could they start a business? So we put it to the test."
According to one editorial favorably comparing her exploits to that of the traditional media:[9]
Do you think your tax dollars should be used to help those who want to open a house of prostitution and illegally bring underage girls into the United States as "sex workers"? As you may have seen on television over the last few days, the taxpayer-funded ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) has been doing just that. Who exposed this latest bit of corruption at ACORN? -- The FBI? The local police? A congressional investigating committee? The mainstream media? No, no, no, no. It was a 20-year-old-girl named Hannah Giles. . .
The videos do not create an appearance that federal money was actually provided to Giles and O'Keefe, and it is not stated whether ACORN employees featured in the videos were being paid with federal money at the time it appears they are offering supportive advice to someone who purports to be a pimp or sex worker.
Nevertheless, as a direct consequence of these videotapes, ACORN's relationship with the U.S. Census Bureau was terminated.[10] In addition, bipartisan legislative action is now underway to bar ACORN from receiving funds from the U.S. government and at least one real criminal probe has been launched.[11] In September 2009, ACORN announced that it had suspended advising new clients pending an audit of its activities.[12]
References
- ^ http://biggovernment.com/author/hgiles/
- ^ George Bennett (2009-09-17). "FIU student central to probe of ACORN". Miami Herald. Retrieved 2009-09-17.
- ^ http://townhall.com/columnists/HannahGiles
- ^ Mark Tapscott (2009-09-12). "Want to know who is Hannah Giles". Washington Examiner. Retrieved 2009-09-15.
- ^ Scott Shane (2009-09-15). "Conservatives Draw Blood From Acorn, Favored Foe". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-09-15.
- ^ http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,550603,00.html
- ^ http://www.sbsun.com/breakingnews/ci_13342536
- ^ http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,549962,00.html
- ^ Richard Rahn (2009-09-16). "The sensational Giles and O'Keefe". Washington Times. Retrieved 2009-09-16.
- ^ "After Census Severs Ties, ACORN May Face Scrutiny of Housing Grants". Fox News. 2009-09-12. Retrieved 2009-09-16.
- ^ Geoff Earle (2009-09-15). "Probe launched as Senate nixes funds". New York Post. Retrieved 2009-09-16.
- ^ Jeffrey Birnbaum (2009-09-16). "ACORN says workers conduct 'indefensible'". Washington Times. Retrieved 2009-09-16.
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