Yesterday Mediaite published this article by Tommy Christopher about Harvard student Nadia Naffe’s falling out with conservative activist James O’Keefe. The article cites tweets alleging that Naffe was “held” in a barn on O’Keefe’s property against her will and was the victim of a “rape plot.” Mediaite re-published this tweet by Ms. Naffe, implying that Andrew Breitbart refused to help her when she was forcibly held in the barn:
https://twitter.com/#!/NadiaNaffe/status/173830231805796352
Mediaite also re-published this tweet, which was re-tweeted by Ms. Naffe:
https://twitter.com/#!/OccupyRebellion/status/177547221917634561
So O’Keefe drugged Naffe and tried to rape her in the barn? Those are some strong allegations, right there.
Just in case the reader still doesn’t get the O’Keefe-as-predator meme, the Mediaite article states that Naffe’s allegations carry “disturbing echoes of the Abbie Boudreau ‘CNN Sex Boat Caper.'”
Current TV anchor David Shuster made similar claims about a “alleged sex assault plan” several weeks ago:
https://twitter.com/#!/DavidShuster/status/174140582485164033
In response, O’Keefe sued Shuster for libel. At the time, O’Keefe said, “I welcome criticism and even misguided hatred. But, if they call me a felon, if they call me a rapist, or any other disgusting, libelous, ridiculous thing, I will bring them into a courtroom, I will depose them, I will get access to their e-mails. I don’t care how many golden statues they have, I don’t care how many Emmies, Pulitzers they have. We will bring them to justice.”
Late last year, Naffe filed a harrassment complaint related to the “barn incident” and its aftermath against O’Keefe in a New Jersey criminal court.
In an important post, conservative blogger Patterico observed that the allegations in Naffe’s complaint — even if true — do not support the insinuation by Shuster et al. that O’Keefe was involved in a “rape plot.”
Patterico observes:
we learn from the transcript that the increasingly infamous incident at the “barn” (a makeshift office with a furnished bed, bathroom, and kitchen) was not even the subject of Naffe’s harassment complaint. Instead, she complained essentially that O’Keefe said disparaging things about her after the fact. We learn as we read the transcript that Olbermann and Shuster completely distorted the allegations testified to by Ms. Naffe, twisting the allegations into a virtual rape — when Ms. Naffe did not claim at the time to have been touched, threatened, drugged, or harassed in any way that night…
According to the transcript, we learn that after O’Keefe had left, Naffe decided she wanted to leave, and insisted that O’Keefe return to the barn. She claimed to be feeling sick, which she suspected was from the alcohol she had drunk: “I thought the alcohol had made me sick.” Apparently not suspecting O’Keefe of having done anything wrong, she tried to get him to come back to the barn. He initially refused:
But he refused to come back to the barn. He said that all he cared about was his project. He insisted that I spend the night there and that we take the matter up in the morning. He wanted to go shoot videos the next day….
Maybe not the most gentlemanly behavior, if the allegations are true — but not the behavior of a sex fiend.
There is much more at the link. Please read the whole thing.
The full transcript of Naffe’s testimony is here. Even if every word of Naffe’s testimony is true, there is nothing in it that comes even close to a “rape plot.”
Here’s Patterico again: “In court, Naffe repeatedly told the judge that she was not claiming that what happened at the barn was harassment — much less a ‘rape allegation’ or an ‘alleged sex assault plan.’ The [judge] repeatedly said that he could not find anything in her certification that sounded like harassment, and she confirmed that she had not been threatened or touched…”
Let us be clear: We don’t have a problem with Mediaite covering Naffe’s allegations. We do have a problem with Mediaite’s failure to mention that the allegation of a “rape plot” is inconsistent with the allegations in Naffe’s criminal complaint.
When Patterico saw Tommy Christopher’s article, he was furious; an all-out Twitter war ensued:
https://twitter.com/#!/Patterico/status/180846039518027776
https://twitter.com/#!/Patterico/status/180847006556753923
https://twitter.com/#!/tommyxtopher/status/180848092705333248
https://twitter.com/#!/Patterico/status/180855251874758656
https://twitter.com/#!/Patterico/status/180855074921254915
https://twitter.com/#!/Patterico/status/180854825980928001
https://twitter.com/#!/tommyxtopher/status/180848407630454785
https://twitter.com/#!/Patterico/status/180855515277033473
https://twitter.com/#!/Patterico/status/180922998948237312
https://twitter.com/#!/Patterico/status/180923840631803906
Meanwhile, Naffe says that she (not O’Keefe or Breitbart!) is the one being smeared:
https://twitter.com/#!/NadiaNaffe/status/180868152689836032
She claims to possess emails from Andrew Breitbart about what she calls the “barn incident”:
https://twitter.com/#!/NadiaNaffe/status/180873013909135360
Threatening to disclose a dead man’s private emails? Classy.
Update: She’s not done:
https://twitter.com/#!/NadiaNaffe/status/181001060104675330
https://twitter.com/#!/NadiaNaffe/status/181041453525508097
And Tommy Christopher’s response? Not to apologize to O’Keefe or to Breitbart’s family for leaving out important context in his article, but, rather, to call Patterico “sick”:
https://twitter.com/#!/tommyxtopher/status/181020554046865408
Related: Late last month, Naffe claimed to be in possession of seven years’ of emails from O’Keefe’s gmail account:
https://twitter.com/#!/NadiaNaffe/status/174966501407854592
Update: We asked Tommy Christopher for comment on this article. Here is his repsonse:
https://twitter.com/#!/tommyxtopher/status/181043414865948673
https://twitter.com/#!/tommyxtopher/status/181043792416219136
https://twitter.com/#!/tommyxtopher/status/181044330469928961
Christopher denies that he failed to report on the contradiction between Naffe’s criminal complaint (in which she acknowledges that no harassment occurred at the barn) and the subsequent “rape plot” allegations.
https://twitter.com/#!/tommyxtopher/status/181046016181682176
https://twitter.com/#!/tommyxtopher/status/181045366987292673
Twitchy stands by its reporting. Readers can read Mediaite’s article here and compare it to Naffe’s testimony here. Judge for yourself.
Update: Turns out we can embed Naffe’s testimony right here:
Update: If Naffe was upset about Andrew Breitbart’s failure to help her escape from O’Keefe’s “rape plot,” she didn’t show any evidence of it in her Twitter communications last fall. The alleged “barn incident” took place on October 2, 2011. Just four days later, Naffe was happily retweeting Breitbart’s tweets:
https://twitter.com/#!/AndrewBreitbart/status/121967860527546368
https://twitter.com/#!/AndrewBreitbart/status/121970527974858752
https://twitter.com/#!/NadiaNaffe/status/122074859776917504
She continued to retweet Breitbart throughout October and November 2011:
https://twitter.com/#!/AndrewBreitbart/status/123763906782052352
https://twitter.com/#!/AndrewBreitbart/status/126716256433881088
https://twitter.com/#!/AndrewBreitbart/status/129585709697875969
https://twitter.com/#!/AndrewBreitbart/status/132496878028857344
https://twitter.com/#!/AndrewBreitbart/status/133326760799514624
https://twitter.com/#!/AndrewBreitbart/status/133227814320218112
https://twitter.com/#!/AndrewBreitbart/status/137322069804318720
https://twitter.com/#!/AndrewBreitbart/status/141236061551603712
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