Confined To New Jersey, James O’Keefe May Want To Give The "Taste Of Westwood" A Shot

A federal judge has denied a request by James O’Keefe, the conservative auteur-provocateur, to make a series of trips outside New Jersey.

Since O’Keefe is on probation for his conviction last year for his role in a harebrained undercover operation inside Senator Mary Landrieu’s New Orleans district office, he has to get judicial approval to travel outside New Jersey, where he resides with his family. As part of the scheme targeting the Louisiana Democrat, two O’Keefe cronies dressed up as telephone repairmen and sought access to the politician’s telephone system (O’Keefe--himself a noted master of disguise--was secretly recording the goings-on with his cell phone).

Knowles’s order does not detail his reasons for vetoing the 26-year-old O’Keefe’s motion. The judge has routinely approved prior O’Keefe travel requests.

O’Keefe’s proposed itinerary, filed in U.S. District Court, included his attendance at next month’s Faith and Freedom Conference in Washington, D.C., and a late-June board of directors meeting in Baltimore for Project Veritas, the “investigative journalism” organization he founded last year.

O’Keefe also wanted to travel next month for paid speaking engagements in Baltimore and South Carolina. Additionally, he planned on making three trips to Solomons, Maryland, a coastal vacation destination not far from Lusby, where his family maintains a second home.

Though now anchored in the vicinity of his Westwood home, perhaps O’Keefe will opt to enjoy some local delights, like the the “Third Annual Taste of Westwood” scheduled for June 5. For $50, visitors to the borough’s public library will enjoy a “gala” featuring “samplings from the area’s best restaurants, live music, wine tasting, a silent auction and more.”