San Jose Adult Entertainment: Secret tapes: How damaging to Jerry Brown’s bid for governor?
Former Brown spokesman Scott Gerber secretly recorded six interviews – prohibited by California law – and was already exonerated by Brown’s own assistant attorney general. But GOP officials publicly excoriated Attorney General Brown for not asking someone outside his office to investigate. Tuesday, Brown responded by asking Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley to investigate.
Brown’s hand was forced by other event, as well. He is investigating possible violations of state privacy laws in a sting operation on ACORN. Avoiding the investigation into Mr. Gerber would have presented a potentially damaging public relations dilemma.
If Brown charged those who secretly filmed ACORN, he’d be open to claims of hypocrisy for not charging his own assistant. If he didn’t charge the filmmakers, he would have been criticized by grass-roots liberals and supporters of ACORN, who are angry that the US House recently cut federal funding after the videos caused a national outcry.
The videos show ACORN employees counseling the filmmakers – who are pretending to be a pimp and a prostitute – how to avoid paying taxes.