A conservative activist known for his undercover video stings is being stalked by a Brooklyn woman who floods him with dozens of messages and hang-up calls per hour, according to court papers.
James O’Keefe III, who recently made news after his Project Veritas caught CNN anchor Van Jones on tape referring to the Russia scandal as a “nothing burger,” claims he’s never met Baila Rendler, who started calling him May 25.
But Rendler has “alarmed and seriously annoyed” O’Keefe by logging “dozens” of calls an hour to his cell, along with incessant texting and messages to his Twitter account, O’Keefe said in Westchester Supreme Court papers.
Most of the time, Rendler doesn’t say a thing when she rings O’Keefe, according to court papers. Typically, O’Keefe pleads with her to leave him alone.
But when Rendler does speak, it’s scary, O’Keefe said in his legal bid for a judge to stop the Midwood woman from contacting him.
Rendler, 34, has “frequently expressed ‘concern’ for O’Keefe’s personal safety,” and “that she is concerned that ‘someone’ may physically harm O’Keefe or even murder him,” the court papers claim.
She’s threatened to show up at O’Keefe’s office or Westchester home to “confront” him, and warned of her “family connections” to state judges, implying “that O’Keefe will be unable to prevent her from harassing him” by going to court, according to his legal papers.
O’Keefe’s hidden-camera videos have been controversial.
Posing as a pimp in 2009, he caught workers for community-activist group ACORN appearing to give advice on how to avoid tax evasion and prostitution charges. ACORN was cleared of any crime but lost funding and is now defunct.
O’Keefe has also targeted Planned Parenthood and NPR with his undercover recordings, which some have criticized as heavily or misleadingly edited.
The gadfly admits in court papers that Rendler hasn’t directly threatened him, but says her bizarre messages make him fear for his safety.
The back-to-back calls go on for hours, with Rendler ignoring all requests to stop, court papers say.
The self-described “guerrilla journalist” is “often unable to make or receive calls because his cellular phone is constantly being bombarded with incoming calls from Rendler,” he said in court papers.
He’s also seeking $50,000 in damages.