Foundation Activist, Hannah Giles, Takes on ACORN –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––——
By Lauren Smith, Program Officer, The National Journalism Center
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he idea came to her while jogging past the Washington, D.C., branch office of ACORN (The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now). As an aspiring young journalist, Hannah Giles had read about ACORN’s alleged voter fraud, the organization’s corrupt employees, and its receipt of millions of our coerced tax dollars to conduct its activities, many of them illegal. Her idea was bold, and it was one that she hoped would expose ACORN’s corruption. Little did she know then that her efforts would soon become the discussion of White House press conferences, radio and television programs, and debate on the floor of the U.S. Capitol. Working with her partner, filmmaker James O’Keefe, 20-year-old Hannah posed as a prostitute seeking advice on conducting illegal activities from ACORN Housing Offices across the country. The ACORN officials she met were more than willing to give it. On September 10, Hannah and James began releasing their videos exposing ACORN’s corruption in offices nationwide where employees offered the pair advice on, among others things, prostitution, tax evasion, bank fraud, money laundering, and importing underage girls into the U.S. for illegal activities. In the course of a week, Hannah and James unveiled shocking and revealing videos from ACORN offices in Baltimore, Maryland; Washington, D.C.; Brooklyn, New York; and San Diego and San Bernadino, California. A daring undertaking for Hannah, her work has prompted citizens and lawmakers to call for an investigation of the organization, which has received $53 million in federal funds over the last 15 years and is slated to receive billions more from the Obama administration. The pressure also forced ACORN to fire officials caught on tape in the Baltimore and Washington offices. Additionally, the videos served as the tipping point for the Census Bureau to cut ties with the community organization for the 2010 census, and lawmakers demanded an investigation into ACORN. The Senate and House also banned further funding of ACORN—and all of these actions occurred before the complete investigative reports were released.
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Young America’s Foundation • Libertas
Hannah has been active with Young America’s Foundation for the past three years, attending our Enemies of Freedom Seminar at the Reagan Ranch Center as well as the National Conservative Student Conference. She has also participated in Freedom Week and was interning with the Foundation’s National Journalism Center this past summer when she took on this enterprising journalistic endeavor. “Young America’s Foundation instilled a sense of reality in my soul,” notes Hannah. “All the love for God and country I naturally possessed felt trapped inside of me, until I underwent training at Young America’s Foundation’s seminars, conferences and my National Journalism Center internship.” Since the release of the videos, Hannah has appeared repeatedly on Glenn Beck and Hannity on Fox News and has been a guest on their respective radio shows. Additionally, the story has garnered nationwide coverage from ABC News, Wall Street Journal, Washington Times, Washington Post, CNN, AP, NPR, and CBS in addition to a number of local newspapers and news stations. This endeavor is only the beginning for Hannah, as she plans to continue using her training from the Foundation and its National (Above) Hannah Journalism Center in the months and years Giles attends to come. the Foundation’s 2009 Enemies of “Young America’s Foundation taught Freedom Seminar me that truth, justice, and freedom were at the Reagan once present and honored in this nation,” Ranch Center. said Hannah. “In turn, I became determined to strengthen those values amongst my (Left) Hannah is peers and help preserve them for future a guest on Fox’s Glenn Beck and generations.” Hannity following Young America’s Foundation applauds the release of Hannah for her courage and activism in her undercover exposing ACORN’s true radicalism and videos exposing gross abuse of American tax dollars. ACORN’s radicalism and corruption.