May 5, 2015 4:09 PM

Houston Chronicle: Group targets Texas lawmakers with secret videos

"It's one thing to have a political dialogue. It's another issue if they are they stalking people."

From the Houston Chronicle report by David Rauf and Lauren McGaughy:

“Several House Republican lawmakers already have expressed concerns with some of the group's tactics, saying they aggressively were approached last week – inside and outside the Capitol – by men who used hidden cameras to secretly videotape a series of encounters that has raised alarms for Capitol security.

John Beria, spokesman for Austin-based nonprofit the American Phoenix Foundation, said the group has 16 staffers working on the project and has amassed more than 800 hours of covert footage of lawmakers, including ‘guys confessing to pretty serious criminal acts.’

The group intends to begin releasing the information in the next several weeks and months, a key time frame as the legislative session comes to an end and lawmakers begin to plot for the primary season.”

The full report, which you can find here, also notes that the group doing this has ties to disgraced conservative activist James O’Keefe, who has a history of manufacturing evidence, ambushing his targets, and pleaded guilty to the entering the New Orleans offices of Sen. Mary Landrieu under false pretenses.