(Post updated below.)

James O'Keefe, the 25-year-old who became a hero on the right by dressing as a pimp and filming himself and a female partner, Hannah Giles, exposing apparent malfeasance in ACORN offices, has gotten himself back in the news. This time, things aren't going quite so well for him: He and three others have just been hit with federal charges in an alleged plot to wiretap the phones in the New Orleans office of Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La.

According to an FBI press release, two of the men who've been charged, 24-year-olds Robert Flanagan and Joseph Basel, posed as telephone repairmen and "requested access to the main telephone at the reception desk ... then manipulated the telephone system." They also "requested access to the telephone closet because they needed to perform work on the main telephone system," the release says. O'Keefe was allegedly "already present in the office, holding a cellular phone so as to record Flanagan and Basel." A fourth man, 24-year-old Stan Dai, is -- like O'Keefe -- charged with having assisted Flanagan and Basel. All four face a maximum of 10 years imprisonment, along with a fine of $250,00 and three years of supervised release.

Though of course this is as yet just an allegation, it's worth noting that O'Keefe's actions in recording the ACORN videos at least skirted the bounds of legality. At least one of the states in which O'Keefe and Giles ran their sting has what's known as a "two-party consent" law -- that is, all those participating in a private conversation must be aware of and agree to any audio recording, including video that captures audio.

O'Keefe and Basel appear to have a prior association; they were interviewed together by CampusReform.org about conservative newspapers they founded at their respective colleges.

Update: Via Ben Smith, FBI Special Agent Steven Rayes' affidavit about the arrests is available in PDF form here. According to Rayes, the recording O'Keefe was doing was video -- he was using his cellphone's camera. Rayes also says that Flanagan and Basel "have admitted to federal agents that they were not telephone repairmen and that they entered the office of Senator Landrieu under false pretenses," which is essentially one of the crimes with which they were charged. As for O'Keefe and Dai, according to the affidavit, they've both "admitted to federal agents that [they] worked with Flanagan and Basel in the planning, coordination and preparation of the operation."

Update 2: According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, another of those arrested, Flanagan, is the son of the acting U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana. (The incident occurred in the Eastern District's jurisdiction, and that's where the men have been charged.) The Times-Picayune also reports that the four are being held in St. Bernard Parish Prison, but on Tuesday afternoon they appeared before a magistrate judge who set bond at $10,000.