James O'Keefe Violates MD Law

UPDATE: In light of a circuit court's 1995 decision about the meaning of "willfully", it is not as clear as I present in this article that James O'Keefe would necessarily be convicted if tried under the wiretap law. Here I discuss the possibility that he gets off, but still think the statute and case law supports my points here, if slightly less strongly. I apologize if anyone assumed the below was a complete account of the issues at hand in the wiretap law.

CNN was apparently almost the victim of an elaborate hoax by Mr. O'Keefe, the rather silly and thoroughly dishonest play actor. Emails from Mr. O'Keefe to conservative activists outline his plan to lure CNN correspondent Abbie Boudreau onto a boat laden with sexually suggestive props and record the event without her consent.

Now it seems to me that the Maryland law prohibiting wiretapping (discussed here yesterday) would have been applicable, and would have prohibited Mr. O'Keefe's plan. The boat upon which Mr. O'Keefe endeavored to record a conversation was docked within the state of Maryland on the Patuxent River, St. Mary's County. Let's throw the relevant statute up on the big board: