SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Video: Obama phones sold for drugs

Jun 18, 2013, 12:20 PM | Updated: 2:24 pm

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A conservative activist secretly filmed Obama phone recipients saying they were going to sell their free phones for drugs and designer handbags.

This is a program we all pay for with taxes, fees, and surcharges on our cell phone bills.

“Every month we pay for the Lifeline free cell phone system – that’s the Obama phones. It started long before Obama, but it has exploded in the four-and-a-half years that President Obama has been in office,” said Dori.

James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas shot an undercover video showing what happens to some of those phones.

The undercover investigators found that they could still get phones even if they told the distributors that they would sell the government-provided phones for drugs or, in one woman’s case, a new Louis Vuitton handbag.

While some of the distributors objected, some said they “don’t judge.” In both cases the investigators still got the phone. They were told to keep it quiet if they were going to sell.

While it’s not certain that this is a widespread problem, Dori thinks there should be more accountability.

“That’s your money at work there in this program,” said Dori. “It shows that there are no checks and balances in this system.”

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Video: Obama phones sold for drugs